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Digitized by the Internet Archive 
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 The Library of Congress 
 
 http://www.archive.org/details/statementoftheorOOunit 
 
Sur 
 
 A STATEMENT 
 
 T 
 
 HEORY OF EDUCATION 
 
 THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, 
 
 AS APPROVED BY 
 
 MANY LEADING EDUCATORS, 
 
 "T» 
 
 Y Of Co>\ 
 
 ' — ~-^- 
 
 187 
 
 WASHINGTON: 
 
 GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE 
 
 1874. 
 

LETTER 
 
 COMMISSIONER OF EDUCATION, 
 
LETTER. 
 
 Department of the Interior, 
 
 Bureau of Education, 
 Washington, D. C, December 15, 1874. 
 
 Sir: A meeting of State-superintendents and others was held in 
 Washington, November 13, 1872, to make preliminary arrangements 
 for the representation at Vienna of the condition of education in the 
 United States. A full report of this meeting will be found in the 
 Circular of Information of this Bureau for November, 1872, pages 
 29-40. 
 
 At this meeting, it was resolved (see page 36 of the circular above 
 referred to) " that we consider it exceedingly desirable that there 
 should be a brief statement, embodying clearly the idea of the rela- 
 tion of the American free school to the American Commonwealth; 
 and we recommend to the Commissioner of Education that such a 
 statement shall be prepared as can be signed generally by the educa- 
 tors of the country as a declaration of their sentiments." 
 
 The preparation of this statement was intrusted to Hon. Duane 
 Doty, superintendent of city-schools, Detroit, Mich. In conjunction 
 with Hon. W. T. Harris, superintendent of city-schools, Saint Louis, 
 Mo., he prepared a statement, which was subsequently submitted 
 to the several leading educators whose names are hereto affixed in 
 witness of their approval of the statement. 
 
 ALhough this was not prepared and agreed upon in time to be 
 used at Vienna, yet, in view of the constant demands made upon this 
 Bureau, especially by foreign investigators, for a statement of the 
 school-system in this country; and in view of the natural tendency of 
 such foreigners to fall into the error of supposing that there is a 
 national system of education under control of the General Govern- 
 ment of the United States; and, moreover, in consideration of the 
 dangers that have been and are threatening the welfare of the free 
 public-school-systems of many of the States, a clear statement of such 
 fundamental principles as all American educators can agree upon 
 seems most timely, as furnishing to the friends of education every- 
 where a ready means of refuting the false assertions of those who 
 oppose the establishment and prosperity of the schools in their 
 several localities. 
 
G 
 
 The free public education of the children of the United States 
 depends everywhere upon the action taken by the several States 
 and by the citizens of those States in their several localities. The 
 existence of a republic, unless all its citizens are educated, is an ad- 
 mitted impossibility. 1 he school-systems of many States have suffered 
 from the results of the war; and their speedy and healthy advance- 
 ment to the greatest efficiency possible is, therefore, of vital interest 
 to the whole country. 
 
 For the above reasons and as a matter of great convenience to 
 this Office in replying to constant demands for such information, I 
 recommend the printing of this statement. 
 
 Very respectfully, your obedient servant, 
 
 JOHN EATON, 
 
 Commissioner. 
 Hon. C. Delano, 
 
 Secretary of the Interior. 
 
 Approved and publication ordered. 
 
 B. R. COWEN, 
 
 Acting Secretary. 
 
STATEMENT 
 
 THEORY OF EDUCATION 
 
 THE UNITED STATES. 
 
A STATEMENT OF THE THEORY OF EDU- 
 CATION IN THE UNITED STATES OF 
 AMERICA. 
 
 I. 
 
 The American school-system is an organic or historic growth, 
 having its origin in attempts made to supply social and political needs. 
 
 II. 
 
