Chapter 45

WILLIAM T. HARRIS.(The Perry Pictures, Copyright, 1898, by E. A. Perry, Malden, Mass.)

WILLIAM T. HARRIS.

(The Perry Pictures, Copyright, 1898, by E. A. Perry, Malden, Mass.)

One consequence of this low pay has been to accent a tendency which is fast removing education from the list of those professions in which men will engage. From 1870–71 to 1896–97 the percentage of male teachers decreased from 41.0 to 32.6; especially is this true in the older States. This is in striking contrast with one hundred years ago, when, except in infant schools, teachers were almost universally of the male sex. A variety of causes may be given for this change. The preëminent fitness of women for guiding the child during certain ages is acknowledged. Again, the decline of the rod and the introduction of a happy sympathy between teacher and pupil have helped the tendency.

But of all the forces which have contributed to this change, none has beenmore potent than the great increase of opportunities for the higher education of women. At the beginning of the century the United States was not behind European nations in its provision for the education of young women. No one thought of making anything like the same provision for both sexes. Women were refused admission to the colleges, and were obliged to content themselves with an elementary education or else meet the expense of private tutorage. Gradually, in protest against this state of things, girls’ seminaries were opened and girls’ high schools were established in the large cities. The idea of a seminary, “which should be to young women what the college is to young men,” was first given definite shape by Mary Lyon, who collected funds for that purpose, and in 1837, two hundred years after Harvard, Mount Holyoke Female Seminary was opened. Its success was complete; it offered the regular English and classical course, and its graduates entered generally into the teaching profession. Presently, colleges for women were incorporated, of which to-day the best known are Vassar, Wellesley, Smith, and Bryn Mawr. As the demand for the higher education of women increased, presently it was queried, why may not the two sexes be trained in the same institution? Is there any real necessity for a duplication of plants with the consequent weakening of resources? The West has advanced far beyond the East toward co-education. Oberlin College, founded in 1833, opened its doors to both sexes from the first, and most of the institutions that derive their spirit from the West have followed the same plan. As a result, some of the city systems are trying co-education in their high schools and elementary grades, and thus far, while there are many opponents, the general verdict is favorable.

IDEAL SCHOOLHOUSE AND GROUNDS. (Courtesy of Agricultural Department, Cornell University.)

But the women were not content with a general collegiate training or a normal course that fitted only for teaching. Within recent years they have entered into the other professions with a keen enthusiasm. They are allowed,in a few institutions, to take theological courses fitting for the ministry. The first woman physician was graduated in 1849 from the school at Geneva, N. Y.; since that time special medical schools for women have been opened and some colleges have decided to admit women on the same terms as the other sex. In most law schools, women may be admitted, and in several States there are women practicing at the bar. While the influence of tradition has been strong, yet there is to-day no reason why an American woman should not receive as full an education and as complete a training as her brother.

SUGGESTION FOR PLANTING A SCHOOLGROUND.(Courtesy of Agricultural Department Cornell University.)

SUGGESTION FOR PLANTING A SCHOOLGROUND.

(Courtesy of Agricultural Department Cornell University.)

In considering the changes in school-life, the improvement in buildings and equipment must not be overlooked. With the appreciation of the value of education, there has come an attention to the environment of the pupil that manifests itself in the provision of text-books, in the erection of larger and better ventilated buildings, and in the adornment of school grounds. School architecture, especially where populations are dense, has become an important science, involving problems of light, heat, ventilation, etc., together with questions of furniture, fire-proof construction and playgrounds. There was a time when the most interest was aroused by the exterior, that the school might be an adornment to its neighborhood. To-day the important problems of arrangement receive the most attention, and deservedly so. We give two suggestive pictures of modern schoolhouses. Professor Liberty H. Bailey of Cornell University, in a pamphlet which has been extensively circulated, has advocated a judicious arrangement of shrubbery around a schoolhouse, as space permitted, with a view to the elimination of all bare and cheerless features from the landscape. This is especially adapted to country districts. As a comparison, the new Central High School of Philadelphia is given as one of the best types of a complete city schoolhouse. It has been erected at a total cost of over one million dollars.

The furnishing of a school has undergone characteristic development. The hard bench, upon which our forefathers sat, has in a large measure disappeared, and in its place has come a variety of desks patterned with chairs fitted to each curve of the back, etc. Blackboards came into general use about the middle of the century. In certain studies, maps, charts, models, etc., seem indispensable, and the modern schoolroom contains all these. Moreover, as soon as science teaching had won a place in the curriculum, the cry went up for laboratories, that a higher grade of work might be done with the more advanced pupil. It is rather a singular fact that in many places the public high school led in this demand, rather than the more conservativecollege. To-day no high school would count itself able to do its work without one or more laboratories where each pupil might work for himself. In the new high school of Philadelphia there are physical, chemical, and biological laboratories, as well as a completely equipped astronomical observatory.

