[10] This was compiled by the Westminster Assembly of Divines, called together by Parliament, in 1643, composed of 121 clergymen, 30 of the laity, and 5 special commissioners from Scotland. It held 1163 sessions, extending over six years, and framed the series of 107 questions and answers which appeared in the Primer as "The Shorter Catechism."
[11] So great was the sale of this book that the author was able to support his family during the twenty years (1807-27) he was at work on hisDictionary of the English Language, entirely from the royalties from theSpellerthough the copyright returns were less than one cent a copy. At the time of his death (1843), the sales were still approximately a million copies a year, and the book is still on sale.
[12] In Nuremberg, as an example of German practice, the guild of writing and arithmetic masters continued, throughout all of the eighteenth century, and even into the nineteenth, as an organization separate from that of other types of teachers.
[13] Francke, in his Institutions at Halle (p. 418), had tried to develop a number-concept, and apply the teaching. In the Braunschweig-Lüneburg school decree of 1737 appeared directions for beginning number work by counting the fingers, apples, etc., and basing the multiplication table on addition. A few German writers during the eighteenth century suggested better instruction, Basedow (chapter XXII) tried to institute reform in the teaching of the subject, but it was left for Pestalozzi (chapter XXI) to give the first real impetus to the rational teaching of the subject.
[14] Such offices were not considered in any sense as degrading, and the attaching of the new duty of instructing the young of the parish in reading and religion dignified still more the other church office. As schools grew in importance there was a gradual shifting of emphasis, and finally a dropping of the earlier duties. Many early school contracts in America (Rs. 105; 236) called for such church duties on the part of the parish teacher. See also footnote, p. 370.
[15] In 1722 country schoolmasters in Prussia were ordered selected from tailors, weavers, blacksmiths, wheelwrights, and carpenters, and in 1738 they were granted the tailoring monopoly in their villages, to help them to live. Later Frederick the Great ordered that his crippled and superannuated soldiers should be given teaching positions in the elementary vernacular schools of Prussia.
[16] The "Society for the Promotion of Christian Knowledge," organized in 1609 to aid the Church and provide schools at home, and the "Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts," organized in 1702 to supply ministers and teachers for churches and schools in the English colonies.
[17] In 1704 the ordinary charge in London for a "School of 50 Boys Cloathed comes to about £75 per Annum, for which a School-Room, Books, and Firing are provided, a Master paid, and to each Boy is given yearly, 3 Bands, 1 Cap, 1 Coat, 1 Pair of Stockings, and one Pair of Shooes." A girls' school of the same size cost £60 per annum, which paid for the room, books, mistress, fixing and providing each girl with "2 Coyfs, 2 Bands, 1 Gown and Petticoat, 1 Pair of knit Gloves, 1 Pair of Stockings, and 2 Pair of Shooes."
[18] McCarthy, Justin H.,Ireland since the Union, p. 13.
[19] Frederick the Great, in the General School Regulations issued in 1763 (R. 274, § 15), strictly prohibited the keeping of "hedge schools" in the towns and rural districts of Prussia.
[20] Bunyan'sPilgrim's Progress(1678,) Defoe'sRobinson Crusoe(1719), andGulliver's Travels(1726), The publication of these tremendously stimulated the desire to read.
[21] Strype, John,Stowe's Survey of London, 1720; bk. 1, pp. 199, 201- 02.
[22] Paulsen, Friedrich,German Education, p. 141.
[23] Barnard, Henry. Translated from Karl von Raumer; in hisAmerican Journal of Education, vol. v., p. 509.
[24] Salmon, David, "The Education of the Poor in the Eighteenth Century"; inEducational Record, London, 1908.
[25] "If you would comprehend the success of Rousseau'sÉmile, call to mind the children we have described, the embroidered, gilded, dressed-up, powdered little gentlemen, decked with sword and sash,… alongside of these, little ladies of six years, still more artificial,—so many veritable dolls to which rouge is applied, and with which a mother amuses herself for an hour and then consigns them to her maids for the rest of the day. This mother readsÉmile. It is not surprising that she immediately strips the poor little thing (of its social harness of whalebone, iron, and hair) and determines to nurse her next child herself." (Taine, H. A.,The Ancient Régime, vol. II, p. 273.)
[26] Montmorency, J. E. G. de.,The Progress of Education in England, pp. 46, 50.
[27] A change now took place in the intellectual life of Germany: "The nation began to make itself independent of French influence. In literature Klopstock and Lessing broke the fetters of French classicism. An ardent desire for a deeper culture peculiar to the German people asserted itself. But the soil of the national life was too poor in genus for a purely German culture, hence scholars looked for new models and found them in classical antiquity. The ancient authors became again the masters of culture and taste; with this difference, though, that it was not desired to learn how to express their thoughts as well as the learner's thoughts in Latin, but to become familiar with their manner of thinking and feeling, for the purpose of enlarging and ennobling German thought and speech. From this standpoint Greek, on account of its more valuable literature, assumed a higher importance, and, by degrees, a superiority over Latin." (Nohle, E.,History of the German School System, pp. 48- 49.)
[28] "If any one be destined for a studious career, let him not shirk his Greek lessons, inasmuch as he would thereby suffer irretrievable loss…. He who reads the classic writers, studying mathematical reasoning at the same time, trains his mind to distinguish what is true or false, beautiful or unsightly, fills his memory with manifold fine thoughts, attains skill in grasping the ideas of others as well as in fluently expressing his own, acquires a number of excellent maxims for the improvement of the understanding and the will, and thus learns by practice nearly all that a good compendium of philosophy could teach him in systematic order and dogmatic form." (School Regulations for Braunschweig-Lüneburg, of 1737.)
[29] "Be assured that if you forget your Greek, yes, even your Latin too, you still have the advantage of having given your mind a training and discipline that will go with you into your future occupation." (Friedrich Gedike, 1755-1803.)
[1] "The Period of the Enlightenment" had two main aims: (1) the perfection of the individual, which gave a new emphasis to education, and (2) the mastery of man over his environment, which expressed itself through the new scientific studies. In German lands elementary education, a regenerated classical education, and theRealschulewere the fruits of this period.
[2] Frederick used to say that his subjects might think as they pleased so long as they behaved as he ordered.
[3] Though Prussia was primarily Lutheran, Catholics, Mennonites, Jews, and Huguenots early found a home in the kingdom. Frederick used to say that "all religions must be tolerated, for in this country every man must go to heaven in his own way."
[4] After the revocation of the Edict of Nantes (p. 301; 1685), over 20,000 French Huguenots—merchants, manufacturers, skilled workmen—found an asylum in Prussia alone. Settling in the Rhine countries, they contributed much to the future development of this region.
[5] "For the first time since Luther, the German people could call a great hero their own, whether they were the subjects of Frederick or not. Joyous pride in this prince, whose achievements in times of peace were no less than those in time of war, brought national consciousness to life again and this national feeling found expression in literature. It was the restoration of confidence in themselves that gave the Germans the courage to break with French rules and French models, and to seek independently after ideals of beauty. And this self-confidence they owed to Frederick the Great." (Priest, G. M.,History of German Literature, p. 116.)