 By the Constitution of the United States, no powers are vested in 
 the central Government of the nation, unless the same relate immedi- 
 ately to the support and defense of the whole people, to their inter- 
 course with foreign powers, or to the subordination of the several 
 States composing the Union. Military education for the Army and 
 Navy only has been directly provided for by the national Govern- 
 ment; and the further action in aid of education has been limited to 
 endowments in the form of land-grants to the several States, or por- 
 tions thereof, for the purpose of providing a fund for the support of 
 common schools or to found colleges for the promotion of scientific 
 agriculture and the mechanic arts. Universities also have been en s 
 dowed by the United States Government in all the new States since 
 the Northwest Territory was organized in 1787. Recently, (in 1867,) a 
 Bureau of Education has been established at the seat of Government 
 and a national Commissioner appointed, who collects statistics and 
 disseminates valuable information relating to all educational subjects. 
 To the several States individually is left, for the most part, the local 
 administration of justice, as well as the establishment of public agen- 
 cies for the well-being of the civil and social community in its indus- 
 trial, economical, social, and spiritual aspects. 
 
 III. 
 
 The general form of the national Government is largely copied in 
 the civil organization of the particular States, and no powers or func- 
 tions of an administrative character are ordinarily exercised by the 
 State as a whole which concern only the particular interests and well- 
 being of the subordinate organizations or corporations .into which 
 
10 
 
 the State is divided for judicial and municipal purposes; but the 
 State usually vests these local powers and functions in the corpora- 
 tions themselves, such as counties, townships, and cities. The power 
 of the State over these local corporations is complete; but they are 
 generally allowed large legislative and administrative powers of a 
 purely local character, while the State ordinarily confines its action 
 and legislation to matters in which the people of the whole State are 
 interested. 
 
 IV. 
 
 Citizenship in the nation is defined by Articles XIV and XV of 
 Amendments to the Constitution, and is uniform, including "every 
 native and all naturalized persons. The right ofi, voting and holding 
 office is not inherent in citizenship, but is given to such as the States 
 or the General Government determine, except that neither face nor 
 color can be allowed as a test. Each State-constitution defines the 
 qualifications necessary for the exercise of the political functions of 
 holding office in the civil government and electing the citizens who 
 are to fill such offices. The State, in its entire existence, is a reflex 
 of the people thus defined as its electors. In their hands collectively 
 is vested the ultimate responsibility for all the power which is ex- 
 pressed through the organism of the State, or, less directly, through 
 the nation itself. Upon the several States individually, in which is 
 vested the power of defining the qualifications of the electors who 
 choose by ballot the representatives that make and execute the laws 
 of the land, rests the responsibility of making provision for the edu- 
 cation of those charged with the primary political functions. This 
 responsibility has been generally recognized in the establishment, by 
 legislative enactment, of a system of free common schools, supported 
 in part by State-school-funds accumulated from national grants of 
 lands and from appropriations made from the State-revenue, and in 
 part by local taxation or assessment made upon those directly bene- 
 fited by the schools themselves. The local direction and manage- 
 ment of the schools are left to the municipalities or to the local cor- 
 porate bodies organized for the special purpose, and a general super- 
 vision is reserved to itself by the State. In some States, compulsory 
 educational laws have been passed; not, however, requiring those 
 who are taught in other ways to resort to the public schools. 
 
 The State arranges the school-system and designates the various 
 kinds of schools to be supported and managed by the public authori- 
 ties and sometimes prescribes more or less of the branches of knowl- 
 edge to be taught ; provides how districts may be created, divided, or 
 consolidated with others and how moneys may be raised by or for 
 
11 
 
 them ; prescribes their organization, officers and their powers, and 
 the time and manner of filling and vacating offices and the functions 
 of each officer; prescribes the school-age and conditions of attend- 
 ance ; and provides in some cases for the investment and application 
 of the school-funds derived from the General Government. The 
 local municipalities organize school- districts under State-laws, elect 
 school-officers, and levy and collect taxes for school-purposes. The 
 local school-officers examine, appoint, and fix the salaries of teachers 
 when not otherwise done, build school-houses, procure school-sup- 
 plies, arrange courses of study, prescribe the rules and regulations 
 for the government of the schools, and administer the schools. 
 
 V. 
 
