TARY EDUCATION).
Since the beginning of the present century there has been great development in elementary education, and consolidation of the whole system. Teachers' salaries have been placed on a satis factory basis and pensions put on a proper footing; the whole curriculum has been modernized and rendered more elastic, though education in the years after II still needs modification in the direction of a more distinct preparation for livelihood. One of the most striking features of the new learning is the way in which the reading habit is being developed, not merely inside and out side the elementary school, but for all grades of education, in cluding secondary and evening students, whether in adult educa tion classes, or honours and research students in the universities. (See LIBRARIES.) The whole bias of education is slowly shifting to making the pupil an active co-operator in his own development. (See above Educational Experiments.) A vast deal of quiet experiment is going on; physical exercises, and especially games, have undergone a wide extension ; the per fect system has been developed with the happiest results in boys', and to a certain extent in girls', schools; after-care committees, medical inspection, meals for necessitous children, special treat ment for mental and physical defectives have become an integral part of national education in the broader sense. Classes have been cut down (in a few years the number of classes with over 6o pupils fell from nearly 7,00o to under 28o). Buildings have been modernized to a great extent. The religious question, so rampant at the beginning of the century, is quiescent, thanks to the broad minded and impartial administration of the local authorities, but the Church people still feel the "intolerable strain" of maintaining their school buildings, and from time to time feelers are thrown out to try to discover some way of handing over the schools while safeguarding the religious teaching. Moreover, the crisis in the Anglican Church (1927-28) only tended to accentuate the difficulty of the whole question. The Central schools (q.v.) have more than made good, and their pupils can now stay on till the age of 16. In 1926-27 there were 9,17o Council schools, voluntary, and over 15,000 departments in each category, with an average attendance of 3,231,494 in the former and 1,742,162 in the latter, the percentage of attendance being 88.3. The teach ers numbered 169,702, including nearly 120,000 certificated teach ers, three-quarters of whom were college trained. The uncertifi cated numbered 33,852, and the supplementary teachers, 8,734. Training colleges have been multiplied. The study of educational science has increased by leaps and bounds. The connection with the university has been greatly extended ; many two-year students frequently spend a third year abroad, or at some English institu tion.
In the sphere of secondary education where there was most leeway to make up, the progress has been immense. In place of a totally inadequate and often poorly staffed number of schools before 1902, the country is practically covered with a network of secondary schools, in many of which advanced courses have been established, and in the majority of which the pupils leave at 16 or even later. The claims of art and music have been increasingly recognized, considerably less, however, in boys' than in girls' schools. The examination figures are eloquent : though more elasticity in the choice of subjects is necessary (see EX AMINATIONS). In 1917-18, 14,232 took the first examination and the second; in 1926-27, 43,752 took the first, 6,691 the second, over 68% passing in each case (see SECONDARY EDUCATION). Games and self-government are everywhere to-day flourishing, in boys' and girls' schools alike. The number going to the universities has increased beyond all comparison—over 3,30o went in 1926. One effect of these increasing numbers is to raise the standard of study in the universities.
Salaries have increased and teachers' qualifications have steadily risen. In 1908 there were only 4,841 men teachers and women, of whom 62% of the men and 41.7% of the women were graduates; in 1926-27 the men teachers .(full time) had risen to 9,572, the women (full time) to 9,682, and about 8o% of the men and 61 % of the women were graduates. In the same period there were 1,319 schools on the grant list, with pupils (196, 289 boys and 175,2o4 girls) , and J9,141 pupils (29, 839 boys and 29,302 girls) in other schools merely recognized as efficient. Within a quarter of a century, a comprehensive system has been built up which can challenge comparison with those of older countries, and which recognizes that the most valuable train ing the school can give is the development of a healthy and public-spirited citizen.
The loth century has seen a vast extension in the growth of the provincial universities (previously component parts of a joint university) . The movement began with Liverpool and Man chester in 1903 and was followed by Birmingham, Leeds, Sheffield and Bristol, while Durham expanded and took in Newcastle, and finally Reading was founded. Meanwhile, London is being again reorganized, having immensely grown in the interval, and Oxford and Cambridge have also greatly expanded, not only in numbers but also in the ever increasing branches of knowledge they teach and in their outside activities (see UNIVERSITY EXTENSION, etc.), their ties and connections with national life being far more close and numerous than in the preceding century. The number of students in the universities in 1927 was 41,606.
Technical education (see above), whether within or without the university, has also extended its ramifications on specific subjects, while concentrating with advantage the work of many of its institutes. Its lower grades have shown a considerable in crease, whether in junior technical schools, art schools or evening classes of all kinds. The total number of students, whether in day or evening institutes or classes in 1926-27 was 843,637. There is probably, however, in spite of these figures, still abundant room for expansion in all grades of this work, which is peculiarly in keeping with the English temper and genius.