Text-books were just coming into use at the close of the eighteenth century. The “Child’s Guide” was being superseded by such works as Noah Webster’s Spelling Book, Grammar, and Reader (1792). Within a few years came Lindley Murray’s “English Grammar,” the work of a Quaker merchant who wrote his famous text-book primarily for a young ladies’ school in his immediate neighborhood. The instant success of these books demonstrated what a need there was for such a class of literature. The writing and publication of text-books has become one of the most flourishing industries of the country. On account of hard usage, a text-book does not last more than a few years, and this gives continual opportunity for a new book more nearly up to date than its predecessor.

Within recent years, less stress has been laid on the text-book, and its influence is being minimized. In the elementary schools the teacher explains the lesson, and in the higher schools the professor lectures upon his subject. Consequently, the text-book is relatively less important. This does not mean that less reading is being done, but it does mean that the reading covers a wider ground. Particularly is this true where libraries have been established. The public library system is a most valuable auxiliary to the school system, and is fast becoming indispensable. This is one of the great advantages which city pupils have over those whose home is in the country, and it will lead in the end to district libraries. In some States, as in New York, a successful effort has been made to inaugurate a system of traveling libraries, whereby a case of fifty or one hundred volumes, relating to a particular topic, will be lent for a time to any circle of readers. Massachusetts has best developed a library system, since there are but nine towns in the State that have not free libraries. The growth of the universities has led to the accumulation of great collections for special research and study. In 1800 there were but eleven college libraries in America worth mentioning; to-day there are almost five hundred, of which the largest, Harvard, contains a half million volumes. Libraries are of use, not only for pupils, but also for adults as well. They have aided materially in solving the great question of adult education.

THE NEW HIGH SCHOOL, PHILADELPHIA.

In the New England towns of the middle part of the century, the lyceum lecture was exceedingly popular. University extension has recently come to the front as the latest form of the lyceum system. The idea of lectures to the people by university teachers came from England, where it was suggested just after an extension of the suffrage had attached a new value to the education of adults. Societies for the extension of university teaching have been formed in Oxford, Cambridge, and London. Their methods are on the whole identical,—university men are sent to town or village centres to give a course of lectures upon some general topic; after each lecture a voluntary class is held where questions may be asked and answered; at the conclusion of the course an examination based upon the course and collateral reading is given to those who care to take it; and sometimes a certificate or testimonial may be given. The method has beentransplanted to America and generally adopted by the universities, with greatest success, perhaps, in the Middle States, where the American Society for the Extension of University Teaching has organized the field. During the period 1890–99, 862 courses of lectures were given under the auspices of the American Society to audiences aggregating 952,068. Another movement of equal importance is that done by the Chatauqua Literary and Scientific Circle, which prepares lists of books for home reading, with a view to encouraging system in one’s use of spare time. Perhaps the most interesting public work for adults is being done in New York city, where a lecture department has been organized by the Board of Education, by which free lectures are given in schoolhouses to the people. In 1898, 1866 lectures were given to 698,200 people, and the president of New York’s School Board has declared that “these lectures have contributed more than any other agency to the distribution of general intelligence among the masses.” These forces have supplemented very well the work that is being done by the public night schools, which are established in most large cities, with a view to providing elementary, and sometimes technical, instruction to those adults who care for it.

DR. WM. H. MAXWELL, SUPERINTENDENT “GREATER NEW YORK” SCHOOLS.(Courtesy of The School Journal, New York.)

DR. WM. H. MAXWELL, SUPERINTENDENT “GREATER NEW YORK” SCHOOLS.

(Courtesy of The School Journal, New York.)