 By the definitions before referred to, the privilege of political par- 
 ticipation in choosing those who administer the government of the 
 country is conferred upon the people at large, with certain general 
 limitations as to sex and age and certain specific limitations regard- 
 ing the naturalization of aliens (and, until recently, in some States, 
 regarding race or color) or the possession of property or intelligence, 
 &c. The general participation of all the people in the primary po- 
 litical functions of election, together with the almost complete locali- 
 zation of self-government by local administration, renders necessary 
 the education of all, without distinction of sex, social rank, wealth, or 
 natural abilities. This position is generally recognized in theory and 
 
 practice. 
 
 VI. 
 
 In proportion to its degree of localization, the administration of 
 the government becomes charged with the interests of civil society, 
 and thus directly concerned in the creation and distribution of wealth 
 and the personal well-being of the individual in the community. The 
 national Government and the State-governments regard education 
 as a proper subject for legislation, on the ground of the necessity of 
 educated intelligence among a people that is to furnish law-abiding 
 citizens, well versed in the laws they are to obey, and likewise law- 
 making citize7is, well versed in the social, historic, and political con- 
 ditions which give occasion to new laws and shape their provisions. 
 But the municipal or local corporations, in which are vested the direct 
 control and management of educational institutions and the collec- 
 tion and disbursement of the funds necessary for their support, regard 
 ■education in its social and economic aspects as well as in the more 
 general one of its political function. Hence, all communities, in their 
 
12 
 
 local capacity, exceed the limits prescribed by the State in their pro- 
 visions for popular education, and they do this in the ratio of their 
 grade of advancement in wealth and social culture. The productive 
 industry of the community is known to have a direct relation to the 
 diffusion of educated intelligence therein. 
 
 VII. 
 
 The idea of the state and the idea of civil society — the former the 
 idea of the actualization of justice and the latter that of the supply 
 of human wants and necessities through the creation and distribution 
 of wealth — conspire, by general consent, in the production of the 
 American system of public education; and, to its maintenance and 
 support, the property of the community is made to contribute by taxa- 
 tion. Both the preservation of property by the actualization of 
 justice and the increase of property by productive industry are 
 directly conditioned, in a republic, upon the educated intelligence of 
 the people. This is so, especially in that species of incorporeal prop- 
 erty of the nature of franchises, such as constitute the basis of those 
 corporate combinations formed for the promotion of manufactures and 
 commerce, the creation of transit-facilities, and the diffusion of infor- 
 mation, (patent-rights, charters for railroads, canals, telegraphs, banks 
 of issue, insurance-companies, &c.) These franchises, vested in 
 corporations, incite to the production of wealth to an extraordinary 
 degree, and at the same time make such a demand upon the com- 
 munity for directive intelligence that it may be said that the modern 
 industrial community cannot exist without free popular education 
 carried out in a system of schools ascending from the primary grade 
 to the university. And without a free development of productive 
 industry, enabling the individual to accumulate the wealth necessary 
 for the supply of the necessities of life faster than he consumes them, 
 there is not left the leisure requisite to that cultivation of intelligence 
 needed in the theoretical discussion and comprehension of public 
 affairs ; and without such occupation of the individual with public 
 affairs, a democracy could exist only in name. 
 
 VIII. 
 
 The past and present history of the United States exhibits a process 
 of development comprising three stages: 
 
 (a) The settlement of new territory by pioneers and the reduction 
 of the wilderness to an agricultural country. 
 
13 
 
 (b) The rise of commercial towns and the creation of transit-facili- 
 ties in the new regions. 
 
 (c) The development of manufacturing centers and the ascendency 
 of domestic commerce. 
 
 In consequence of this constant spectacle of the entire process of 
 founding a civilization and developing it from the rudimentary stages 
 up to the completed type, there is produced a peculiar phase of char- 
 acter in the American people. There is always unlimited oppor- 
 tunity for the individual to build anew his fortunes when disaster has 
 overtaken him in one locality. 
 
 As a consequence of the perpetual migration from the older sec- 
 tions of the country to the unoccupied Territories, there are new 
 States in all degrees of formation, and their institutions present ear- 
 lier phases of realization of the distinctive type than are presented in 
 the mature growth of the system as it exists in the thickly-settled and 
 older States. Thus States are to be found with little or no provision 
 for education, but they are rudimentary forms of the American State, 
 and are adopting, as rapidly as immigration enables them to do so, 
 the type of educational institutions already defined as the result of 
 the American political and social ideas. 
 
