PUBLIC SCHOOLS. A term usually applied in the United States to the institutions main tained at public expense for the formal education of children. The idea of organizing schools where rich and poor might obtain efficient free instruc tion did not take firm root in the minds of the people of the several States until the early part of the nineteenth century, although even the earliest settlers of the colonies were not unmindful of their duty with respect to the education of the young. In 1647 a law was passed in Massachusetts requiring every town of fifty householders to maintain a master to teach reading and writing, and every town of one hundred householders to maintain a gram mar school, the wages of such master to be paid by parents whose children took advantage of the instruction. A somewhat similar law was passed in Connecticut in 1650. In most of the New England colonies education was considered a public responsibility. New York. on the eon trary, owing to the wrangling between the Dutch and English, was rather late in recognizing the necessity for a public school system: compara tively little attention, in fact, having been paid to the subject before the close of the llevolntion. The same is true of Pennsylvania, which de pended mostly on private benefactions for the establishment of schools. New Jersey, on the other hand, passed a law in 1693 looking to the establishment of schools. In the South there were no school systems previous to the Revolu tion. What was done in the way of education was chiefly the result of private enterprise. The four decades following the Revolution form the transitional period. Local autonomy gradually gave way to centralization and State supervision, this process varying, of course, with local condi tions. The Federal Government was from the very beginning doing much by means of land grants and other aid to encourage the several States in the establishment of school systems, setting aside in 1785 and 1787 one thirty-sixth of all the public land in the several States fur school purposes. In 1795, at the instance of Governor
Clinton, a law was enacted in New York pro viding for local school supervision, and in 1812 the office of State superintendent of common schools was created. Gideon Hawley holding it until 1821, when the offiee was unfortunately abolished and the Secretary of State was notni natty left to carry out the duties of superin tending schools. It was not until 1854 that the office was revived. In Massachusetts the Board of Education was organized in 1837, and the vari ous school organizations were united and corre lated, the moving spirit in this work being Horace Mann (q.v.). The other States followed the ex ample of New• York and Massachusetts. Con necticut and Rhode Island found a leader in Henry Barnard. In this successful movement for public schools no little credit is to be as signed to the efforts of the various educational associations. particularly the National Educa tional Association.
The three main types of public schools in the United States are: (1) the city ele mentary and high schools; (2i the town imion school, which includes a high school department; (3) the district school, so called from its usually being established in certain I rural districts, and offering elementary instruc tion. As a rule, little attention is paid in these district schools to grading. The general ten- , dency is growing now toward the establishment of public institutions for dependent children„ truants, and incorrigibles, where, in connection with industrial training, the elementary branches are taught. In 1900 the attendanee of the ele mentary schools eras about 15,900,000, about 1,300,000 attend ing private schools. The term public schools is anomalously used in England , to denote the several famous preparatory schools, as Eton, Harrow. and Rugby. For details of the various systems of public instruction in the I United States and the principal European coun tries, see the articles on Scuom,s; COMMON SCHOOLS; GRAMMAR SCHOOLS; EVENING SCHOOLS EDUCATION: NATIONAL EDUCATION, SYSTEMS OF.