[6] Though Joseph II claimed to be a good Catholic, he felt that monasticism had outlived its usefulness as an institution, and that its continuance was inimical to the interests of organized society and the State. This view has since been taken by the rulers of every progressive modern nation.
[7] The Cortes, or National Parliament, met but three times during the century, and when it did meet possessed but few powers and exercised but little influence.
[8] The first Russian university was established at Kiev, in 1588; the second at Dorpat, in 1632; the third at Moscow, in 1755; and the fourth at Kasan, in 1804. The University of Petrograd dates from 1819.
[9] The great difference between a church and true religion must always be kept in mind. Religion is a thing of the spirit, and its principle represents the loftiest thoughts of the race; a church is a human governing institution, and clearly subject to its own ambitions and the human frailties of its age.
[10] That is, 25,000 to 30,000 families. There were also, in even numbers, 83,000 monks in 2500 monasteries (one for every ninety square miles in France), 37,000 nuns in 1500 convents, and 60,000 priests. Of the soil of France, the King and towns owned one fifth, the clergy and the monks one fifth, the nobility one fifth, the bourgeoisie one fifth, and the peasantry one fifth.
[11] In 1788 the 131 bishops and archbishops of France had an average income of 100,000 francs, and 33 abbots and 27 abbesses had incomes ranging from 80,000 to 500,000 francs. The Cardinal de Rohan, Archbishop of Strasbourg, had an income of more than 1,000,000 francs, and the 300 Benedictine monks at Cluny had an income of more than 1,800,000 francs.
[12] "The real importance ofEsprit des loisis not that of a formal treatise on law, or even on polity. It is that of an assemblage of the most fertile, original, and inspiriting views on legal and political subjects, put in language of singular suggestiveness and vigour, illustrated by examples which are always apt and luminous, permeated by the spirit of temperate and tolerant desire for human improvement and happiness, and almost unique in its entire freedom at once from doctrinairism, visionary enthusiasm, egotism, and an undue spirit of system. The genius of the author for generalization is so great, his instinct in political science so sure, that even the falsity of his premises frequently fails to vitiate his conclusions." (Saintsbury, George, inEncyclopedia Britannica, vol. XVIII, p. 777.)
[13] "By the captivating prospects which he held out of future progress, and by the picture which he drew of the capacity of society to improve itself, Turgot increased the impatience which his countrymen were beginning to feel against the despotic government, in whose presence amelioration seemed to be hopeless. These, and similar speculations of the time, stimulated the activity of the intellectual classes, cheered them under the persecutions to which they were exposed, and emboldened them to attack the institutions of their native land." (Buckle, H. T.,History of Civilisation in England, vol. I, p. 597.)
[14] Duruy, V.,History of France, p. 523.
[15]Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th ed., vol. viii, p. 204.
[16] "The real king of the eighteenth century was Voltaire; but Voltaire, in his turn, was a pupil of the English. Before Voltaire became acquainted with England, through his travels and his friendships, he was not Voltaire, and the eighteenth century was still undeveloped." (Cousin,History of Philosophy.)
[17] "The first Frenchmen who in the eighteenth century turned their attention to England were amazed at the boldness with which, in that country, political and religious questions of the deepest moment were discussed—questions which no Frenchman in the preceding age had dared to broach. With wonder they discovered in England a comparative freedom of the public press, and saw with astonishment how in Parliament itself the government of the Crown was attacked with impunity, and the management of its revenues actually kept under control. To see the civilization and prosperity of England increasing, while the power of the upper classes and the King diminished, was to them a revelation…. England, said Helvetius, is a country where the people are respected, a country where each citizen has a part in the management of affairs, where men of genius are allowed to enlighten the public upon its true interests." (Dabney, R. H.,Causes of the French Revolution, p. 141.)
[18] Tennyson, in his "You ask me why," well describes the growth of constitutional liberty in England when he says that England is:
"A land of settled government,A land of just and old renown,Where freedom broadens slowly down,From precedent to precedent."
[19] James I, in 1604, had declared: "As it is atheism to dispute what God can do, so it is presumption and a high contempt in a subject to dispute what a king can do." For this attitude the Commons continually contested his authority, his son lost his crown and his head, and his grandson was driven from the throne and from England. By contrast, and as showing the different attitude toward self-government of the two peoples, the German Emperor William II, three centuries later, so continually boasted of his rule by divine right that "Me and God" became an international joke, and to his assumption the German people took little or no exception.
[20] The passage of the Bill of Rights (1689) ended the divine-right-of- kings idea in England for all time. This prohibited the King from keeping a standing army in times of peace, gave every subject the right to petition for a redress of grievances, gave Parliament the right of free debate, prohibited the King from interfering in any way with the proper execution of the laws, declared that members ought to be elected to Parliament without interference, and gave the Commons control of all forms of taxation.
[21] Though the English first developed regulated or constitutional government, they themselves have no single written constitution. Instead, the foundations of English constitutional government rest onMagna Charta(1215), the Petition of Rights (1628), and the Bill of Rights (1689), these three constituting "the Bible of English Liberty."
[22] At first used as a term of ridicule, from the very methodical manner in which the Wesleyans organized their campaigns.
[23] "If we except the great Puritan movement of the seventeenth century, no such appeal had been heard since the days when Augustine and his band of monks landed in Kent and set forth on their mission among the barbarous Saxons. The results answered fully to the zeal that awakened them. Better than the growing prosperity of extending commerce, better than all the conquests of the East or the West, was the new religious spirit which stirred the people of both England and America, and provoked the National Church to emulation in good works—which planted schools, checked intemperance, and brought into vigorous activity all that was best and bravest in a race that when true to itself is excelled by none." (Montgomery, D. H.,English History, p. 322.)
[24] The contrast between eighteenth-century England and France, in the matter of religious liberty, is interesting. In France the Church took care, during the whole of the eighteenth century, that the persecution process should go on. "In 1717 an assembly of seventy-four Protestants having been surprised at Andure, the men were sent to the galleys and the women to prison. An edict of 1724 declared that all who took part in a Protestant meeting, or who had any direct or indirect communication with a Protestant preacher, should have their heads shaved and be imprisoned for life, and the men condemned to perpetual servitude in the galleys. In 1745 and 1746, in the province of Dauphine, 277 Protestants were condemned to the galleys and a number of women flogged. From 1744 to 1752 six hundred Protestants in the east and south of France were condemned to various punishments. In 1774 the children of a Calvinist of Rennes were taken from him. Up to the very eve of the Revolution Protestant ministers were hanged in Languedoc, and dragoons were sent against their congregations." (Dabney, R. H.,Causes of the French Revolution, p. 42.)
[25] Back as early as 1695 the Commons had refused to renew the press- licensing act, enacted in 1637, to control heresy. This had confined printing to London, Oxford, and Cambridge, and to twenty master printers and four letter founders for the realm. This refusal marks the beginning of the freedom of the press in England. In 1709 the copyright law was enacted, and in 1776 the redress against publishers of libelous articles was confined to the ordinary courts of law. A century ahead of France, and more than two centuries ahead of Teutonic and Romanic lands, England provided for a free press and open discussion.