 IX. 
 
 The education of the people in schools is a phase of education 
 lying between the earliest period of family-nurture, which is still a 
 concomitant and powerful auxiliary, on the one hand, and the neces- 
 sary initiation into the specialties of a vocation in practical life on 
 the other. In America, the peculiarities of civil society and the 
 political organization draw the child out of the influence of family- 
 nurture earlier than is common in other countries. The frequent sep- 
 aration of the younger branches of the family from the old stock 
 renders family-influence less powerful in molding character. The 
 consequence of this is the increased importance of the school in an 
 ethical point of view. N 
 
 X. 
 
 In order to compensate for lack of family-nurture, the school is 
 obliged to lay more stress upon discipline and to make far more 
 prominent the moral phase of education. It is obliged to train the 
 pupil into habits of prompt obedience to his teachers and the prac- 
 tice of self-control in its various forms, in order that he may be 
 prepared for a life wherein there is little police-restraint on the part 
 of the constituted authorities. 
 
14 
 
 XL 
 
 The school-discipline, in its phase of substitute for the family, uses 
 corrective punishment, which presupposes a feeble development of the 
 sense of honor in the child. It is mostly corporal punishment. But 
 in the phase wherein the school performs the function of preparing 
 the pupil for the formal government of the state, it uses retributive 
 punishment and suspends the pupil from some or all the privileges 
 of the school. In this phase of discipline, a sense of honor is 
 presupposed and strengthened. 
 
 XII. 
 
 In commercial cities and towns, the tendency preponderates towards 
 forms of punishment founded on the sense of honor and towards the 
 entire disuse of corporal punishment. This object has been success- 
 fully accomplished in New York, Chicago, Syracuse, and some other 
 cities. In the schools of the country, where the agricultural interest 
 prevails, the tendency to the family-form of government is marked. 
 
 XIII. 
 
 A further difference between the discipline of city-schools and that 
 of country-schools is founded partly on the fact that the former 
 schools are usually quite large, assembling from three hundred to fifteen 
 hundred pupils in one building, while the latter have commonly less 
 than fifty pupils. In the former, the large numbers admit of good 
 classification ; in the latter, classes are quite small, sometimes con- 
 taining only a single pupil, and the discipline of combination is con- 
 sequently feebly developed. The commercial tone prevalent in the 
 city tends to develop, in its schools, quick, alert habits and readiness 
 to combine with others in their tasks. Military precision is required 
 in the maneuvering of classes. Great stress is laid upon (i) punctu- 
 ality, (2) regularity, (3) attention, and (4) silence, as habits necessary 
 through life for successful combination with one's fellow-men in an 
 industrial and commercial civilization. 
 
 XIV. 
 
 The course of study is laid down with a view to giving the pupil 
 the readiest and most thorough practical command of those con- 
 ventionalities of intelligence, those arts and acquirements which are 
 the means of directive power and of further self-education. These 
 preliminary educational accomplishments open at once to the mind 
 of the pupil two opposite directions : (a) the immediate mastery over 
 
15 
 
 the material world, for the purposes of obtaining food, clothing, and 
 shelter directly; (b) the initiation into the means of association with 
 one's fellow-men, the world of humanity. 
 
 XV. 
 
 (a) The first theoretical study necessary for the mastery over the 
 material world is arithmetic — the quantification of objects as regards 
 numbers. 
 
 In American schools, this is looked upon as of so much importance 
 that more time is given to it than to any other study of the course. 
 Its cultivation of the habit of attention and accuracy is especially 
 valued. 
 
 After arithmetic follows geography, in a parallel direction, looking 
 towards natural history. Arithmetic is taught from the first entrance 
 into school, while geography is begun as soon as the pupil can read 
 well. 
 
 XVI. 
 