A few figures on educational expenditure since 1913-14 may help to provide a rough index of the volume of growth and de velopment, though on the other side a considerable allowance must be made for the increased cost of living. In 1913-14 higher education (secondary and technical) received from the local and central authorities nearly four and a half millions, and elementary education over 251 millions, or a total of about 3o millions, of which the State found 45.6%; other items must be included in the general expenditure on education, but none the less the com parison with 1925-26 is striking. In that year higher education received 14 millions, elementary nearly 584 millions, a total of nearly 721 millions, the percentage of the State contribution having risen to 53.8. This, with other items, brought the total expenditure to f English education has always been noted for its variety and elasticity. The loth century has seen the development of a sub stantially complete system of national education in all grades, in which the new has been skilfully interwoven with the old, without injuring its two predominant qualities. It has been an immense and unparalleled achievement, in which the work of a few men stands out, chief among whom are Lord Balfour who, by the act of 1902, laid the foundations of the present composite structure with the ultimate aim of forming one single edifice; Sir Robert Morant, his chief henchman and architect, and Sir Michael Sadler who, more than anyone living, has heartened and inspired the enormous army of lay and professional workers in the labori ous task of consolidating and enlarging the new temple of knowl edge. Other notable master builders have been H. A. L. Fisher and Lord Burnham, each responsible for certain valuable addi tions to, the fabric. The building has, indeed, been, like the build ing of a great mediaeval cathedral, the work of the anonymous co-operation of thousands of men of goodwill. (C. BR.) Wales continued to be treated as one with England for pur poses of educational administration until, towards the end of the 19th century, the striking revival of Welsh nationality led to a demand among the Welsh people for a national system of higher education. The Welsh Intermediate Education Act (1889) pro vided for the creation of education committees in every county in Wales (including Monmouthshire). To these committees were entrusted the establishment of intermediate and technical schools and the application of endowments, and the administration of a d. county rate, which was supplemented by a Treasury grant, not exceeding the amount raised by the rate. The duties of inspection and examination were entrusted to a Central Educa tion board. The Education committees were superseded (except for the purpose of framing schemes for endowments) by the local education authorities under the act of 1902. The public assistance afforded to secondary education in Wales under the Intermediate Act is supplemented by the grants of the Board of Education, and the board's revised secondary school regulations were applied to Wales in 1908. In 1907 a Welsh department of the Board of Education was established.
There has thus grown up a dual organization of secondary education in Wales : the intermediate (endowed) schools under the central board, and the municipal secondary schools and others under the local education authorities. The intermediate schools, however, accepted the Board of Education grant and inspection under the act of 1902. In 1920 a departmental committee recom mended that the Welsh Intermediate Education Act be repealed, and that all types of schools in a district be placed under the same authority. It recommended the formation of a National Council of Education for Wales, with majority representation of the local authorities and further representatives of the university, the teachers, and other educational bodies. Its functions should be mainly advisory, but it should maintain training colleges (for which the county unit is too small) and conduct examinations. Further recommendations were the creation of teachers' councils, an increase in the number of secondary schools so that admission might be on a qualifying rather than a competitive basis, allow ances according to the parents' means, and more university scholarships.
These recommendations have not been put into effect, but a system of close co-operation between the inspectorates of the central board and the Board of Education has been adopted. The National Council of Education has not been formed ; the Central Board continues its work and enjoys an increased Government grant.
Before the Reformation a statute of James IV. (1494) required all freeholders of substance to send their heirs to school and to keep them there until they had perfect Latin. The Reformation put fresh life into the educational aspirations of the people. As early as 1560 the Church Assembly, largely under the influence of John Knox, issued the Book of Discipline, providing that "every several kirk" in a town "of any reputation" was to have its Latin school, that the "upaland" or country parts were to have a teacher of the "first rudiments" in every parish, and that each "notable" town was to have "a college for logic, rhetoric and the tongues." Practical effect was later given to this scheme by an act of the Scottish parliament in 1696, under which parish schools were set up in connection with the Established Church of Scot land. This system was extended by an act of 1803, which made better provision for teachers' salaries and also confirmed the posi tion of the parish school as an adjunct of the parish church. The system of inspection and State aid, introduced in England in 1839, was made applicable to Scotland. In 1861 a new act was passed which relaxed, though it did not sever, the ties which bound the parish school to the church.
The Education (Scotland) Act of 1872 set up elective school boards and vested in them the existing parish and burgh schools. A conscience clause, allowing exemption from religious instruc tion, did little more than confirm existing usage. The school boards were left full liberty as to the religious instruction to be given in their schools, and in practice school boards universally adopted the Shorter Catechism, which was acceptable to all de nominations of Presbyterians. The act made the school boards responsible for the supply of school accommodation, and intro duced compulsory attendance. By the act of 1901 the age of compulsory attendance was raised to 14, with provision for ex emption after 12.