No educational question has aroused more interest in business circles than the problem how to train best those who will devote themselves to a commercial life. This has become a live question recently to the American people. With improved processes in manufacture, the power of production has grown far beyond the consumption of our own people. Consequently America is competing with the great industrial nations of Europe for a control of the markets of the world. As soon as this competition became evident, the need for a better trained class of commercial leaders was felt. The example of Germany has had a great influence upon other countries. There is a general conviction that the leading position among commercial nations which Germany has won for itself is due in large measure to the technical education given to German artisans and the commercial education provided for business men. For illustration, the German government has recently established in Berlin a school where young men, preparing for business careers in Asia, can learn Chinese, Japanese, Arabic, and Turkish. German youths have been supplanting English young men, to an appreciable degree, in the great commercial houses of London. As a consequence, there has been astrong demand in America for the establishment of commercial high schools,—public institutions in which German, French, and Spanish will be taught, together with economics, industrial history, commercial geography, public finance, social science, etc. These institutions differ entirely from the business colleges, of which there were 342 in the United States in 1897, in that they are broader in scope and content. The latter qualify a man to be a good clerk by teaching him stenography, typewriting, bookkeeping, etc., but the former aim to give him a broad, liberal education, enabling him to have an intelligent comprehension of all matters which interest him in active business. This movement is too recent to have borne much fruit, but in many of the larger cities of America, as New York, Philadelphia, Boston, Brooklyn, and Cleveland, commercial courses have been established in connection with the regular high-school course; and in some of the larger universities, as Pennsylvania, Chicago, Columbia, schools in economics and politics have been created,—all with a view to equipping a young man for an active business career. In view of the present interest in this movement, more may be expected in the near future.

BOOKER T. WASHINGTON.

The close of the Civil War brought the American people to a problem, vast in its importance and intricate in its solution. The negro race had had no opportunity for education under the institution of slavery. But with their freedom came the necessity for creating a system of schools which could be of special help to this new body of citizens. The South has preferred generally that separate schools should be provided for the two races. In the ante-bellum days, the wealthier families usually sent their sons and daughters away from home to obtain their education under better auspices than their own neighborhood could afford. So when the war concluded, and there was but little sign of public schools, a new system must be created, and at once. The first work toward educating the negro was done by the national government, through the schools opened by the Freedman’s Aid Society. The different religious bodies throughout the country took a hand in the good work, by establishing special missionary boards for work in the South. Private benevolence lent substantial assistance. George Peabody, the philanthropist, and John F. Slater, both founded trusts which they richly endowed to aid in the establishment of schools in the Southern section. But the greatest work was done through the awakening of the people to the value of education, leading to liberal appropriations and to a firm public support.

Within recent years, negro education has assumed a new and interesting phase. Booker T. Washington, principal of the Tuskegee Normal and Industrial Institute, Alabama, is the leading educator of the Afro-Americans, and he has won his high place by the success which has attended his efforts at industrial education. His school at Tuskegee was started in 1881, and to-day contains over one thousand students. While fully appreciating the value of an academic education, Mr. Washington has felt that the first necessity for his people was the knowledge that would earn a livelihood. As a consequence, the industrial side of education has been accented; twenty-six different trades or industries are in operation at Tuskegee, and one is taught to each student of the Institute. As a consequence, its graduates have gone forth into active life, well equipped to become bread-winners and to fill a useful place in society.

The care of those who, from birth or by accident, do not possess all the powers of a normal person, has aroused much interest during the century. The deaf-mutes, the blind, and the mentally deficient, have each had institutions created, where they are taught as much of the knowledge of the world as is possible. The instruction of the deaf and dumb proceeds along two lines. The manual or sign method of conversation, based on gestures, was founded by Abbé de l’Epée in 1760; while about the same time Samuel Heinicke, a German, introduced the oral method, by which the eye of the mute is trained to perform the part of the ear, by learning the meaning of spoken words through observation of the changes in the position of the vocal organs. Special institutions for these classes abound in Europe and America, with the difference that, in the former, they are generally private or maintained by charity; whereas in the latter they are maintained by the State. Rev. T. H. Gallaudet and his son, Dr. Edward M. Gallaudet, have been the leaders in the instruction of deaf-mutes in the United States, and have achieved a high degree of success.

The teaching of the blind is of equal value to education. Two methods are generally followed; an alphabet of raised letters is employed in some cases, or, and more generally in the United States, a system of raised dots or points, which do not resemble the letter in form, but are a kind of shorthand to the reader. In both methods, the sense of touch takes the place of sight. In some cases, notably Laura Bridgman and Helen Keller, the success has been so complete as to excite universal wonder. Perhaps no institutions alleviate more human misery than do the schools for the blind, by bringing world-ideas within the limited horizon of this afflicted class.

Much also has been done for the training of idiots or those who are mentally deficient. In 1848, the Massachusetts School for Idiots and Feeble-Minded was opened, and other States followed with equally generous provision. Within recent years, special schools have been opened in connection with the school systems of large cities, so that children who need individual care and watchfulness may receive more attention than they could secure in the graded class-room. All these tendencies are exceedingly hopeful, as indicative of society’s recognition of her duty to those who cannot satisfactorily care for themselves. Humanitarianism in education has been a powerful and constant force during the whole of this century.