[26] George III, always consistently wrong, opposed this extension of popular rights. In 1771 he wrote the Prime Minister, Lord North: "It is highly necessary that this strange and lawless method of publishing debates in the papers should be put a stop to. But is not the House of Lords the best court to bring such miscreants before; as it can fine, as well as imprison, and has broader shoulders to support the odium of so salutary a measure."
[27] "It is evident that a nation perfectly ignorant of physical laws will refer to supernatural causes all the phenomena by which it is surrounded. But as soon as natural science begins to do its work there are introduced the elements of a great change. Each successive discovery, by ascertaining the law that governs events, deprives them of that apparent mystery in which they were formerly involved. The love of the marvelous becomes proportionally diminished; and when any science has made such progress as to enable it to fortell the events with which it deals, it is clear that the whole of those events are at once withdrawn from the jurisdiction of the supernatural, and brought under the authority of natural power? Hence it is that, supposing other things equal, the superstition of a nation must always bear an exact proportion to the extent of its physical knowledge." (Buckle, H. T.,History of Civilization in England, vol. 1, p. 269.)
[28] The Charter of this Society stated the purpose to be to increase knowledge by direct experiment, and that the object of the Society was the extension of natural knowledge, as opposed to that which is supernatural. As an institution embodying the idea of intellectual progress it was most bitterly assailed by partisans of the old flunking.
[29] Birmingham, Sheffield, Leeds, and Manchester, for example, great manufacturing cities early in the nineteenth century, were insignificant villages in Cromwell's day. The steam engine made the coal and iron deposits of northern England of immense value, and the "smoky mill towns" that arose in the north began to displace southern agricultural England in population, wealth, and importance.
[30] For example, in 1774 John Howard began his great work in prison reform; in 1772 pressing to death was abolished; in 1780 the ducking-stool was used for the last time; and soon thereafter the earlier laws relating to the death penalty were modified, and the slave trade abolished. Up to the middle of the eighteenth century as many as one hundred and sixty offenses were punishable by death.
[31] The Declaration of Independence was written by Thomas Jefferson, a great admirer of French life and a propagandist for French ideas.
[32] Compare the American preamble with the following sentence from theSocial Contract(Book I, chap, ix) of Rousseau:
"I shall close this chapter and this book with a remark which ought to serve as a basis for the whole social system; it is that instead of destroying natural equality, the fundamental pact, on the contrary, substitutes a moral and lawful equality for the physical inequality which nature imposed upon men, so that, although unequal in strength or intellect, they all become equal by convention and legal right."
[33] "I read attentively thecahiersdrawn up by the three Orders before their union in 1789. I see that here the change of a law is demanded, and there of a custom—and I make note of them. I continue thus to the end of this immense task, and, when I come to put side by side all these particular demands, I see, with a sort of terror, that what is called for is the simultaneous and systematic abolition of all the laws and of all the customs existing in the country; whereupon I instantly perceive the approach of the vastest and most dangerous revolutions that have taken place in the world." (De Tocqueville, A. C.,State of Society in France before the Revolution of 1789, p. 219.)
[34] For example, the clergy of Rodez and Saumur demanded "that there may be formed a plan of national education for the young"; the clergy of Lyons that education be restricted "to a teaching body whose members may not be removable except for negligence, misconduct, or incapacity; that it may no longer be conducted according to arbitrary principles, and that all public instructors be obliged to conform to a uniform plan adopted by the States- General"; the clergy of Blois that a system of colleges under church control be formed (R. 252); the nobility of Lyons that "a national character be impressed on the education of both sexes"; the nobility of Paris that "public education be perfected and extended to all classes of citizens"; the nobility of Blois that "better facilities for the education of children, and elementary textbooks adapted to their capacity, wherein the rights of man and the social duties shall be clearly set forth" shall be provided, and to this end that "there be established a council composed of the most enlightened scholars of the capital and of the provinces and of the citizens of the different orders, to formulate a plan of national education, for the benefit of all classes of society, and to edit elementary textbooks." The Third Estate of Blois demanded the establishment of free schools in all the rural parishes.
[35] See footnote 1, page 165. One of the great results of the French Revolution was the abolition of serfdom in central and western Europe. The last European nation to emancipate its serfs was Russia, where they were freed in 1861.
[36] "Great was the difference between France at the end of 1791 and at the end of 1793. At the former date all looked hopeful for the future; the king was the father of his people; the Constitution of 1791 was to regenerate France, and set an example to Europe; all old institutions had been renovated; everything was new, and popular on account of its novelty…. By the end of 1793 all looked threatening for the future; for the purpose of repelling her foreign foes, who included nearly the whole of Europe, France submitted to be ground down by the most despotic and arbitrary government ever known in modern history,—the Great Committee of Public Safety; the Reign of Terror was in full exercise, and it was doubtful whether the energy, audacity, and concentrated vigour of the Great Committee would enable France to be victorious over Europe, and thus secure for her the right of deciding on the character of their own government. She was to be successful, but at what a cost!" (Stephens, H. M.,The French Revolution, vol. II, p. 512.)
[37] TheCode Napoléon, prepared in 1804, was the first modern code of civil laws, though Frederick the Great had earlier prepared a partial code of Prussian laws. What theJustinian Codewas to ancient Rome, this, organized into better form, was to modern France. ThisCode, prepared under Napoleon's direction, substituted one uniform code of laws worthy of a modern nation for the thousands of local laws which formerly prevailed in France.
[1] The complaints were largely along such lines as that the instruction was confined to a few Latin authors; that instruction in the French language was neglected; that instruction in the history and geography of France should be introduced; that time was wasted "in copying and learning notebooks filled with vain distinctions and frivolous questions"; that training in the use of the French language should be substituted for the disputations in Latin; that in religion the study of the Bible was neglected for books of devotion and propaganda compiled by the members of the Order; that moral casuistry and religious bigotry were taught; and that the discipline was unnecessarily severe and wrong in character.
[2] In 1759 the Jesuits were expelled from Portugal, in 1767 from Spain, and in 1773 the Pope at Rome, "recognizing that the members of this Society have not a little troubled the Christian commonwealth, and that for the welfare of Christendom it were better that the Order should disappear," abolished the Society entirely. Forty years later it was reconstituted in a modernized form.
[3] Little boys wore their hair long and powdered, carried a sword, and had coats with gilded cuffs, while little girls were dressed in imitation of the lady of fashion. Proper deportment was an important part of a child's training.
[4] The iconoclastic nature of Rousseau's volume may be inferred from its opening sentence, in which he says: "Everything is good as it comes from the hand of the author of nature; everything degenerated in the hand of man." In another place he breaks out: "Man is born, lives, and dies in a state of slavery. At his birth he is stitched into swaddling clothes, at his death he is nailed in his coffin; and as long as he preserves the human form he is held captive by our institutions."
[5] "I do not presume to exclude ecclesiastics, but I protest against the exclusion of laymen. I dare claim for the nation an education which depends only on the State, because it belongs essentially to the State; because every State has an inalienable and indefeasible right to instruct its members; because, finally, the children of the State ought to be educated by the members of the State." (La Chalotais.)