The Scottish Education Act of 1872 distinguished certain burgh and parish schools as "higher class public" or secondary schools. The act of 1908 dealt in some detail with secondary education. Secondary schools were distinguished from inter mediate, the former being defined as providing at least a five-years' course, the latter as providing at least a three-years' course for pupils who had reached a certain standard of attainment in ele mentary subjects. Intermediate schools have now been aban doned and a three-years' advanced course from the ages of 12 to 15 is provided at primary schools, leading to the higher day school certificate. A two-years' advanced course leads to the lower day school certificate. The teaching in these advanced courses is partly practical, but includes also morals and citizenship, music, drawing, English, science, mathematics, and physical exercises. It is the aim of the authorities to staff the advanced divisions with teachers as highly qualified as those in secondary schools. A qualifying test at the age of 11 or 12 decides whether a child is to enter an advanced course or proceed to the secondary school. But there are facilities for changing over at a later stage.
The 1918 act swept away the system of parochial school boards. Five large burghs, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Aberdeen, Dundee and Leith, remained separate educational areas (the number was re duced to four by the amalgamation of Leith with Edinburgh in 1920) ; elsewhere the area is the county, including the burghs within its bounds. Electors to the education authorities are reg istered local government electors, and voting is conducted on the principle of proportional representation. School management committees, composed of representatives of the education authori ties, parents, teachers, and others nominated by local bodies, have limited powers under the education authorities.
Education authorities are required to provide free primary, intermediary and secondary education in all districts, but they may maintain a limited number of fee-paying schools and make grants to ethers. No pupil, however, must be debarred from con tinued education by inability to pay fees, and each education authority has a bursary scheme. They are also empowered to spend money on the provision of food and books for the children, and to give assistance to qualified persons attending the university or training college.
Nearly all the voluntary or denominational schools have been transferred to the education authorities in accordance with the act ; the teachers in such schools are appointed by the education authority of ter being approved, as regards character and religious belief, by the denomination concerned. No child whose parents object to his receiving religious instruction is thereby to lose any other advantage of the school. Voluntary schools which are not transferred to the education authority cease to be eligible for grant from the education fund. A national committee for the training of teachers, established in 192o and elected by the edu cation authorities, now controls the former denominational train ing colleges.
The act contemplated an extension of the school age to 15 and the provision of continuation schools giving vocational instruc tion, besides general education and physical culture. But these provisions have only been partially carried out, and school at tendance is compulsory from five to 14, with powers to exempt or allow part-time attendance in special circumstances at 12. The Treasury grant to the universities was largely increased, and since the end of the World War private benefactions have greatly im proved the teaching equipment of all four universities, and especially Glasgow and Edinburgh.
The departmental committee on Endowments for Scottish Edu cation, presided over by Lord Mackenzie, reported in Oct. 1927 on endowments whose original purpose had become obsolete. It advised the appointment of an executive commission of seven members to reconsider their use, and suggested the following objects : universities, residential halls for students, central insti tutions (i.e., advanced technical colleges), hostels for school children, adult education, playing fields, social organization, and nursing.
Historical Development.—In Ireland education has suffered in the past from the general absence of local interest almost as seriously as from the mistakes of the English Government. State intervention is actually of earlier date in Ireland than in Eng land. From the reign of Elizabeth onwards English Protestant schools were founded by the Government in an intermittent fashion in pursuance of its anglicizing policy. The Kildare Place Society (founded in 181I) comprised both Roman Catholic and Protestant schools upon a common religious basis of Bible read ing without note or comment, and received Government grants until 1833. The religious compromise broke down in consequence of Catholic dissatisfaction. In 1833, as the result of a commission of enquiry (1824) and a select committee of the House of Com mons (1828), Stanley inaugurated the national system of grant aided elementary schools under a board of commissioners nomi nated from the different denominations. In these schools teach ers were paid by the State, but were appointed by the school managers, subject to the commissioners' approval. The Govern ment appears to have aimed at combined secular and separate religious instruction for Roman Catholics and Protestants ; at the same time an attempt was made to provide an ethical basis for secular instruction by means of Bible extracts. This solution through common schools with separate religious teaching was advocated by the great Irish educationalist, Sir Thomas Wyse, himself a Roman Catholic. In 183o he had urged on the Govern ment a kind of local option in education : each parish was to decide for itself whether to establish a school ; if it did so, it was to receive Government support. Catholics and Protestants were to be educated together, but each to receive religious instruc tion from their own pastors. The growing Catholic objection to the Government's policy, however, found expression in a decree of the Roman Congregation De Propaganda Fide of Jan. II, 1846, declaring that non-sectarian religious instruction was dangerous to youth.
