The History Of Education, Ellwood P. Cubberley [motivational novels .TXT] 📗
- Author: Ellwood P. Cubberley
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1. Belonging to the old aristocratic class.
2. The conservatives of society.
3. Politicians of small vision.
4. Residents of rural districts.
5. The ignorant, narrow-minded, and penurious.
6. Taxpayers.
7. Lutherans, Reformed-Church, Mennonites, and Quakers.
8. Southern men.
9. Proprietors of private schools.
10. The non-English-speaking classes.
THE WORK OF PROPAGANDA. To meet the arguments of the objectors, to change the opinions of a thinking few into the common opinion of the many, to overcome prejudice, and to awaken the public conscience to the public need for free and common schools in such a democratic society, was the work of a generation. To convince the masses of the people that the scheme of state schools was not only practicable, but also the best and most economical means for giving their children the benefits of an education; to convince propertied citizens that taxation for education was in the interests of both public and private welfare; to convince legislators that it was safe to vote for free-school bills; and to overcome the opposition due to apathy, religious jealousies, and private interests, was the work of years. In time, though, the desirability of common, free, tax-supported, non-sectarian, state-controlled schools became evident to a majority of the citizens in the different American States, and as it did the American State School, free and equally open to all, was finally evolved and took its place as the most important institution in the national life working for the perpetuation of a free democracy and the advancement of the public welfare.
For this work of propaganda hundreds of School Societies and Educational Associations were organized; many conventions were held, and many resolutions favoring state schools were adopted; many “Letters” and “Addresses to the Public” were written and published; public-spirited citizens traveled over the country, making addresses to the people explaining the advantages of free state schools; many public-spirited men gave the best years of their lives to the state-school propaganda; and many governors sent communications on the subject to legislatures not yet convinced as to the desirability of state action. At each meeting of the legislatures for years a deluge of resolutions, memorials, and petitions for and against free schools met the members.
The invention of the steam printing press came at about this time, and the first modern newspapers at a cheap price now appeared. These usually espoused progressive measures, and tremendously influenced public sentiment. Those not closely connected with church or private-school interests usually favored public tax-supported schools.
QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION
1. Explain why the development of a national consciousness was practically necessary before an educational consciousness could be awakened.
2. Show why it was natural, suffrage conditions considered, that the early interest should have been in advanced education.
3. Why did the Sunday-School movement prove of so much less usefulness in America than in England?
4. Show the analogy between the earlier school societies for educational work and other forms of modern associative effort.
5. Explain the great popularity of the Lancastrian schools over those previously common in America.
6. What were two of the important contributions of the Infant-School idea to American education?
7. Why are schools and education much more needed in a country experiencing a city and manufacturing development than in a country experiencing an agricultural development?
8. Show how the development of cities caused the old forms of education to break down, and made evident the need for a new type of education.
9. Show how each extension of the suffrage necessitates an extension of educational opportunities and advantages.
10. Explain the alignment of each class, for or against tax-supported schools, on historical and on economic grounds.
SELECTED READINGS
In the accompanying Book of Readings the following illustrative selections are reproduced:
307. Fowle: The Schools of Boston about 1790-1815.
308. Rhode Island: Petition for Free Schools, 1799.
309. Providence: Rules and Regulations for the Schools in 1820.
310. Providence: A Memorial for Better Schools, 1837.
311. Bourne: Beginnings of Public Education in New York City.
312. Boston Report: Advantages of the Monitorial System.
313. Wightman: Establishment of Primary Schools in Boston.
314. Boston: The Elementary-School System in 1823.
315. Philadelphia: Report of Workingmen’s Committee on Schools.
QUESTIONS ON THE READINGS
1. Just what advantages for boys and for girls existed in Boston (307 a, b) before the creation of the reading schools?
2. What improvements and additions did the reading schools (307 c) introduce?
3. State the main features of the Rhode Island petition (308) of 1799.
4. Just what kind of schools do the Providence regulations (309) of 1820
provide for and describe?
5. Despite the many advances made in public schools since the date of the Providence Memorial (310), have relative public and private school expenditures materially changed?
6. Compare the New York Public School Society Address (311) with the English charity-school organization (237, 238) as to purpose and instruction.
7. Show that a report on modern classroom organization would present advantages over the monitorial plan, comparable with those outlined by the Boston Report (312) comparing the monitorial and individual plans.
8. Just what does the Boston Report on Primary Schools (313) reveal as to the character of education then provided?
9. Just what kind of elementary schools did Boston have (314) in 1823?
10. Just what kind of schools existed in the cities of Pennsylvania in 1830, judging from the Report (315) of the Workingmen’s Committee? Was the Report correct with reference to “a monopoly of talent”?
SUPPLEMENTARY REFERENCES
Binns, H. B. A Century of Education, 1808-1908.
Boese, Thos, Public Education in the City of New York.