[6] "Education cannot be too widely diffused, to the end that there may be no class of citizens who may not be brought to participate in its benefits. It is expedient that each citizen receive the education which is adapted to his needs." (Rolland.)
[7] Condorcet had not been a member of the Constituent Assembly, but for some years had been deeply interested in the idea of public education, and had published five articles on the subject. His Report was a sort of embodiment, in legal form, of his previous thinking on the question.
[8] All the educational aims of the past were now relegated to a second place, and man became a political animal, "brought into the world to know, to love, and to obey the Constitution." TheDeclaration of the Rights of Manbecame the new Catechism of childhood.
[9] This was created on a grand and visionary scale. Its purpose was to supply professors for the higher institutions. It opened with a large attendance, and lectures on mathematics, science, politics, and languages were given by the most eminent scholars of the time. A normal school, though, it hardly was, and in 1795 it closed—a virtual failure. In 1808 Napoleon re-created it, on a less pretentious and a more useful scale, and since then it has continued and rendered useful service as a training- school for teachers for the higher secondary schools of France.
[10] A total of 105 of these Central Schools were to be established, five in Paris, and one in each of the one hundred chief towns in the departments. By 1796 there were 40, by 1797 there were 52, by 1798 there were 59, by 1799 there were 86, and by 1800 there were 91 such schools in existence. This, times considered, was a remarkable development.
[11] "The commercial depression of 1740 fell upon a generation of New Englanders whose minds no longer dwelt preeminently upon religious matters, but who were, on the contrary, preeminently commercial in their interests." (Green, M, L.,Development of Religious Liberty in Connecticut, p, 226.)
[12] Prominent in the Indiana constitutional convention of 1816 were a number of Frenchmen of bearing and ability, then residing in the old territorial capital—Vincennes. How much they influenced the statement of the article on education is not known, but it reads as though French revolutionary ideas had been influential in shaping it.
[13] For the original Bill of 1779 in full, in the original spelling, see theBiennial Report of the Superintendent of Public Instruction for Virginia, 1900-01, pp. lxx-lxxv.
[14] Though Jefferson had been Governor of Virginia during the Revolutionary War; had repeatedly served in the Virginia legislature and in Congress; and had twice been President of the United States, he counted all these as of less importance than the three services mentioned, and in preparing the inscription to be placed on his tomb he included only these three.
[1] "As a man who sought after glory, and whose gloomy temper took umbrage at everything, Rousseau complained that hisÉmiledid not obtain the same success as his other writings. He was truly hard to please! The anger of some, the ardent sympathy of others; on the one hand, the parliamentary decrees condemning the book and issuing a warrant for the author's arrest, the thunders of the Church, and the famous mandate of the Archbishop of Paris; on the other hand, the applause of the philosophers, of Clairant, Duclos, and d'Alembert,—what more, then, did he want?Émilewas burned in Paris and Geneva, but it was read with passion; it was twice translated in London, an honor which no French work had received up to then. In truth never did a book make more noise and thrust itself so much on the attention of men. By its defects, no less than by its qualities, by the inspired and prophetic character of its style, as well as by the paradoxical audacity of its ideas,Émileswayed opinion and stirred up the more generous parts of the human soul." (Compayré, G.,Jean-Jacques Rousseau, p. 100.)
[2] Paulsen, Fr.,German Education, Past and Present, p. 157.
[3] Within three years Basedow had collected seven thousandReichsthaler, subscriptions coming to him from such widely scattered sources as Joseph II of Austria, Empress Catherine of Russia, King Christian VII of Denmark, "the wealthy class in Basle," the Abbot of the monastery of Einsiedel in Switzerland, "the royal government of Osnabruck," the Grand Prince Paul, and others. Jews and Freemasons seem to have taken particular interest in his ideas. Freemason lodges in Hamburg, Leipzig, and Göttingen were among the generous contributors.
[4] See Barnard'sAmerican Journal of Education, vol. v, pp. 487-520, for an account of the examinations and the institution.
[5] "The pedagogical character of theRealschool was established by Basedow and his followers. Originally the plan was to provide for the middle classes what would be called nowadays manual training schools, in which the scientific principles underlying the various trades and business vocations should have a prominent place. These schools were to be one step removed from the trade schools for the lower classes. But under the influence of the Philanthropinists theRealschool was transformed into a modern humanistic school, and placed in competition with the humanisticGymnasium." (Russell, J. E.,German Higher Schools, pp. 65-66.)
[6] His two most important followers were Joachim Heinrich Campe (1746- 1818), who succeeded Basedow at Dessau and later founded a Philanthropinum at Hamburg, and Christian Gotthilf Salzmann (1744-1811), who founded a school at Schnepfenthal, in Saxe-Gotha. Both these men had for a time been teachers with Basedow at Dessau. Campe translated Locke'sThoughtsand Rousseau'sÉmileinto German, wrote a number of books for children (chief among which was the famousRobinson der Jünger), and also prepared a number of treatises for teachers. Salzmann's school, opened in 1784 in the Thuringen forest, made much of gardening, agricultural work, animal study, home geography, nature study, gymnastics, and recreation, as well as book study. It was distinctively a small but high-grade experimental school, so successful that in 1884 it celebrated its one hundredth anniversary. A pupil in the school was Carl Ritter, the founder of modern geographical study.
[7] "The picture shown inLeonard and Gertrudeis very crude. Everywhere is visible the rough hand of the painter, a strong, untiring hand, painting an eternal image, of which this in paper and print is the merest sketch…. Read it and see how puerile it is, how too obvious are its moralities. Read it a second time, and note how earnest it is, how exact and accurate are its peasant scenes. Read it yet again, and recognize in it the outpouring of a rare soul, working, pleading, ready to be despised, for fellow souls." (J. P. Monroe,The Educational Ideal, p. 182.)
[8] "When I now look back and ask myself: What have I specially done for the very being of education, I find I have fixed the highest supreme principle of instruction in the recognition ofsense impression as the absolute foundation of all knowledge. Apart from all special teaching I have sought to discover thenature of teaching itself, and the prototype, by which nature herself has determined the instruction of our race." (Pestalozzi,How Gertrude teaches her Children, X, Section 1.)
[9] "What he did was to emphasize the new purpose in education, but vaguely perceived, where held at all, by others; to make clear the new meaning of education which existed in rather a nebulous state in the public mind; to formulate an entirely new method, based on new principles, both of which were to receive a further development in subsequent times, and to pass under his name; and finally, to give an entirely new spirit to the schoolroom." (Monroe, Paul,Text Book in the History of Education, p. 600.)
[10] In 1809 the German, Carl Ritter, a former pupil of Salzmann (see footnote 2, p. 538) and the creator of modern geographical study, visited Pestalozzi at Yverdon. Of this visit he writes:
"I have seen more than the paradise of Switzerland, I have seen Pestalozzi, I have learned to know his heart and his genius. Never have I felt so impressed with the sanctity of my vocation as when I was with this noble son of Switzerland. I cannot recall without emotion this society of strong men, struggling with the present, with the aim of clearing the way for a better future, men whose only joy and reward is the hope of raising the child to the dignity of man.
