THE PUBLIC SCHOOL REVIVAL.
Massachusetts established its State Board of Education in 1837 and Horace Mann, with whose name the public school revival is in separably associated, was made its first sec retary. As a result of his 12 years of service in that position and by means of his annual reports, his Common School Journal and his speaking tours throughout the State, he was able to secure reforms in the public school sys tem of Massachusetts which were little less than amazing in their extent and value. These included the establishment of normal schools for the proper training of teachers, the exten sion of the school year by a month, the gradual substitution of the public high school for the private academy, the doubling of appropriations for public education, the increase in pay for the teachers by more than 50 per cent and the adoption of new agencies for improving the efficiency of instruction such as teachers' insti tutes and school libraries. These admirable reforms were not secured without bitter opposi tion from conservative schoolmasters and sec tarian religious interests. But the movement spread to other States and under the leadership of Henry Barnard of Connecticut, David Page of New York, and a number of enthusiastic educators in t'he Middle West, by the close of Reconstruction it had resulted in all the States of the North organizing a public educational system providing free elementary and secondary education and in many States higher education also. In the South, the principle upon which the movement was based was adopted but its real ization was delayed by the deplorable condi tions resulting from the Civil War.
A National System of The period since Reconstruction has been one of edu cational expansion. In the newer western States sectarian jealousy and the conception of free public education as fit only for those who could not pay tuition fees never appeared and the first constitution of each of those States provided for a complete system of free education extend ing from the elementary school to and includ ing the university. Everywhere the principle of unification and centralization won out. This victory for centralized State control was due to a great many causes, but chief among them were the following: (1) The appropriation by the Federal government of millions of acres of land directly to the State for the support of elementary schools and of higher institutions for agricultural and technical education. (2) The distribution of State moneys by the State educational department to the local geographi cal areas, provided the latter would meet re quirements laid down by the former. (3) The unifying and standardizing influence of the State university into whose hands the control of secondary education has in some States been placed. (4) The growing faith of the American people in public education to solve the political, social and economic problems which confront them and hence the necessity that it should be centralized in order to be efficient.
In a Federal state like the United States, each State has exclusive control of its educa tional affairs and the question naturally arises whether there exists in the United States a national system of education. The Federal Constitution adopted in 1789 makes no mention of education, that being one.of the governmen tal activities reserved to the States. But the policy of the central government ever since its organization has been to assist the extension and development of education in every way pos sible. It has done this in two chief ways. (1) By means of gifts of land to the several States for educational purposes. This has amounted to 81,064,000 acres with an original value of $103, 000,000 for elementary schools alone and 14, 775,475 acres for higher education. In addition
to this munificent gift the National government by act of Congress in 1887 provided for a per petual appropriation of $15,000 a year for each agricultural experiment station connected with a State agricultural college and by the Act of 1890 appropriated $25,000 a year to each of the colleges themselves. (2) By means of the Bureau of Education established in 1867 by act of Congress largely through the efforts of Henry Barnard largely the purpose of collecting such statistics and facts as shall show the con dition and progress of education in the several States and Territories and of diffusing such in formation respecting the organization and management of school systems and methods of teaching as shall aid the people of the United States in the establishment and maintenance of efficient school systems and otherwise promote the cause of education throughout the country? Barnard became the first United States. Com missioner of Education and organized the Bureau upon the lines along which it has ever since been administered. The Bureau has no control over the educational policies of the States and must work entirely through the force of suggestion and exposition. But by means of its collection of statistics, its com parison of systems, domestic and foreign, its description and evaluation of experiments in edu cation, it has wielded an enormous influence in securing improvements simultaneously through out the country and unifying the State systems of education. It is relevant here to mention that the great confidence everywhere displayed in the work and recommendations of the Bureau is due to a great extent to the splendid personal and professional influence of Dr. Wil Liam T. Harris who was Commissioner from 1889 to 1906.
Another unifying influence upon education in the United States is the National Education Association (q.v.). The 25,000 members are en rolled in every State of the Union and repre sent all parts of the educational system, ele mentary, secondary, higher and professional. The meetings of the association which are held alternately in the East and the West provide an opportunity for exchange of opinion upon the results of educational experiments, for the put ting forth of new ideas upon organization, ad ministration, curricula and discipline and for decision as to the policies and principles which shall guide the teachers of the country in their efforts to promote the public welfare. One of the most efficient contributions of the asso ciation to educational progress consists in the reports made on particular problems by special committees which have studied them in the interim between annual meetings. The report of the Committee of Fifteen has become the basis of the course of study for elementary schools in every State of the Union and the report of the Committee of Ten similarly for high schools. It can be readily understood why as the result of the influence of a number of agencies, chief among which are the National Educational Association and the Bureau of Education, there exists in the United States a truly national system of education. In their general features and in many of their details the State systems of education show a remark able resemblance. A comparison of the cur riculum of a city school system in the East with one in the West or North or South would show almost an identity. Where differences exist it is usually due to the willingness of progressive communities to undertake experi ments which, if they turn out successful, will be rapidly imitated by other communities.