Each room is provided with a master and assistant, and is calculated to accommodate about 300 children. From the middle of April till the middle of October, the girls are permitted to attend these schools; half the day being spent in the reading, and half in the writing room, the boys changing in like manner to accommodate them. It being supposed that females would not attend during the inclement season, they are excluded from October to April, when the boys are divided between the two rooms, the highest and lowest classes being separated from the two intermediate ones. As writing and arithmetic only are taught at the writing schools, the masters are selected with special reference to their qualifications in these branches; but the law requires that the master of the grammar or reading school, shall have been "educated at some college or university, and be a citizen of the United States by birth or naturalization." Grammar Schools Writing Schools Latin Grammar, AGES SCHOOLS 17 English 16 High 15 School 14 13 12 11 10 9 8 7 Reading, or English (d) The Reading Schools. The reading schools are subdivided into four classes, of which the first is the highest. The two upper classes are under the care of the master, and the two lower under his assistant; but they are overlooked and frequently examined by the master. These are generally the most numerous, and attend to nothing but reading and spelling. The second class commit the grammar to memory, and the first apply it to practice; in some schools the second class are sufficiently advanced to do this. Geography is taught only to the highest class, but as the schools are not furnished with any apparatus, less is effected in this study than might be with more facilities. The most promising children are from time to time advanced, and finally reach the first class; from which there is annually made a selection of the best boys, who are transferred to the English Classical, or to the Latin Grammar School to perfect what they have already begun, and to pursue more advanced studies. FIG. 80. THE BOSTON (e) The Writing Schools. In the writing school the exercises are few and simple. The master and his assistant usually set the copies and make the pens at home, or at school out of school hours. In a few minutes after the school commences, the classes in arithmetic, which consist of about one third of the school, begin to write. The scholars bring out their writing books, and present their exercise for examination, and themselves for instruction two or three times before their exercise is completed. If the exercise be not satisfactory when finished, another is required, and so on till one is accepted. After the arithmeticians have done writing, which is generally about an hour from the opening of the school, their books are closed, and the residue of their time is devoted to arithmetic. While the two first classes are thus employed in writing, the teachers are engaged in examining their exercises, mending their pens, or hearing the boys, who do not cipher, repeat the tables and rules in arithmetic. For as soon as the upper classes begin to write, the lower classes are taken out to commit to memory such tables and rules in arithmetic as are proper to prepare them for that study. These take their turn at writing when the upper classes have done. Thus all have employment for the whole of school hours. Some use of the system of mutual instruction is also made in the writing schools. On the first Tuesday of each month it is customary for the scholars to take places according to merit. The first scholar has the privilege of choosing a seat for the month, and likewise of selecting two or more young scholars to sit near, whose studies he overlooks, and for whose improvement and good conduct in school he is responsible. The next scholar does the same, and so on, as far as they are qualified to teach others. When we consider how many children are under the care of each master, we are naturally led to fear that but little attention can be shown to each individually, and consequently little progress made; but the greater number of distinguished citizens, who have received no other education than our public schools afforded, is the best proof of their utility. The number of children varies in the different schools, but by the returns made to the Committee, in July, 1823, the average number of boys in each school exceeded two hundred, and the girls one hundred and seventy. The salary of the master is twelve hundred dollars, and that of the assistant six hundred; making the expense of tuition alone, about nine dollars a year for each child. For the continuation of this description, as it related to the secondary schools, see R. 327. 315. Report of the Working-Men's Committee of Philadelphia (Working-Man's Advocate, of New York, March 6, 1830. Copied from the Mechanics' Free Press, of Philadelphia) This committee, appointed by the working-men to consider the Pennsylvania situation, after nearly five months' investigation and deliberation, made a long report on the matter. After three evenings spent in considering the Report, it was adopted, February 11, 1830. This Report is typical of many similar documents of the period from 1828 to 1840. The reasoning of the latter part of the Report as to the need for free schools in a republic is thoroughly typical of the reasoning in many other similar documents of this period. Pertinent extracts from the Report hold: With the exception of this city and county, the city and incorporated borough of Lancaster, and the city of Pittsburg, erected into "school districts" since 1818, it appears that the entire state is destitute of any provisions for public instruction, except those furnished by the enactment of 1809. This law requires the assessors of the several counties to ascertain and return the number of children whose parents are unable, through poverty, to educate them; and such children are permitted to be instructed at the most convenient schools at the expense of their respective counties. The provisions of this act, however, are incomplete and frequently inoperative. They are, in some instances, but partially executed; in others, perverted and abused—and in many cases entirely and