 (b) The first theoretical study necessary to facilitate combination 
 of man with his fellow-men is reading the printed page. Accordingly, 
 the prevailing custom in American schools is to place a book in the 
 hands of the child when he first enters school and to begin his in- 
 struction with teaching him how to read. As soon as he can read, 
 he is able to begin to learn to study books for himself, and thus to 
 acquire stores of knowledge by his own efforts. The art of writing is 
 learned in connection with reading. This culture, in the direction of 
 knowing the feelings, sentiments, and ideas of mankind, is continued 
 throughout the course by a graded series of readers, containing selec- 
 tions of the gems from the literature of the language, both prose and 
 verse. This culture is re-enforced about the fifth year of the course 
 by the study of English grammar, in which, under a thin veil, the 
 pupil learns to discern the categories of the mind and to separate 
 them analytically from modifying surroundings and define them. 
 The common forms of thought and of its expression are thus mas- 
 tered, and in this way the pupil is to some extent initiated into pure 
 thought and acquires the ability to resolve problems of the material 
 world and of his own life into their radical elements. The study of 
 the history of the United States (and, in most instances, of the national 
 Constitution) carries on this culture by the contemplation of the 
 peculiarities of his nation as exhibited in its historic relations. 
 
 XVII. 
 
 The cardinal studies of the "common school" are: (i) reading 
 and writing, (2) grammar, (3) arithmetic, (4) geography; the first two 
 
16 
 
 look towards mastery over spiritual combination ; the latter two, over 
 material combination. The common school aims to give the pupil 
 the great arts of receiving and communicating intelligence. Draw- 
 ing and vocal music are taught quite generally and the rudiments 
 of natural science are taught orally in most city-schools. Declama- 
 tion of oratorical selections is a favorite exercise and is supposed to 
 fit the youth for public and political life. Debating societies are 
 formed for the same purpose. 
 
 XVIII. 
 
 The secondary education, carried on in " high schools," " acade- 
 mies," and " seminaries," to the studies of the common school adds : 
 (i) on the side of the theoretical command of material means : (a) 
 algebra, geometry, calculus, and some forms of engineering, (surveying, 
 navigation, &c.;) (b) natural philosophy or physics, (z. <?., nature quan- 
 titatively considered;) (c) physical geography or natural history, 
 (nature organically considered.) (2) On the side of the humanities: 
 {a) rhetoric, (b) English literature, (c) Latin, (the basis of the En- 
 glish vocabulary, as regards generalization and reflection as well as 
 social refinement,) (d) a modern language, commonly German or 
 French, of which the latter serves the same general purpose as Latin 
 in giving to English-speaking people a readier command, a more 
 intuitive sense of the meaning of the vocabulary of words contributed 
 by the Roman civilization to modern languages, and especially to 
 the English, (whose vocabulary is chiefly Roman, though its gram- 
 matical form is Gothic.) 
 
 The high schools generally form a portion of the free public- 
 school-system ; the academies and seminaries are generally founded 
 and supported by private enterprise or religious zeal, and are not con- 
 trolled or interfered with by the State, although many of them are 
 chartered by it and are free from taxation. 
 
 XIX. 
 
 The highest form of school-education is found in the colleges and 
 universities scattered through the country, some under the control 
 and support of the State, but far the larger number founded and sup- 
 ported by religious denominations or private endowment and tuition- 
 fees from the students. All, or nearly all, of them are chartered by 
 the State, and their property is exempt from taxation. These insti- 
 tutions support one or more of the following courses : 
 
 (a) Academic course, generally of four years, a continuation ol 
 
17 
 
 the secondary education, as herein described, embracing a course in 
 Latin and Greek, French and German, higher mathematics and some 
 of their applications, the general technics of the natural sciences and 
 also of the social and political sciences, belles-lettres and universal 
 history, logic, metaphysics, and moral philosophy; (b) a scientific 
 school; (c) a law-school; (d) a medical school; (e) a theological 
 seminary; (/) a normal school, (for the training of teachers; this is 
 seldom found except in State-universities, but is usually a sepa- 
 rate institution, founded by the State or municipality.) 
 
 The academic course is the college-course proper; when united 
 to the others, it forms a "university." 
 
 XX. 
 
 The general system of instruction lays special emphasis on the use 
 of text-books and the prevalent tendency is towards giving the pupil 
 an initiation into the method of using the printed page in the form of 
 books and periodicals for the purpose of obtaining information from 
 the recorded experience of his fellow-men ; but in many schools and 
 systems of schools equal or greater stress is laid upon the practical 
 method of conducting investigations for the purpose of verification 
 and of original discovery. 
 