The religious difficulty in Irish elementary education may be said to have been solved in process of time by the conversion of the national system in practice, though not in theory, into a system strongly denominational, separate schools taking the place for the most part of the combined schools of the two creeds. In addition to national schools there were a considerable number of convent or monastery schools, which received capitation grants, but not direct salaries.
In 1845 a bill was passed "to enable Her Majesty to endow new colleges for the advancement of learning in Ireland," based on Wyse's plan of joint secondary schools for Catholics and Prot estants with separate religious teaching. But here again there was Catholic opposition, and the schools were declared, in rescripts of the council of cardinals, to be "dangerous to faith and morals." The Irish Education Act of 1892 provided for compulsory at tendance in towns and for the adoption of compulsion in other districts. In virtue of the financial sections of the act, which pro vided an increased grant for salaries, most of the national schools became free.
Agriculture is Ireland's key industry, and towards the end of the last century there was a vigorous movement, led by Sir Horace Plunkett, for improved methods, better technical education and farmers' co-operation. In the parliamentary recess of 1895-96 Sir Horace Plunkett assembled the Recess committee to report on the subject. Its report resulted in the act of 1899, which cre ated a department of agriculture and technical instruction. This department helped to establish continuation schools, technical schools and winter agricultural schools. It also sent out itinerant agricultural instructors.
Irish Free State.—Bef ore the Government of Ireland Act of 192o there were two central authorities dealing with secondary education, the Intermediate Education Board and the Department of Agriculture and Technical Instruction. The Intermediate Board administered sums available under the Intermediate Edu cation Act of 1878 from the Irish Church surplus, and also the sum allocated under the Local Taxation Act of 189o. The first step of the Free State Government was to unify control, under a Minister of Education, of primary, secondary and endowed schools.
The so-called First Conference of Educationalists met in 1920 and drafted a programme for primary education, which aimed at stirring in the children a consciousness of their national heritage. Irish was to be the medium of instruction. This programme was adopted by the Government in 1922. Difficulties arose in putting it into effect, partly because the Irish language was not familiar to all teachers and pupils. A further conference, representing school managers, teachers in national schools, the General Coun cil of County Schools, and the Gaelic League, and including nomi nated members, reported in 1926. It praised the new programme as "giving the language, history, music and tradition of Ireland their natural place in the life of the Irish schools." But it recog nized the difficulties and recommended that transition to the use of the Irish language should be gradual and that the best Irish teacher in a school should be allocated to the infants, and instruc tion in other standards given in English where it could not prop erly be given in Irish. It was proposed to establish six preparatory colleges for candidates for training colleges, five to be situated in districts where Gaelic is still a living language and staffed with teachers capable of teaching the secondary school programme entirely through the medium of Irish.
The old managerial system, under which the power of appoint ment and dismissal lay, under certain limitations, with the man ager of the school (usually a clergyman) was retained. This sys tem means that each religious denomination controls the ap pointment of teachers in schools attended by children of that denomination. Opportunities must be afforded to the pupils of all schools for receiving such religious instruction as their parents approve. It is given at a time not counted when computing at tendance, and does not come under the supervision of the depart ment.
As regards secondary education, a wide problem confronted the Government. The Intermediate Education Act of r878 prescribed that grants were to be paid on the results of a general public examination. Under the Free State Government this was replaced by a capitation grant, dependent on the reports of inspectors who take into account every feature of the school. The Intermediate Education Act of 1924, embodying recommendations of a com mission which reported in 1922, introduced both financial and educational changes. A salary scheme for secondary teachers was adopted. Technical instruction was placed under the control of the Minister of Education, but the organization under local com mittees was retained.
In the Free State only primary education is gratuitous, but county and county borough councils may levy a rate to provide scholarships in secondary schools. Until the passing of the School Attendance Act of 1926 education was not universally compul sory. That act required attendance for secular instruction from six to 14; and the minister has power to extend the age limit to 16. Parents have the right to object to any school on religious grounds. Schools are inspected and certified by the minister as suitable for giving elementary instruction.
Northern Ireland.—In 1922 educational services were trans ferred to the Government of Northern Ireland. The Education Act of 1923 largely gave effect to the recommendations of the Lynn departmental committee of enquiry, which published an interim report in 1922 and a final report in 1923. According to the ministry's report for 1923 the predominant feature of the act is that "it abolishes a highly centralized system of control, and sets up in its place a decentralized system of local control." Later reports describe the policy of amalgamating small primary schools for the sake of greater efficiency; in some cases there were sev eral denominational schools in a single area, rendering less effi cient service than one public school could give. The ministry put an end to the system of paying grants to schools conducted for private profit, and successfully encouraged private secondary schools to place themselves under governing bodies of a repre sentative character, and so qualify for grants. Grants to second ary schools are now made by capitation payments, depending on the inspectors' reports, and no longer on the results of examination. The pupil teacher system was so amended that candidates for admission to training colleges complete their secondary school course.