"I left Yverdon resolved to fulfill my promise made to Pestalozzi to carry his method into geography…. Pestalozzi did not know as much geography as a child in our Primary Schools, but, none the less, have I learned that science from him, for it was in listening to him that I felt awaken within me the instinct of the natural methods; he showed me the way." (Guimps, Baron de,Pestalozzi, his Aim and Work, p. 167.)
[11] The young German student of geology and mineralogy, Karl George von Raumer (1783-1865), was in Paris, in 1808. While there he read Pestalozzi'sHow Gertrude teaches her Children, and what Fichte had said of his work in hisAddresses to the German Nation(see chapter xxii). These sent him to Yverdon to see for himself. He remained two years, and returned to Germany as a teacher. In 1846 he published his four-volumeGeschichte der Pädagogik, the first important history of education to be written.
[12] In 1814 King Frederick William III himself visited Pestalozzi, at Neufchatel. His queen, Louise, was deeply touched by reading theÉmile, and frequently spent hours in the Prussian schools witnessing work conducted after the ideas of Pestalozzi.
[1] One of the first acts of the reign of Frederick the Great was to recall Wolff from banishment. In doing so he said: "A man that seeks truth, and loves it, must be reckoned precious in any human society."
[2] "It was a bold declaration, but one which exactly described the great change which had taken place. The older university instruction was everywhere based upon the assumption that the truth had already been given, that instruction had to do with its transmission only, and that it was the duty of the controlling authorities to see to it that no false doctrines were taught. The new university instruction began with the assumption that the truth must be discovered, and that it was the duty of instruction to qualify and guide the student in this task. By assuming this attitude the university was the first to accept the consequences of the conditions which the Reformation had created." (Paulsen, Fr.,The German Universities, p. 46.)
[3] "He who reads the works of the ancients will enjoy the acquaintance of the greatest men and the noblest souls who ever lived, and will get in this way, as it happens in all refined conversation, beautiful thoughts and expressive words.
"We thus receive, in early childhood, doctrines and philosophy and wisdom of life from the wisest and best educated men of all ages; we thus learn to recognize and understand clearness, dignity, charm, ingenuity, delicacy, and elegance in language and action, and gradually accustom ourselves to them." (Gesner, Johann Matthias.)
[4] The sacristan or custodian of the church was frequently also the teacher of the elementary school, the two offices being combined in one person. Out of this combination the elementary teacher was later evolved. (See p. 446.)
[5] "When the schoolmaster had to pass an examination before the clergyman of the place by order of the inspector, the local authorities, owing to the lamentable life of a schoolmaster, were glad to find persons at all who were willing to accept an engagement for such a position. In consequence an otherwise intolerable indulgence in examining and employing teachers took place, especially in districts where large landholders had patriarchal sway." (Schmid, K. A.,Encydopädie, vol. VI, p. 287.)
[6] Austria at that time included not only the Austro-Hungarian Empire of 1914, but extended further into the German Empire and Italy, and included Belgium and Luxemburg as well.
[7] Bassewitz, M. Fr. von,Die Kurmark Brandenburg, p. 342. (Leipzig, 1847.)
[8] These lectures were listened to by Napoleon's police and passed to print by his censor, not being regarded as containing anything seditious or dangerous.
[9] "He set all his hopes for Germany on a new national system of education. One German State was to lead the way in establishing it, making use of the same right of coercion to which it resorted in compelling its subjects to serve in the army, and for the exercise of which certainly no better justification could be found than the common good aimed at in national education." (Paulsen, Fr.,German Education, Past and Present, p. 240.)
[10] "Never have the souls of men been so deeply stirred by the idea of raising the whole existence of mankind to a higher level. Something like the enthusiasm which had taken hold of the minds at the outbreak of the French Revolution was again at work, the only difference being that the strong current of national feeling directed it toward an aim which, if more limited, was, for that very reason, more practicable and more defined." (Paulsen, Fr.,German Education, Past and Present, p. 183.)
[11] As a result of the overthrow of Napoleon, the Congress of Vienna restored to Prussia and France substantially the boundaries they had at the opening of the Napoleonic Wars. Still more important for the future was the consolidation of some four hundred States and petty German kingdoms into thirty-eight States.
[12] Friedrich Adolph Wilhelm Diesterweg became a pupil in one of the earliest normal schools in Prussia, that at Frankfort; then a teacher; and in 1820 became a director of a Teachers' Seminary at Moers. From 1833 to 1849 he was head of the normal school at Berlin. He has often been called "der deutsche Pestalozzi."
[13] Made in a letter to Baron von Altenstein, Prussian Minister for Education.
[14] "Herbart's seminar at the university of Königsberg was officially recognized, in 1810; Gedike's seminar in Berlin was formally taken over by the university, in 1812; the seminar in Stettin, founded in 1804, was reorganized in 1816; Breslau began pedagogical work, in 1813; and in 1817 it was stated that the purpose of the reorganized seminar in Halle was 'the training of skilled teachers for theGymnasien.'" (Russell, James E.,German Higher Schools, p. 97.)
[15] Gesner at Göttingen and Wolff at Halle laid down the lines for these in the middle eighteenth century. The early nineteenth-century foundations were at Königsberg, 1810; Berlin, 1812; Breslau, 1812; Bonn, 1819; Griefswald, 1820; and Münster, 1825.
[16] All prospective gymnasial teachers, whether graduates of the universities or not, were now required to take examinations in philosophy, pedagogy, theology, and the main gymnasial subjects, showing marked proficiency in one of the following groups, and a reasonable knowledge of the other two: namely, (1) Greek, Latin, German; (2) Mathematics and the Natural Sciences; (3) History and Geography.
[17] See Russell, Jas. E.,German Higher Schools, p. 101, for the detailed "Gymnasial Program" promulgated in 1837.
[18] In 1840 there were six Prussian universities; by 1900 the number had increased to eleven, and three technical universities in addition. In the other German States eleven additional universities and six technical universities were in existence, in 1900.
[19] Benjamin Franklin visited Göttingen, as early as 1766, but the first American student to take a degree at a German university was Benjamin S. Barton, of Philadelphia, who took his doctor's degree at Göttingen, in 1799. By 1825 ten American students had studied one or more semesters at Göttingen. That year the first American student registered at Berlin, and in 1827 the first at Leipzig. (See Hinsdale, B. A., inReport, U.S. Commissioner of Education, 1897-98, vol. 1, pp. 603-16.)
[20] The remark attributed to Bismarck is interesting in this connection. "Of the students who attend the German universities," he said, "one-third die prematurely as the result of disease arising from too great poverty and undernourishment while students; another one-third die prematurely or amount to little due to bad habits and drinking and disease contracted while students; the remaining third rule Europe."
[21] Barnard, Henry,American Journal of Education, vol. xx, p. 365.