 XXI. 
 
 In the Northern States, the colored population (being small in 
 number) usually attends the same schools as the white population. 
 In those States in which the colored people are very numerous, sepa- 
 rate schools, with few exceptions, are established for them. 
 
 XXII. 
 
 In the country, girls and boys attend the same school ; in some of 
 the older cities, the sexes are educated together in the primary schools, 
 but separated in the grammar- and high schools. The course of study 
 is generally the same for boys and girls. In cities of most recent 
 growth, the co-education of the sexes prevails from the primary school 
 up through the higher grades, and some colleges admit both sexes. 
 There are, also, colleges established for the education of women 
 
 alone. 
 
 XXIII. 
 
 Private schools, supported by individual enterprise or by corpora- 
 tions and religious denominations, are numerous, and the course of 
 study in them is nearly the same as in the public schools, except in 
 
18 
 
 laying more stress upon certain ornamental branches, such as vocal 
 and instrumental music, French, drawing and painting, embroidery, &c. 
 These schools are more frequently for the separate education of 
 the sexes and for secondary education. Very many academies and 
 seminaries have been founded with a view to supplying the Chris- 
 tian ministry with clergymen. There are some denominations more 
 or less hostile to the public-school-system because of its secularity, 
 and these favor a division of the school-funds so as to allow each 
 denomination to carry on its own school-system. 
 
 XXIV. 
 
 Sectarian instruction is not given in the public schools. Religious, 
 particularly sectarian, training is accomplished mainly in families and 
 by the several denominations in their Sunday-schools or in special 
 classes that recite their catechisms at stated intervals during the 
 week. It is quite a common practice to open or close the public 
 schools with Bible-reading and prayer. Singing of religious hymns 
 by the entire school is still more common. 
 
 XXV. 
 
 Free evening-schools are common in cities, to provide means of 
 improvement for adults and for youths who are prevented from 
 attending the day-schools by reason of some useful employment. 
 Special attention is given in them to reading, writing, arithmetic, and 
 to certain industrial studies, such as book-keeping, line-drawing, &c. 
 
 XXVI. 
 
 Schools- for unfortunates, including reform-schools for vicious 
 children, asylums for the blind, insane, deaf and dumb, idiots, and 
 orphans, are usually established by the State-government directly, 
 and less frequently by municipal corporations, and to some extent by 
 religious denominations. In cities, truant-schools, established by 
 the municipal authorities, are becoming common, and seem to be 
 necessary where compulsory-attendance-laws exist. 
 
 .XXVII. 
 
 In the city-schools, female teachers largely preponderate, compos- 
 ing frequently 90 per cent, of the entire corps of teachers. In coun- 
 try-schools, the proportion is very much smaller, but has increased 
 considerably in late years. The pupil, coming directly from home- 
 influence, finds a less abrupt change upon entering the school under 
 
19 
 
 the charge of a female teacher. The female character, being trained 
 by experience in family-supervision to the administration of special 
 details wherein division of labor cannot prevail to any great extent, 
 is eminently fitted to control and manage the education of the child 
 while it is in a state of transition from caprice to rationally-regulated 
 exercise of the will; and the development of individuality is generally 
 more harmonious up to a certain age if the pupil is placed under 
 female teachers. The comparatively small cost of female-labor, also, 
 largely determines its employment in all public schools. 
 
 . XXVIII. 
 
 The ratio of the entire population in school varies from 16 per cent, 
 in some cities down to 5 per cent., or even 3 per cent., in some agri- 
 cultural sections. City-schools generally hold their sessions daily — 
 from 9 to 12 a. m. and from 1 to 4 p. m., with a recess of a quarter 
 of an hour in each session — for five days in the week, and for about 
 ten months in the year, two months or less being allowed for vaca- 
 tions. In some cities, the plan of half-day-schools for young children 
 has been tried and in many cities such children are not confined to 
 the school-room more than four hours a day. The school-age of the 
 pupil generally begins at 6 years and ends at 16, but in the cooler 
 climates of the northern sections it begins earlier and lasts longer ; 
 the school-sessions are usually longer in the colder climates. 
 