The act of 1923 defines elementary education as education below the age of 14 "both literary and moral, based upon in struction in reading and writing of the English language and in arithmetic." Fees may be charged "if there exists otherwise a sufficient supply of free places." School books may be provided free. Attendance is compulsory from the age of six to 14, and by-laws are allowed lowering the age to five. The education authority may exempt individuals partially for reasons of employ ment after the age of 12.
Schools may be provided by the public authority, or trans ferred from voluntary agencies to the education authority. Fur ther, there are voluntary schools recognized as public elementary schools, which receive a 5o% grant on maintenance and repairs. In all schools religious instruction must be so arranged as not to put children of any denomination at a disadvantage in the matter of secular education. The education authority does not itself provide or inspect religious instruction, but the clergy of all denominations have access to provided and transferred schools according to the parents' wishes. The education authority ap points the teachers, and there are no religious tests.
Higher education includes preparatory schools, intermediate schools (a three-years' course beyond the primary school), and secondary schools (a five-years' course beyond the primary school) . The education authority is empowered to pay for the higher education of all children capable of profiting by it, as also for their continued education at the university or training college.
(M. M. G.) Religious Origin of Schools.—Schools of America, as with the older European countries from which the early American settlers came, arose as children of the Church. From instruments of religion they have gradually been changed into instruments of the State. The first schools in America were clearly the fruits of the Protestant revolts in Europe, and were set up by dissenters who had come to America to obtain a freedom in religion which they could not enjoy in their own lands. The reformers had insisted upon the necessity of a knowledge of the Gospels as a means to personal salvation, and the ultimate outcome was the creation of schools to teach children to read. These ideas the early settlers in New England brought with them, and one of their first interests, after they had built their homes and churches and settled the civil Government, was the creation of schools and a college to advance learning in the new land and to provide a supply of literate ministers. With practically all the early religious groups that settled in the central and northern colonies the educa tion of the young for membership in the Church, and the perpetu ation of a learned ministry for the congregations, elicited serious attention. Only in the Anglican colonies of Virginia and south ward was this early interest in education largely lacking.
Three Type Attitudes.—From the European background of the early colonists three type attitudes toward education were established in the American Colonies. These are of importance because they materially affected the development of education in the States during the early national period. The first was the compulsory-maintenance attitude of the Puritans of the New England colonies, who set up a combined religious and civil form of town government, and by colony legislation in 1642 and 1647 established schools and ordered children to be taught to read and to be given instruction in religion. Still earlier (1635) the be ginnings of an English type of Latin grammar school had been made at Boston, and the year following (1636) an English type college (Harvard) had been established by the same people at Cambridge, Mass. The laws of 1642 and 1647 are important, in part because for the first time in the English-speaking world a legislative body representing the State made education com pulsory, and also because what the Calvinistic Puritans of Massa chusetts established in practice has since been generally adopted by the different American States. This distinctively Calvinistic contribution to the New-World life was one of large future importance.
The second type attitude was what has become known as the parochial-school attitude, and was best represented in Pennsyl vania. Unlike New England, no sect was in the majority in Pennsylvania, and Church control by each denomination rather than general colonial action resulted. There was no appeal to the State. Instead, parochial schools were established in connection with the churches and private pay schools were opened in the larger towns. Under the primitive conditions of the time the interest even in religious instruction often declined almost to the vanishing point, and Pennsylvania and the other middle colonies finally settled down to the policy of leaving education to such private and parochial schools as cared to undertake it, a policy that was overcome later only after long and stubborn resistance.
The third type attitude was what was known as the pauper school non-State-interference attitude, and was best exemplified by Virginia and the southern colonies. Unlike New England, these had been settled by English who had come to America for gain rather than for religious freedom, and the lack of any strong religious motive for education naturally led to the continuation of English practices rather than development on distinctively colonial lines. The tutor in the home, education in small private and select pay schools, or education in the mother country for the sons of the well-to-do planters, with apprenticeship training and a few 'pauper schools for the children of the poorer classes consequently came to be the prevailing system and, as in the mother country, education was not considered the business of the State, nor did the Church give any special attention to it. As a result in Virginia, and the colonies which followed her example, the English charity-school idea came to dominate such general education as was provided, with the apprenticing of orphans as a prominent feature.
The i 7th century was a period of the transplanting of European ideas as to Government and religion and education to the new American Colonies, and by the 1. 8th century the three type atti tudes toward educational responsibility had been clearly estab lished on American soil, deeply influencing subsequent American educational development. In time the first or New England Cal vinistic attitude came to be the accepted American conception, and the other two types were subordinated or eliminated. Almost all the early 19th century struggles to establish education in the States were battles between the upholders of these different type attitudes.