culpably neglected. The funds appropriated by the act, have, in some instances, been embezzled by fraudulent agents; and in others, partial returns of the children have been made, and some have been illegally and intentionally excluded from participating in the provisions of the law. From a parsimonious desire of saving the county funds, the cheapest, and consequently the most inefficient schools have been usually selected by the commissioners of the several counties. The elementary schools throughout the state are irresponsible institutions, established by individuals, from mere motives of private speculation or gain, who are sometimes destitute of character, and frequently, of the requisite attainments and abilities. From the circumstance of the schools being the absolute property of individuals, no supervision or effectual control can be exercised over them; hence, ignorance, inattention, and even immorality, prevail to a lamentable extent among their teachers. But the principles on which these "school districts" are founded, are yet, in the opinion of the committees, extremely defective and inefficient. Their leading feature is pauperism! They are confined, exclusively, to the children of the poor, while there are, perhaps, thousands of children whose parents are unable to afford for them, a good private education, yet whose standing, professions or connexions in society effectually exclude them from taking the benefit of a poor law. There are great numbers, even of the poorest parents, who hold a dependence on the public bounty to be incompatible with the rights and liberties of an American citizen, and whose deep and cherished consciousness of independence determines them rather to starve the intellect of their offspring, than submit to become the objects of public charity. Another radical and glaring defect in the existing public school system is the very limited amount of instruction it affords, even to the comparatively small number of youth, who enjoy its benefits. It ex tends, in no case, further than a tolerable proficiency in reading, writing, and arithmetic, and sometimes to a slight acquaintance with geography. Besides these, the girls are taught a few simple branches of industry. A great proportion of scholars, however, from the causes already enumerated, acquire but a very slight and partial knowledge of these branches. The original element of despotism is a monopoly of talent, which consigns the multitude to comparative ignorance, and secures the balance of knowledge on the side of the rich and the rulers. If then the healthy existence of a free government be, as the committee believe, rooted in the will of the American people, it follows as a necessary consequence, of a government based upon that will, that this monopoly should be broken up, and that the means of equal knowledge (the only security for equal liberty) should be rendered, by legal provision, the common property of all classes. In a republic, the people constitute the government, and by wielding its powers in accordance with the dictates, either of their intelligence or their ignorance, of their judgment or their caprices, are the makers and the rulers of their own good or evil destiny. They frame the laws and create the institutions, that promote their happiness or produce their destruction. If they be wise and intelligent, no laws but what are just and equal will receive their approbation, or be sustained by their suffrages. If they be ignorant and capricious, they will be deceived by mistaken or designing rulers, into the support of laws that are unequal and unjust. It appears, therefore, to the committees that there can be no real liberty without a wide diffusion of real intelligence; that the members of a republic should all be alike instructed in the nature and character of their equal rights and duties, as human beings, and as citizens; and that education, instead of being limited as in our public poor schools, to a simple acquaintance with words and cyphers, should tend, as far as possible, to the production of a just disposition, virtuous habits, and a rational self-governing character. CHAPTER XXVI THE AMERICAN BATTLE FOR FREE STATE SCHOOLS THE Readings of this chapter deal with the struggle that took place in the American States east of the Mississippi River and north of the Ohio and Potomac Rivers, between about 1820 and 1850, and which resulted there in the creation of state school systems. The strategical points in this American struggle were the battles for tax support, for the elimination of the pauper-school idea and of the rate-bill, the prohibition of support for sectarian schools, the establishment of the American high school, and the addition of the state university to crown the educational ladder created. The first Reading (316), from one of Horace Mann's famous Annual Reports, states well the necessary financial basis for school support. After schools had been established they frequently experienced many difficulties, and Readings 317 and 318 illustrate such. The two relate to the repeal of the Connecticut School Law and the abolition of the State Board of Education and its Secretary, after these had been provided for by the State. The next selection (319) also illustrates the kind of controversies frequently aroused by the free-school proposal, and shows how important it often was to allow the opposition to talk itself out, before progress could be made in establishing schools. Reading 320 is typical of many "Addresses" made to the people of the States urging legislative action, this one being an eloquent and convincing appeal for the abolition of the pauperschool idea in New Jersey. The following Reading (321) is a reproduction of a typical "rate-bill," with a warrant for its collection. The next three Readings are illustrative of the controversy over the elimination of sectarian instruction from the schools. The first (322) is a clear statement, by Horace Mann, of the fundamental principles involved in the question, he being one of the earliest schoolmen to have to meet the religious issue publicly. The two following (323, 324) are illustrative of the petitions and counterpetitions to legislatures for and against a division of the school |