 XXIX. 
 
 The salaries paid teachers indicate somewhat the estimate placed 
 upon their work by the public. For some years there has been a 
 steady increase in salaries. Better qualifications have" been brought 
 to the work, and teaching, particularly in cities, has become a regular 
 occupation. Teachers mingle freely in the best social circles and 
 enjoy the respect of the community. 
 
 XXX. 
 
 Educational journals are published in nearly every State. These 
 journals are sometimes published by the State-superintendent of pub- 
 lic instruction, sometimes by committees appointed by State-associa- 
 tions of teachers, and more frequently by individuals. In addition 
 to these periodicals, there are many local educational papers issued 
 by city- or county-teachers' associations, and some of the secular pa- 
 pers have educational departments. The State and city educational 
 reports take rank among the ablest of our public documents. 
 
20 
 
 SIGNATURES. 
 
 The foregoing statement is approved by the following gentlemen : 
 
 Hon. J. V. Campbell, Chief justice of Michigan. 
 
 Hon. C. I. Walker, Law-department of the Michigan University. 
 
 Hon. D. B. Briggs, State-superintendent, Lansing, Michigan. 
 
 Henry Chaney, Superintendent of the Detroit Public Library. 
 
 I. M. Wellington - , Principal of the High School, Detroit. 
 
 J. B. Angell, President of the Michigan University. 
 
 Prof. J. H. Twombly, President of the Wisconsin University. 
 
 Asa D. Smith, President of Dartmouth College. 
 
 M. Hopkins, President of Williams College. 
 
 J. L. Chamberlain, President of Bowdoiu College. 
 
 S. G. Brown, President of Hamilton College. 
 
 W. A. Stearns, President of Amherst College. 
 
 Joseph Cummings, President of the Wesley an University. 
 
 H. D. Kitchell, President of Middlebury College. 
 
 Alexis Caswell, President of Brown University. 
 
 A. D. White, President of Cornell University. 
 
 W. H. Campbell, President of Rutgers College. 
 
 Abner Jackson, President of Trinity College. 
 
 J. C. Burroughs, President of Chicago University. 
 
 J. M. Gregory, President of the Lllinois Industrial University. 
 
 Hon. Warren Johnson, State-superintendent of the common schools, 
 Augusta, Maine. 
 
 Hon. J. H. French, Secretary of the board of education, Burling- 
 ton, Vermont. 
 
 Hon. Joseph White, Secretary of the State-board of education, 
 Boston, Massachusetts. 
 
 Hon. B. G. Northrop, Secretary of the State-board of education, 
 New Haven, Connecticut. 
 
 Hon. A. B. Weaver, State-superintendent of public instruction, Al- 
 bany, New York. 
 
 Hon. E. A. Apgar, State-superintendent of public instruction, Tren- 
 ton, New Jersey. 
 
 Hon. J. P. Wickersham, State-superintendent of public instruction, 
 Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. 
 
 Hon. Thomas W. Harvey, Slate-commissioner of common schools, 
 Columbus, Ohio. 
 
 Hon. A. C. Shortridge, Superintendent of city -schools, Indianapolis, 
 Indiana. 
 
21 
 
 Hon. William Kempt, Troy, New York. 
 
 Hon. A. P. Marble, Superintendent of city -schools, Worcester, 
 Massachusetts. 
 
 Hon. E. B. Hale, Superintendent of city-schools, Cambridge, Massa- 
 chusetts. 
 
 Hon. S. C. Hosford, Superintendent of city-schools, Pater son, 
 New Jersey. 
 
 Hon. G. E. Hood, Superintendent of city-schools, Lawrence, Massa- 
 chusetts. 
 
 Alexander Wi^ckell, President of Syracuse University, New York. 
 
 J. T. Champlin, President of Olivet College, Michigan. 
 
 Daniel Read, President of the University of Missouri, Columbia, 
 Missouri. 
 
 General A. S. Webb, President of the College of the City of New York, 
 ■ New York. 
 