[22] This was proposed by Czar Alexander I of Russia in 1815, and became a personal alliance of the Czar of Russia, the Emperor of Austria, and the King of Prussia, "to promote religion, peace, and order." Other princes were asked to join this continental League to enforce peace and, under the rule of Prince Metternich, chief minister of Austria, it dominated Europe until after the political revolutions of 1848.
[23] As a young man Altenstein had been in charge of a subordinate division of the Department of Public Instruction under Humboldt, and was a man of somewhat liberal ideas. Now he was compelled to fall in with the ideas of the political leaders and the wishes of the king, though he still did something to hold back the reactionary forces and preserve much of what had been gained.
[24] Paulsen, Fr.,German Education, Past and Present, p. 246.
[25] It was this same Frederick William IV who had for a time refused to grant constitutional government to Prussia, saying: "No written sheet of paper shall ever thrust itself like a second providence between the Lord God in heaven and this land." In 1850, however, he was forced to grant a limited form of constitutional government to his people.
[26] "The motive which dictated the law of 1872 on school supervision (namely, placing the State in complete control of the supervision of religious as well as other instruction) was, as is well understood, to strengthen the hands of the government in its struggle with the Catholic hierarchy, which was then prominently before the public. The law affirmed again the sovereign right of the State over the whole school system, including the elementary or people's schools." (Nohle, Dr. E.,History of the German School System, p. 79.)
[27] Alexander, Thomas,The Prussian Elementary Schools, pp. 537-38.
[1] The commune in France was the smallest unit for local government, and corresponded to the district, town, or township with us, or with the Church parish under the old régime. There were approximately 37,000 communes in France. The Department was a much larger unit, France being divided, for administrative purposes, into 82 Departments, these corresponding to a rather large county.
[2] By this term what is known elsewhere as secondary school must be understood. See footnote, page 272, for explanation of the term.
[3] The University had at its disposal approximately 2,500,000 francs a year. This was derived from a state grant of 400,000 francs, the income from the property still remaining from the old confiscated universities, and the remainder largely from examination fees. In 1850 its property was taken over by the State, and the University was changed into a state department.
[4] This type of administrative organization is at first not easy for the American student to understand. The University of the State of New York— virtually the department of public instruction for the State—is our closest American analogy. On the banishment of Napoleon and the restoration of the monarchy, in 1815, the Grand Master and Council were replaced by a Commissioner of Public Instruction, with Assistant Commissioners for the different divisions, and in 1820 this was further changed into a Royal Council of Public Instruction.
[5] In 1909 a decree restored Greek and Latin to their old place of first importance in the Lycées, thus destroying the strong interest in scientific instruction, in so far as the higher secondary schools were concerned, which had characterized the Revolution.
[6]Report on the Condition of Public Instruction in Germany, and particularly in Prussia. Paris, 1831. Reprinted in London, 1834; New York City, 1835.
[7] François Pierre Guillaume Guizot was Minister for public Instruction from 1832 to 1837, and head of the French government from 1840 to 1848. He was throughout his entire political career a conservative, anxious to preserve constitutional government under a monarchy and stem the tide of republicanism.
[8] We see here the beginnings of education in agriculture, in which the French were pioneers.
[9] The schools, though, were not very successful, because of social reasons. Parents who could afford to do so sent their children to the much higher-priced Communal Colleges orLycées, where Latin was the main study, in preference to sending them to a scientific, modern-type, middle- class school, as conferring a better social distinction on both pupils and parents.
[10] By 1838 there were 14,873 public schools the property of the communes; by 1847 there were 23,761; and by 1851 but 2500 out of approximately 37,000 communes were without schools. There were also over six thousand religious schools by 1850. By 1834 the number of boys in the communal schools was 1,656,828, and a decade later over two millions. The thirteen normal schools of 1830 had grown to seventy-six by 1838, with over 2500 young men then in training for teaching. In 1836 the Law of 1833 was extended to include, where possible, schools for girls as well, and the creation of a new set of normal schools to train schoolmistresses was begun. By 1848 over three and a half millions of children, of both sexes, were receiving instruction in the primary schools. In 1835 primary inspectors, those "sinews of public instruction," as Guizot termed them, were established, one for every Department, by royal decree. By 1847 there were two inspectors-general, and 13 inspectors and sub-inspectors at work in France.
[11] This was in large part due to manufacturing and business needs, as France was rapidly forging ahead during the period as a manufacturing and commercial nation.
[12] Prominent among these, perhaps most prominent, was Jules Ferry, Mayor of Paris during the trying period of 1870-71, then member of the French legislature and Minister of Public Instruction in a number of cabinets between 1879 and 1885. Drawing his inspiration from Condorcet'sPlan of Education(p. 514; R. 256) and Edgar Quinet'sInstruction of the People(R. 289), he brought about the enactment of a series of reform school laws commonly known as the "Ferry Laws." These provided for free, compulsory, elementary education, to be given by laymen; secondary education for girls; the extension of normal schools; and enlarged aid by the State in the building up of popular education.
[13] "The non-sectarian school is not the work of a few advanced thinkers imposed upon a docile country. They would not have been able to create anything enduring if the French conscience had not been ready to follow them. This is what the adversaries of our schools do not wish to understand, cannot understand, or are anxious to conceal from those whom they direct. Certainly they have the right to attempt a reaction according to their own preferences. They have no right to believe, nor even to allow it to be believed, that the creation of the non-sectarian school was thecoup de forceof an audacious minority. The non-sectarian school has come because the nation wished it. The program of moral instruction, long prophesied, conceived, and hoped for, was in the traditions of France as she marched forward toward her republican aspirations. This program is not only the conscious effort of the men who gave the school a new mission— that of laying the foundation of social peace through elementary instruction; it is the expression of the republican conscience of 1882." (Moulet, Alfred,D'une éducation morale démocratique.)
[14] "To each man his proper sphere; to the minister of religion the liberty of preaching the doctrine of the different churches, to teachers who teach in the name of the State, that is, of society, the right of limiting themselves to the field of universal human morals, together with the duty of refraining from any attack on religious beliefs. Neutrality is guaranteed by the secularization of the teaching body, and it must be strictly observed." (Compayré, Gabriel.)
[15] "The most striking feature is that, in place of the one single and uniform course for all pupils, several are provided for their selection. Here is obvious the influence of the elective courses common in the United States, whose existence and success were reported on to the Minister of Public Instruction by the Commission to the World Exposition at Chicago, in 1893. The courses last seven years. The school period is divided into two cycles, first one of four years, and then one of three. In the first cycle, the pupils have a choice of two sections, one emphasizing the ancient and modern languages, the other the modern languages and science. In the second cycle there are four sections, viz., Graeco-Latin; Latin- modern languages; Latin-scientific; and scientific-modern languages." (Compayré, Gabriel,Education in France.)
[16] Arnold, Matthew,Schools and Universities on the Continent, p. 115, (London, 1868.)
[17] For example, by the Peace of Lunéville (1801), by which Napoleon took from the Germans all territory west of the Rhine and consolidated it, he extinguished 118 free cities, principalities, and petty states. In addition, he extinguished the separate existence of 160 others east of the Rhine. The importance of such consolidations for the future of Germany has been large.