For long the Churches made an effort to keep up, as they were loath to relinquish their former hold on the training of the young. The Churches, however, were not interested in the prob lem except in the old way, and this was not what the nevi democracy wanted. The result was that, with the coming of nationality and the slow but gradual growth of a national con sciousness, national pride, national needs, and the gradual develop ment of national resources in the shape of taxable property,—all alike combined to make secular instead of religious schools seem both desirable and possible to a constantly increasing number of citizens. This change in attitude was facilitated by the work of a number of semi-private philanthropic agencies, the most important of which were : (I) the Sunday school movement; (2) the growth of city school societies; (3) the Lancasterian movement; and (4) the coming of the infant-school societies.
Of these the Lancasterian movement was by far the most important because it, for the first time, made general education for all seem financially possible. All at once, comparatively, a new system of teaching had been evolved which not only improved but at the same time tremendously cheapened education. The new Lancasterian schools materially hastened the coming of the free school system in all the Northern States by awakening thought, provoking discussion and accustoming the people to bear ing the necessary costs which public education entail. The city school societies, privately organized associations to provide edu cational facilities in the cities, formed a connecting link between the Lancasterian schools and the publicly organized schools which followed.
To meet the arguments of the objectors, and to change the opin ions 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 was the work of a gener ation. It was likewise the work of a generation to convince the masses that the scheme of State schools was not only practicable but also the best and the most economical means of giving their children the benefits of an education; to persuade propertied citi zens that taxation for education was in the interest of both public and private welfare; to show legislators that it was safe to vote for school bills ; and to overcome the general opposition due to apathy, sectarian jealousy and private interests. In time, how ever, the desirability of common, free, tax-supported, non-sec tarian, State-controlled schools came to be evident to a majority of the citizens of the different American States, and as it did so, the American State school, free and equally open to all, was finally evolved and took its place as the most important influence in the national life working for the perpetuation of American democracy and the advancement of the public welfare.
2. The Battle to Eliminate the Pauper-School Idea.—The home of the pauper-school idea was in the old Central and Southern States; it made no headway in the North and the new democratic West would not tolerate it. Its friends were found among the old aristocratic or conservative classes, the heavy taxpayers, the sup porters of Church schools, and the proprietors of private schools. Large numbers of those for whom the pauper schools were in tended would not brand themselves as paupers by sending their children to them, and those who accepted the advantages offered, for the sake of their children, despised the system. Finally the , battle to eliminate the pauper-school idea began in Pennsylvania in 1834 and in New Jersey in 1838, and in each State a victory was won and a State system of schools created only after a most bitter fight in the legislature and at the polls. The idea continued some time longer in Maryland, Virginia and Georgia and at places in other Southern States, but finally disappeared in the South with the establishment of State taxation and with the edu cational reorganizations following the American Civil War. The rate bill, a per-pupil charge levied on parents to supplement the public funds, lingered a little longer ; the cities did away with it first, and by 1871 it had disappeared from every Northern State and the schools of the nation were tax-supported and entirely freed from the pauper taint.
3. The Establishment of Supervision.—The battle for taxation for education was also indirectly a battle to establish some form of State oversight for the hundreds of systems which had grown up in each of the States. The acceptance of State aid inevitably meant a small but gradually increasing State control. To exercise this control we next find the States creating a series of school officers to represent the State, the enactment of laws extending State control, and a struggle to integrate, subordinate and reduce to some semblance of a State school system the great numbers of small community school systems. The pivotal States in this struggle were Massachusetts, Connecticut, New York, Ohio and Michigan, and the pivotal point in the struggle was the attempt to control the local systems of school organization which had de veloped and spread with time. In most States the district system had run rampant, and an exaggerated idea as to district rights, district importance and district perfection had become common. In Massachusetts, New York and Indiana, in particular, such sys tems had almost destroyed the schools. The Massachusetts law of 1826, requiring each town to appoint a town school committee to control the schools; the establishment, in 1834, of the State school fund; and the creation, in 1837, of the celebrated Massachusetts State Board of Education with an appointed secretary—a position held by Horace Mann for 12 years—mark the culmination of the struggle in that State. Connecticut provided for a somewhat simi lar board in 1839, and Henry Barnard became the first secretary. Michigan and Ohio provided for a State superintendent of public instruction in 1837, and the other States soon followed these ex amples. From then on State supervision came to be regarded as an established principle, the work of the future being largely an elaboration of the work of Mann in Massachusetts and Barnard in Connecticut,—two men who may be said to have created State supervision in the United States.