DR. E. BENJ. ANDREWS, SUPERINTENDENT OF SCHOOLS, CHICAGO, ILL.

It must not be forgotten that other agencies beside those established byStates have been contributing to education. The Sunday-school movement is one of the great efforts of the century, to help in training children by a voluntary organization. In 1781, Robert Raikes employed some teachers for the poor children of Gloucester, in order that their Sundays might be spent quietly and with profit. Presently, as the number of Sunday-schools increased, men and women proffered their services gratuitously. The teaching followed two general lines, secular (reading, writing, etc.) and religious. The former was of help, especially to children who were employed during the week. From England, the movement came to the West. The American Sunday-school Union was organized in 1824, and has ever since continued to stimulate the establishment of more schools of this kind. In 1896, therewere 132,697 Sunday-schools in the United States and 9097 in Canada, with a total membership of 12,288,153 and 721,435 respectively, while it has been computed that in the world the number of Sunday-schools was 246,658, with an enrollment of 24,919,313.

In European states, they have been solving the same problems as in America. The importance of education once admitted, the next problem is to secure the funds and develop the system.5Because of administrative centralization, this has been far easier in Europe than in America. The Minister of Education in France or Germany orders, and his directions are carried out; the United States Commissioner advises, and while his recommendations influence public opinion, yet the latter method is by far the slower. As a consequence, the European schools are more systematized and better organized than our own. Their course of study differs widely in details from our own, and generally shows more influence on the part of the pedagogical expert. Technical and professional education has been developed to an exceedingly high degree. England has had a peculiar problem to face, in determining the relation between the church schools and the secular schools, and has only solved it by maintaining both. Most European countries have adopted the principle of compulsory education for children within a certain age limit, and the same principle has been accepted in thirty-two States in America. In general, it may be said that in the changes in course of study, in equipment, in the teachership, etc., Europe and America have been working along parallel lines. As a rule, these changes have come more quickly in America, where traditions were as yet unformed; nevertheless, the progress in Europe has been constant and very great.

5The comparative interest in education is well illustrated by the following extract from an address by Dr. Charles R. Skinner, recently delivered before the N. E. A.“The United States, to-day the youngest of all, is the only great nation of the world which expends more for education than for war. France spends annually $4 per capita on her army and 70 cents per capita on education; England, $3.72 for her army and 62 cents for education; Prussia, $2.04 for her army and 50 cents for education; Italy, $1.52 for her army and 36 cents for education; Austria, $1.36 for her army and 62 cents for education; Russia, $2.04 for her army and 3 cents for education; the United States, 39 cents for her army and $1.35 for education. England 6 to 1 for war! Russia, 17 to 1 for war! the United States 4 to 1 for education! The United States spends more per capita annually for education than England, France, and Russia combined.”

5The comparative interest in education is well illustrated by the following extract from an address by Dr. Charles R. Skinner, recently delivered before the N. E. A.

“The United States, to-day the youngest of all, is the only great nation of the world which expends more for education than for war. France spends annually $4 per capita on her army and 70 cents per capita on education; England, $3.72 for her army and 62 cents for education; Prussia, $2.04 for her army and 50 cents for education; Italy, $1.52 for her army and 36 cents for education; Austria, $1.36 for her army and 62 cents for education; Russia, $2.04 for her army and 3 cents for education; the United States, 39 cents for her army and $1.35 for education. England 6 to 1 for war! Russia, 17 to 1 for war! the United States 4 to 1 for education! The United States spends more per capita annually for education than England, France, and Russia combined.”

Canada has a well-established and well-regulated system, in which the principle of free and public education is recognized. The eight provinces contain twenty-four colleges, and the schools have over one million pupils. Education is more or less compulsory in all of the provinces, but the law is not very strictly enforced. In Ontario, Quebec, and the Northwest Territories there are separate schools for Roman Catholics; in the other provinces the schools are non-sectarian. There is a high professional spirit among the teachers, so that the schools may be expected to keep fully abreast of the times.

The nineteenth century has been a century of continuous advance in education. Its spirit has been healthy, its achievements are notable, its work has been great. It would be futile, however, to assert that all is yet accomplished. The problems in elementary education are so many and so important that there have been times when solution seemed impossible. Nevertheless, the system is now established and is assured of public support, and with an education within the reach of every child, the security of free institutions is forever guaranteed.

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