[18] Bologna, for example, had 166 professors in the early seventeenth century, but by 1737 it had but 62. The universities came chiefly to be places where young men obtained degrees but not learning. At Naples a noble family by the name of Avellino came to have the power of virtually selling degrees in law and medicine.
[19] Not only were schools built up, but commerce, roads, and in particular scientific agriculture were subjects of deep interest to Cavour. He saw, very clearly, that if Sardinia was to be the nucleus of a future Italy, Sardinia must show unmistakably her worthiness to lead.
[20] By 1859 Sardinia had come to include Savoy and Lombardy, and was the largest State in northern Italy. A year later all but Venetia and the States of the Church had been added.
[21] The Law of 1877 fixed the instruction in the primary schools, for the three compulsory years, as reading, writing, the Italian language, elements of civics, arithmetic, and the metric system. The omission of religious instruction excited much opposition from church authorities, but without effect.
[1] Prussia and Holland possibly form exceptions in the matter. Frederick the Great (p. 474) was noted for his liberality in religious matters. There different varieties of Protestants, Catholics, and Jews were all tolerated, and there they mingled and intermarried. So well were the Jews received that the type—German-Jew—is to-day familiar to the world.
[2] As early as 1670, in the celebrated Bates case, the English court held that a teacher could not be dispossessed from his school for teaching without the Bishop's license, if he were the nominee of the founder or patron. This led (p. 438) to a great increase in endowed schools.
[3] In the Cox case (1700), another important legal decision, the English court held that there was not and never had been any ecclesiastical control over any schools other than grammar schools, and that teachers in elementary schools did not need to have a license from the Bishop. The year following, in the case ofRexv.Douse, the same principle was affirmed in even clearer language.
[4] It was not until 1779 that an Act (19 Geo. III, c. 44) granted full freedom to Dissenters to teach. In 1791 a supplemental Act (31 Geo. III, c. 32, s. 13-14) granted similar liberty to Roman Catholics.
[5] It was this second Society that did notable work in the AnglicanColonies of America, and particularly in and about New York City (p. 369).See Kemp, W. W.,Support of Schools in Colonial New York by the S.P.G.(New York, 1913.)
[6] Begun, in 1704, in London, these were continued yearly there until 1877. They were also preached for more than a century in many other places. To these sermons the children marched in procession, wearing their uniforms, and a collection for the support of the schools was taken. Of the first of these occasions in London, Strype; in his edition of Stow, says: "It was a wondrous surprising, as well as a pleasing sight, that happened June the 8th, 1704, when all the boys and girls maintained at these schools, in their habits, walked two and two, with their Masters and Mistresses, some from Westminster, and some through London; with many of the Parish ministers going before them; and all meeting at Saint Andrews', Holburn, Church, where a seasonable sermon was preached… upon Genesis xviii, 19,I know him that he will command his children, etc., the children (about 2000) being placed in the galleries."
[7] "The religious revival under Wesley owed, perhaps, more than is generally suspected to the Christian teaching in these new and humble elementary schools." (Montmorency, J. E. G. de,The Progress of Education in England, p. 54.)
[8] He gathered together the children (90 at first) employed in the pin factories of Gloucester, and paid four women a shilling each to spend their Sundays in instructing these poor children "in reading and the Church Catechism."
[9] Sunday being a day of rest and the mills and factories closed, the children ran the streets and spent the day in mischief and vice. In the agricultural districts of England farmers were forced to take special precautions on Sundays to protect their places and crops from the depredations of juvenile offenders.
[10] "In a very special way they met the sentiment of the times. They were cheap—many were conducted by purely voluntary teachers—they did not teach too much, and they had the further merit of not interfering with the work of the week." (Birchenough, C.,History of Elementary Education in England and Wales, p. 40.)
[11] In a Manchester Sunday School, in 1834, there were 2700 scholars and 120 unsalaried teachers, all but two or three of whom were former pupils in the Sunday Schools, now teaching others, free of charge, in return for the advantages once given them.
[12] "The amount of instruction rarely, if ever, exceeds the first four rules of arithmetic, with reading and writing. The class of children instructed is presumed to be of the very poorest, living in the most crowded districts. No doubt a large number come under this designation, but not a few better-to-do persons are found ready to take advantage for their children of the free instruction thus held out to them, and even at times almost pressed upon them." (Bartley, George C. T.,The Schools for the People, p. 385.)
[13] The Reverend George Crabbe (1754-1832). "The schools of the Borough."
[14] French Revolutionary thought "represented an attack on over- interference, vested interests, superstition, and tyranny of every form. It showed a marked propensity to ignore history, and to judge everything by its immediate reasonableness. It pictured a society free from all laws and coercion, freed from all clerical influence and ruled by benevolence, a society in which all men had equal rights and were able to attain the fullest self-realization. In its strictly educational aspects, it demanded the withdrawal of education from the Church and the setting up of a state system of secular instruction." (Birchenough, C.,History of Elementary Education in England and Wales, p. 20.)
[15] The ideas of Malthus were especially offensive to his brother clergymen, and created quite a furor. Many regarded him as an insane and unorthodox fanatic. A prevailing idea of the time was that of a "beautiful order Providentially arranged," and it was the custom to give everything a rose-colored hue. The poor were thought to be contented in their poverty, and the rich and the aristocratic considered themselves divinely appointed to rule over them. Malthus saw the fallacy of such thinking, and stated matters in the light of biologic and political truths.
[16] Foster, John,An Essay on the Evils of Popular Ignorance, p. 259.
[17] Bell, Reverend Dr. Andrew,An Experiment in Education made at the Male Asylum at Madras, Suggesting a System by which a School or a Family may teach itself under the Superintendence of the Master or Parent. London, 1797.
[18] Lancaster, Joseph,Improvements in Education as it Respects the Industrial Classes of the Community. London, 1803; New York, 1807.
[19] Both Bell and Lancaster worked with great energy to organize schools after their respective plans, and quarreled with equal energy as to who originated the idea. While both probably did, the idea nevertheless is older than either. In 1790 Chevalier Paulet organized a monitorial school in Paris; while the English schoolmaster, John Brinsley (1587-1665), in hisLudus Literarius, or the Grammar Schooles(1612), laid down the monitorial principle in explicit language.
[20] This Society adopted, as a fundamental principle, "that the national religion should be made the foundation of national education, and according to the excellent liturgy and catechism adopted by our Church for that purpose."
[21] "When Lancaster had his famous interview with King George III, that monarch was impressed, as he naturally might be, by the statement that one master 'could teach five hundred children at the same time.' 'Good,' said the King; 'Good,' echoed a number of wealthy subscribers to Lancaster's projects." (Binns, H. B.,A Century of Education, p. 299.)
[22] In 1807 Mr. Whitbread, an ardent supporter of schools, said, in an address before the House of Commons: "I cannot help noticing that this is a period particularly favorable for the institution of a national system of education, because within a few years there has been discovered a plan for the instruction of youth which is now brought to a state of great perfection, happily combining rules by which the object of learning must be infallibly attained with expedition and cheapness, and holding out the fairest prospect of utility to mankind."