4. The Elimination of Sectarianism.—So long as there was little intercourse and migration, and the people of a community re mained fairly homogeneous, it was perfectly natural that the com mon religious faith of the people should enter into the instruction of the school. With the coming of foreign immigration, which began to be marked after about 1825, and the intermingling of peoples in the cities, religious uniformity ceased to exist. As necessity compelled the State to provide education for the chil dren, sectarian differences made it increasingly evident that the education provided must be non-sectarian in character. The secu larization of education in America thus came about as an unavoid able incident in the development of government among a people, and not as either a deliberate or wanton violation of the rights of the Church. The change to non-sectarian schools came gradually. Beginning early in American national history and in a way a sequel to a waning interest in religion, it was not until the 184os that the question became at all acute. Then the fight was precipi tated in both New York and Massachusetts at about the same time, and with about the same results. Finally, to settle the ques tion, State after State amended its constitution to forbid any division or diversion of the public school fund, and each new State when admitted made similar provision. The matter may now be regarded as settled in the different American States.
S. The Establishment of the High School.—The schools estab lished by the early States were almost entirely elementary, or the so-called "common schools." The next struggle came in an at tempt to extend the public school system upward so as to provide a more complete education than the common schools afforded. The academy development, beginning about the middle of the 18th century (see SECONDARY EDUCATION), had created a new type of secondary school that was semi-public in control and more democratic in character than the town Latin grammar schools had been, and the development of the academy was marked during the first half of the 19th century. In particular, this institution offered a much broader course of study than did the Latin gram mar schools, often was open to girls as well as boys, and aimed to prepare for practical life and for teaching instead of merely for college. One result of this development was a demand that the cities should establish free higher schools of a somewhat similar nature. In 1821 Boston created what is regarded as the first American high school, and in 1827 Massachusetts enacted a law requiring a high school in every town of Soo families or over, in which certain specified modern studies should be taught. In 1835 smaller towns also were permitted to establish such a school. This law marks the real beginning of the American high school as a distinct institution, formed the basis of all subsequent legis lation in Massachusetts, and deeply influenced development in other States.
lip to 1840 about a dozen high schools had been established in Massachusetts, and a similar number in other States. The demo cratic West soon adopted the idea and established high schools as cities developed and the needs of the population warranted their creation. The struggle to establish and maintain these schools which New York and Massachusetts had undergone was repeated in every new State east of the Mississippi river and north of the Ohio. One of the most important of these conflicts came in the City of Kalamazoo, Mich. This case finally reached the State supreme court of Michigan which, in 1872, handed down a deci sion which deeply influenced all subsequent development. It con firmed the high school as an integral part of the common school system, and affirmed that the voters might provide for the support of any kind of public instruction authorized by the laws of the State. This decision ranks with the Massachusetts law of 1827 as one of the important milestones in the creation of the American public high school.
6. The State University.—During the colonial period of Amer ican history nine colleges had been established : Harvard in 1636, William and Mary in 1693, Yale in 1701, Princeton in 1746, Pennsylvania academy and college in 1753-55, Kings (Columbia) in 1754, Brown in 1764, Rutgers in 1766 and Dartmouth in 1769. The religious purpose had been dominant in the founding of each institution, though there was a gradual shading off in denomina tional control and insistence upon religious conformity after about 1750. Fifteen additional colleges were founded before 1810, though the two dozen colleges then existing did not have all told over loo professors and instructors, and not over $1,000,000 worth of property. All were small. No one of the 24 admitted women in any way to its privileges. Fourteen more colleges were added before 1820, after which a great period of denominational effort in the founding of new colleges began, and during the next 4o years 196 new colleges were founded in the United States. Though the Federal Government, beginning with Ohio in 1803, had given land to each of the new States to help endow a semi nary of higher learning within the State, of the 246 colleges in existence by 186o but 17 were State institutions.
In 1816 the legislature of New Hampshire attempted to take over Dartmouth college and make of it a State university, but was stopped from so doing, in 1819, by a decision of the U.S. Supreme Court which held that the charter of a college was a contract the obligations of which a legislature could not impair. The effect of this decision was to give a new impetus to the States to extend their public school system upward and to crown it with a State-university. It was some time, however, before such insti tutions became either numerous or important. For long they re mained much like the denominational colleges about them— small, poorly supported, and afflicted with denominational and political controversies. Michigan was the first of the State uni versities to throw off the incubus of political and denominational control. Opened in 1841 at Ann Arbor, Mich., in 1852 it had a faculty of only six, 72 students and a single course of study, but by 186o it had enrolled 519 students and its remarkable develop ment as a State university had begun. During the next two or three decades most other State institutions followed its example. Large and important State universities are to be found in every State west of Pennsylvania and south of the Potomac, and a few elsewhere. In every State, too, some form of a State college or university now exists.
The financial returns from the land-grants were disappointing, but the educational returns have been very large. Probably no aid given by the national Government to the States has proved so fruitful as have these grants of land, and subsequently of money, for instruction in agriculture and the mechanic arts. New and vigorous colleges have been created (Cornell, Purdue, and the State universities of Ohio and Illinois are examples) ; small and feeble State universities have been awakened into new life (Ver mont and Wisconsin are examples) ; agriculture and engineering have been developed as new learned professions; and the States have been stimulated to make larger and rapidly increasing appro priations for their universities, until the State universities largely overshadow all but the best endowed of the old denominational colleges. The far-reaching educational importance of the Morrill Act is not likely to be overestimated.