 F. A. P. Barnard, President of Columbia College, New York, 
 New York. 
 
 M. B. Anderson, President of Rochester University, Rochester, 
 New York. 
 
 E. N. Potter, President of Union College, Schenectady , New York. 
 
 S. Howard, President of the Ohio University, Athens, Ohio. 
 
 E. T. Tappan, President of Keny on College, Gambler, Ohio. 
 
 O. N. Hartshorn, President of Mount Union College, Ohio. 
 
 J. H. Fairchild, President of Oberlin College, Ohio. 
 
 J. C. Welling, President of the Columbia College, Washington, 
 District of Columbia. 
 
 J. H. Raymond, President of Vassar College, Poughkeepsie, New 
 York. 
 
 Hon. M. B. Hopkins, State-superintendent of public instruction, 
 Indianapolis, Indiana. 
 
 Hon. Samuel Fallows, State-superintendent of public instruction, 
 Madison , Wisconsin . 
 
 Hon. Alonzo Abernethy, State-superintendent of public instruc- 
 tion, P)es Moines, Iowa. 
 
 Hon. John Monteith, State-superintendent of public schools, Jef- 
 ferson City, Missouri. 
 
 Hon. Newton Bateman, State-superintendent of public instruction, 
 Springfield, Illinois. 
 
 Hon. H. D. McCarty, State-superintendent of public instruction, 
 Leaveniiwrth, Kansas. 
 
 Hon. H. B. Wilson, State-superintendent of public instruction, Saint 
 Paul, Minnesota. 
 
22 
 
 Hon. M. A. Newell, Principal of the State Normal School, Balti- 
 more, Maryland. 
 
 Hon. E. E.White, Editor of the National Teacher, Columbus, Ohio.- 
 
 Hon. John D. Philbrick, Superintendent of city-schools, Boston. 
 Massachusetts. < 
 
 Hon. W. T. Harris, Superintendent of city-schools, Saint Louis, Mis- 
 souri. 
 
 Hon. Henry Kiddle, Superintendent of city-schools, New York,. 
 New York. 
 
 Hon. J. W. Bulkley, Superintendent of city-schools, Brooklyn, New 
 York. 
 
 Hon. George B. Sears, Superintendent of city-schools, Newark, 
 New Jersey. 
 
 Hon. J. L. Pickard, Superintendent of city -schools, Chicago, Illinois. 
 
 Hon. William R. Creery, Superintendent of city-schools, Baltimore, ' 
 Maryland. 
 
 Hon. John Hancock, Superintendent of city -schools, Cincinnati, Ohio. 
 
 Hon. A. J. Rickoff, Superintendent of 'city-schools, Cleveland, Ohio. 
 
 Hon. Duane Doty, Superintendent of city-schools, Detroit, Michigan. 
 
 Prof. Stephenson, Supei-intendent of ' city -schools, Buffalo, New York. 
 
 Hon. Edward Smith, Superintendent of city -schools, Syracuse, New 
 York. 
 
 Hon. S. A. Ellis, Superintendent of city-schools, Rochester, New 
 York. 
 
 Hon. D. F. De Wolf, Superintendent of city-schools, Toledo, Ohio. 
 
 Hon. J. O. Wilson, Superintendent of city-schools, Washington, Dis- 
 trict of Columbia. 
 
 Hon. George H. Tingley, Superintendent of city-schools, Louis- 
 ville, Kentucky. 
 
 Hon. George J. Lucrey, Superintendent of city-schools, Pittsburg, 
 Pennsylvania. 
 
 Hon. William L. Dickinson, Siperintendent of city-schools, Jersey 
 City, New Jersey. 
 
 Hon. F. C. Law, Superintendent of city-schools, Milwauke Wis- 
 consin. 
 
 Hon. Daniel Leach, Superintendent of city-schools, Providence, 
 Rhode Island. 
 
 Hon. Ariel Parish, Superintendent of city-schools, New Haven , 
 Connecticut. 
 
o$&m 
 
 61 
 
 A STATEMENT 
 
 T 
 
 E 
 
 HEORY OF EDUCATION 
 
 THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, 
 
 ^fefo 
 
 AS APPROVED BY 
 
 MANY LEADING EDUCATORS. 
 
 WASHINGTON: 
 GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE. 
 
 1874. 
 
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