[23] When Lancaster first hired the large hall in Borough Road which later became an important training-college, and opened it as a mutual- instruction school, he announced: "All that will may send their children, and have them educated freely, and those who do not wish to have education for nothing, may pay for it if they please."
[24] In 1820, Brougham, in introducing his "Bill for the Better Education of the Poor in England and Wales," gave statistics as to the progress of education at that time in England. His estimate as to the numbers being educated were:
430,000 in endowed and privately managed schools;220,000 in monitorial schools;50,000 being educated at home;100,000 educated only in Sunday Schools;53,000 being educated in dame schools.
From these figures he argued that one in fifteen of the population of England and one in twenty in Wales were attending some form of school, but with only one in twenty-four in London. The usual period of school attendance for the poorer classes was only one and a half to two years.
[25] Known as the Health and Morals of Apprentices Act. It limited the working hours of apprentices to twelve; forbade night work; required day instruction to be provided in reading, writing, and arithmetic; required church attendance once a month; and provided for the registration and inspection of factories. The Act was very laxly enforced, and its chief value lay in the precedent of state interference which it established.
[26] Whitbread proposed a national system of rate-aided schools to provide all children in England with two years of free schooling, between the ages of seven and fourteen.
[27] See J. E. G. de Montmorency'sState Intervention in English Education, pp. 248-85, for Brougham's address to the Commons in 1820 on "The Education of the Poor"; and pp. 285-324 for his address before the House of Lords in 1835, on "The Education of the People." Both addresses contain an abundance of data as to existing conditions and needs.
[28] So called because the House of Lords rejected the first two passed by the Commons, and finally accepted the third only because the King had agreed to create enough new Lords to pass the bill unless it was enacted by the upper House.
[29] This was a development of the monitorial system of training, and was virtually an apprenticeship form of teacher-training.
[30] In 1885 the same liberty was extended to rural laborers. This added two million more voters, and gave England almost full manhood suffrage. Finally, in 1918, some five million women were added to the voting classes.
[31] Nearly two million children had been provided with school accommodations, three fourths of which had been done by those associated with the Church of England. In doing this the Church had spent some £6,270,000 on school buildings, and had raised some £8,500,000 in voluntary subscriptions for maintenance. The Government had also paid out some £6,500,000 in grants, since 1833. In 1870 it was estimated that 1,450,000 children were on the registers of the state-aided schools, while 1,500,000 children, between the ages of six and twelve, were unprovided for.
[32] Speech before the House of Commons, July 23, 1870.
[33] "The clergy of the National Society exhibited amazing energy and succeeded, according to their own account, in doing in twelve months what in the normal course of events would have taken twenty years. By the end of the year they had lodged claims for 2885 building grants, out of a total of 3342. They also set to work, without any governmental assistance, to enlarge their schools and so increased denominational accommodation enormously. The voluntary contributions in aid of this work have been estimated at over £3,000,000. At the same time the annual subscriptions doubled…. By 1886, over 3,000,000 places had been added, one-half of which were due to voluntary agencies, and Voluntary Schools were providing rather more than two-thirds of the school places in the country. In 1897 the proportion had fallen to three-fifths." (Birchenough, C.,History of Elementary Education, pp. 138, 140.)
[34] These were the seven endowed secondary boarding schools—Winchester (1382), Eton (1440), Shrewsbury (1552), Westminster (1560), Rugby (1567), Harrow (1571), and Charterhouse (1611)—and the two endowed day schools,— Saint Paul's (1510) and Merchant Taylors' (1561).
[35] At least one hundred towns, the Report showed, with a population of five thousand or over had no endowed secondary school, and London, with a population then (1867) of over three million, had but twenty-six schools and less than three thousand pupils enrolled. All the new manufacturing cities were in even worse condition than London.
[36] The University of London was originally founded in 1836, and reorganized in 1900.
[37] The scientist Thomas Huxley was a London School Board member, and, speaking as such, he expressed the views of many when he said: "I conceive it to be our duty to make a ladder from the gutter to the university along which any child may climb."
[38] Royal (Bryce) Commission on Secondary Education, vol. I, p. 299. London, 1895.
[39] Known as the "Education Act, 1918" (8 and 9 Geo. V, ch. 39). The Act has been reprinted in full in theBiennial Survey of Education, 1916-18, of the United States Commissioner of Education, in the chapter on Education in Great Britain. It also has been reprinted as an appendix to Moore, E. C.,What the War teaches about Education, New York, 1919.
[1] "The Constitution," as John Quincy Adams expressed it, "was extorted from the grinding necessities of a reluctant people" to escape anarchy and the ultimate entire loss, of independence, and many had grave doubts as to the permanence of the Union. It was not until after the close of the War of 1812 that belief in the stability of the Union and in the capacity of the people to govern themselves became the belief of the many rather than the very few, and plans for education and national development began to obtain a serious hearing.
[2] After the beginning of the national life a number of States founded and endowed a state system of academies. Massachusetts, in 1797, granted land endowments to approved academies. Georgia, in 1783, created a system of county academies for the State. New York extended state aid to its academies, in 1813, having put them under state inspection as early as 1787. Maryland chartered many academies between 1801 and 1817, and authorized many lotteries to provide them with funds, as did also North Carolina. The Rhode Island General Assembly chartered many academies, and aided them by lotteries. Ohio, Kentucky, and Indiana, among western States, also provided for county systems of academies.
[3] The study of Latin and a little Greek had constituted the curriculum of the old Latin grammar school, and its purpose had been almost exclusively to prepare boys for admission to the colony colleges. In true English style, Latin was made the language of the classroom, and even attempted for the playground as well. As a concession, reading, writing, and arithmetic were sometimes taught. The new academies, while retaining the study of Latin, and usually Greek, though now taught through the medium of the English, added a number of new studies adapted to the needs of a new society. English grammar was introduced and soon rose to a place of great importance, as did also oratory and declamation. Arithmetic, algebra, geometry, geography, and astronomy were in time added, and surveying, rhetoric (including some literature), natural and moral philosophy, and Roman antiquities were frequently taught. Girls were admitted rather freely to the new academies, whereas the grammar schools had been exclusively for boys. For better instruction a "female department" was frequently organized.
[4] Thomas Jefferson's name appears in the first subscription list as giving $200, and he was elected a member of the first governing board. The chief sources of support of the schools, which up to 1844 remained pauper schools, were subscriptions, lotteries, a tax on slaves and dogs, certain license fees, and a small appropriation ($1500) each year from the city council.
[5] This organization opened the first schools in Philadelphia for children regardless of religious affiliation, and for thirty-seven years rendered a useful service there.
[6] All at once, comparatively, a new system had been introduced which not only improved but tremendously cheapened education. In 1822 it cost but $1.22 per pupil per year to give instruction in New York City, though by 1844 the per-capita cost, due largely to the decreasing size of the classes, had risen to $2.70, and by 1852 to $5.83. In Philadelphia, in 1817, the expense was $3, as against $12 in the private and church schools. One finds many notices in the newspapers of the time as to the value and low cost of the new system.