The general results of these various observations by travellers and official Reports, extending over nearly a quarter of a century, and the work of the newer educational journals, particularly the work of Henry Barnard, were to give to American educators some knowledge of school organizations elsewhere. They especially gave strong support to the movement, already in progress, to organize the many local school systems into State school systems, subject ing them to State oversight and control ; they further stimulated the movement, already well begun, to grade and classify the schools in a more satisfactory manner; they helped to inaugurate a movement for the introduction of Pestalozzian methods to re place the wasteful individual and the mechanical Lancasterian plans which had for so long been in use ; and they gave material assistance to the few leaders in Massachusetts and New York who were urging the establishment by the State of professional training for teachers for the educational service.
The training of teachers had been begun in the .Lancasterian model schools, about 181o, but the first regular teacher-training school in America was established privately in 1823, at Concord, Vt., by the Rev. Samuel R. Hall, as an adjunct to his work as a minister. In 1827 New York State, at the instance of Gov. Clin ton, provided for teacher training in connection with a few of the academies of the State. The training offered in all these insti tutions was entirely academic, as there was in America at that time no body of professional knowledge to teach. Practice in the work was obtained by teaching during the winter in the rural schools. Hall, however, tried to tell his pupils how to organize and manage a school, and finally wrote out his ideas in a series of Lectures on Schoolkeeping (1829), a little volume that constituted the first professional book on teaching to appear in America in the English language. In 1835, a Dr. Julius, of Hamburg, visited America and described to the Massachusetts legislature the Prus sian system of elementary education and teacher training. A State-wide agitation for State training of teachers followed, cul minating in the opening of the first American State normal school at Lexington, Mass., in 1839, followed by another at Barre the same year, and a third at Bridgewater in 184o. New York State followed with a similar school in 1844, and Connecticut and Mich igan in 1849. By 186o 12 normal schools in nine States, and six private normal schools, had been organized for the training of teachers (see NORMAL SCHOOLS) .
About 186o, largely through Edward A. Sheldon, of Oswego, N.Y., the introduction of the new Pestalozzian procedures began. Within a few years visitors from near and far came to Oswego to see the work of Sheldon and his teachers. The "Oswego move ment," which he inaugurated, during the two decades following almost completely reshaped elementary instruction in the better schools of America. The normal school came into its own, and teacher training by Oswego methods was generally adopted by educationists. Between 185o and 188o new subjects of study were introduced in elementary education, the teaching of the older ones was revolutionized, and a new technique—a methodology f or instruction in each subject was worked out. Where before the ability to organize and discipline a school had constituted the chief art of instruction, now the ability to teach scientifically took its place as the prime professional requisite. A new conception of the child as a slowly developing personality, demanding subject matter and method suited to his stage of progress, also replaced the earlier conception of the school. With the addition of new ideas as to the teaching of history and literature, which came in with the Herbartian theories in the '8os, and manual training and home economics instruction, which began about the same time, the most important foreign contributions to the elementary school were made. The kindergarten (q.v.), which reached America in the '7os and became well established by the '9os, also should be mentioned among the material contributions from foreign sources.
By 190o the centre of gravity had been shifted from the sub ject matter of instruction to the child to be taught. The school, in consequence, had begun to change from a place where children prepare for life by learning certain traditional things to a place where children live life and are daily brought into contact with such industrial, social, community and real life experiences as will best prepare them for the harder problems of living which lie just ahead. These changes in character and purpose, largely due to the teachings of John Dewey, have become dominant purposes of the American elementary school of the loth century.
Another administrative reorganization, and one of great im portance to the future of public education in America, is the ex tension upward of the public school system to include the 13th and 14th years of school life—the freshman and sophomore years of the traditional college. A number of American cities have already added these years to their public school system by organizing what has come to be known as a junior college, thus making their pub lic school system a 6-3-3-2 school system. The final result of such a reorganization will be not only a kindergarten-6-3-3-2 school system, or possibly a kindergarten-6-4-4 plan of organiza tion, but also the dropping of the first two years of work from the traditional college and the transformation of the universities of America into what continental European universities have for long been—a group of professional schools beginning with the junior year.
Throughout all the reorganizations and expansions of public education one sees a determined effort to readjust the school to meet the changed conditions in national life—social, industrial, political, religious, economic, scientific. While the school systems which have been developed are State school systems, and in their internal organization and administration the States are supreme, many of the difficult social and educational problems America has come to face are national in scope and character and call for general and country-wide solution. To assist in such national solution many nation wide agencies have been set up, and there has been a strong and persistent movement for some national financial aid to the States, and for a secretary of education in the President's cabinet. (E. P. Cu.)