Cubberley, E. P. Public Education in the United States.
* Fitzpatrick, E. A. The Educational Views and Influences of De Witt Clinton.
McManis, J. T. “The Public School Society of New York City,” in Educational Review, vol. 29, pp. 303-11. (March, 1905.) * Palmer, A. E. The New York Public School System.
* Reigart, J. F. The Lancastrian System of Instruction in the Schools of New York City.
* Salmon, David. Joseph Lancaster.
* Simcoe, A. M. Social Forces in American History.
THE AMERICAN BATTLE FOR FREE STATE SCHOOLS
The problem which confronted those interested in establishing state-controlled schools was not exactly the same in any two States, though the battle in many States possessed common elements, and hence was somewhat similar in character. Instead of tracing the struggle in detail in each of the different States, it will be much more profitable for our purposes to pick out the main strategic points in the contest, and then illustrate the conflict for these by describing conditions in one or two States where the controversy was most severe or most typical. The seven strategic points in the struggle for free, tax-supported, non-sectarian, state-controlled schools in the United States were:
1. The battle for tax support.
2. The battle to eliminate the pauper-school idea.
3. The battle to make the schools entirely free.
4. The battle to establish state supervision.
5. The battle to eliminate sectarianism.
6. The battle to extend the system upward.
7. Addition of the state university to crown the system.
We shall consider each of these, briefly, in order.
I. THE BATTLE FOR TAX SUPPORT
EARLY SUPPORT AND ENDOWMENT FUNDS. In New England, land endowments, local taxes, direct local appropriations, license taxes, and rate-bills had long been common. Land endowments began early in the New England Colonies, while rate-bills date back to the earliest times and long remained a favorite means of raising money for school support. These means were adopted in the different States after the beginning of our national period, and to them were added a variety of license taxes, while occupational taxes, lotteries, and bank taxes also were employed to raise money for schools. A few examples of these may be cited: Connecticut, in 1774, turned over all proceeds of liquor licenses to the towns where collected, to be used for schools. New Orleans, in 1826, licensed two theaters on condition that they each pay $3000 annually for the support of schools in the city. New York, in 1799, authorized four state lotteries to raise $100,000 for schools, a similar amount again in 1801, and numerous other lotteries before 1810. New Jersey (R. 246) and most of the other States did the same. Congress passed fourteen joint resolutions, between 1812 and 1836, authorizing lotteries to help support the schools of the city of Washington. Bank taxes were a favorite source of income for schools, between about 1825 and 1860, banks being chartered on condition that they would pay over each year for schools a certain sum or percentage of their earnings. These all represent what is known as indirect taxation, and were valuable in accustoming the people to the idea of public schools without appearing to tax them for their support.
The National Land Grants, begun in the case of Ohio in 1802, soon stimulated a new interest in schools. Each State admitted after Ohio also received the sixteenth section for the support of common schools, and two townships of land for the endowment of a state university. The new Western States, following the lead of Ohio (R. 260) and Indiana (R. 261), dedicated these section lands and funds to free common schools. The sixteen older States, however, did not share in these grants, so most of them now set about building up a permanent school fund of their own, though at first without any very clear idea as to how the income from the fund was to be used. [1]
THE BEGINNINGS OF SCHOOL TAXATION. The early idea, which seems for a time to have been generally entertained, that the income from land grants, license fees, and these permanent endowment funds would in time entirely support the necessary schools, was gradually abandoned as it was seen how little in yearly income these funds and lands really produced, and how rapidly the population of the States was increasing. By 1825 it may be said to have been clearly recognized by thinking men that the only safe reliance of a system of state schools lay in the general and direct taxation of all property for their support. “The wealth of the State must educate the children of the State” became a watchword, and the battle for direct, local, county, and state taxation for education was clearly on by 1825 to 1830 in all the Northern States, except the four in New England where the principle of taxation for education had for long been established. [2] Even in these States the struggle to increase taxation and provide better schools called for much argument and popular education (R. 316), and occasional backward movements (Rs. 317, 318) were encountered.
[Illustration: FIG. 200. THE FIRST FREE PUBLIC SCHOOL IN DETROIT
A one-room school, opened in the Second Ward, in 1838. No action was taken in any other ward until 1842.]
The struggle to secure the first legislation, weak and ineffective as it seems to us to-day, was often hard and long. “Campaigns of education” had to be prepared for and carried through. Many thought that tax-supported schools would be dangerous for the State, harmful to individual good, and thoroughly undemocratic. Many did not see the need for schools at all.
Portions of a town or a city would provide a free school, while other portions would not. Often those in favor of taxation were bitterly assailed, and even at times threatened with personal violence. Often those in favor of improving the school had to wait patiently for the opposition slowly to wear itself out (R. 319) before any real progress could be made.
STATE SUPPORT FIXED THE STATE SYSTEM. With the
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