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m 


LIltHA^S^^^dF Tin- 


i 





4— •- 

I V,- 



. i 
I 



fz 3 r CIRCULARS OF INFORMATION 



OF THE 



BUREAU OF EDUCATION. 



IsTo. 3-1881 



PROCEEDINGS OF THE DEPARTMENT OF SUPERINTENDENCE 

OF THE NATIONAL EDUCATIONAL ASSOCIATION AT ITS 

MEETING AT NEW YORK, FEBRUARY 8-10, 1881. 



WASHINGTON: 

GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE. 

1881, 



49-50 



ii^/^ 



G«UA-«-*^t!^«-«vi 



CONTENTS. 



Page. 

Letter of the Commissioner of Education to tlie Secretary of the Interior 5 

List of memhers of the department 7 

First session : 
Opening address by Hon. S. A. Walker, president of the board of education of 

New York City 9 

Addiess of Hon. Albert P. Marble, ph. d., president of the department 11 

Second session : 
Address of Hon. Andi'ew McMillan, of Utica, N. Y., on " Uniformity of school 

statistics" 17 

Discussion of the paper 23 

Apiwintment of committees 24 

Kemarks on "Weak places in our systems of public instruction," by Hon. J. P. 

Wickersham, ll. d 24 

Remarks of Hon. B. G. Northrop, ll. d., on the same subject 27 

Resolution of Mr. Smart adopted 28 

Third session : 

"The conservation of pedagogic energy," a paper by Prof. C. O. Thompson 28 

Discussion , 40 

" Our schools and our forests," by Dr. Franklin B. Hough 40 

Remarks on Dr. Hough's imper 55 

Fourth session : 

Paper by Hon. John Eaton, ll. d. , on " Museums illustrative of education " . . . . 56 

Discussion on moral instruction 56 

Fifth session : 

Paper by Hon. J. W. Patterson, ll. d., on *' Education and the state " 68 

Discussion of the paper 78 

Adoption of resolutions 79 

Adjournment 79 

51-52 



LETTER. 



Department of the Interior, 

Bureau of Education, 

WasMngtony June 8, 1881. 

Sir: The meeting of the Department of Superintendence of the 
National Educational Association in New York City last February was 
characterized, like preceding meetings, by the ability of most of the 
papers and discussions then presented. 

The subjects treated relate to matters of current importance, and, if 
published, would satisfy the many demands upon this Office for like 
information. 

I therefore recommend the publication of these papers as a circular of 

information. 

Very respectfully, your obedient servant, 

JOHN EATON, 

Commissioner. 
The Hon. the Secretary of the Interior. 



Publication approved. 



8. J. KIKKWOOD, 

Secretary. 

53-^ 



NATIONAL EDUCATIONAL ASSOCIATION 

DEPAETMENT OF SUPERINTENDENCE. 



MEMBERS IN ATTENDANCE. 

REPRESENTING STATES. 

Hon. B. G. Northrop, secretary of the State board of education of 
Connecticut, Hartford. 

Hon. James P. Slade, State superintendent of public instruction of 
Illinois, Springfield. 

Hon. J. H. Smart, State superintendent of public instruction of Indi- 
ana, Indianapolis. 

Hon. C. W. Yon Coelln, State superintendent of public instruction of 
Iowa, Des Moines. 

Hon. H. C. Speer, State superintendent of public instruction of Kan- 
sas, Topeka. 

Hon. M. A. Newell, State superintendent of public instruction of 
Maryland, Baltimore. 

Hon. E. A. Hubbard, agent of the State board of education of Mas- 
sachusetts, Springfield. 

Hon. J. W. Patterson, State superintendent of public instruction of 
New Hampshire, Concord. 

Hon. Ellis A. Apgar, State superintendent of public instruction of 
New Jersey, Trenton. 

Hon. Neil Gilmour, State superintendent of public instruction of New 
York, Albany. 

Hon. Daniel F. DeWolf, State commissioner of common schools of 
Ohio, Columbus. 

Hon. J. P. Wickersham, State superintendent of public instruction of 
Pennsylvania, Harrisburg. 

Hon. J. Ormond Wilson, superintendent of schools for the District of 
Columbia, Washington. 

REPRESENTING CITIES. 

Hon. Aaron Gove, superintendent of city schools, Denver, Colo. 
Hon. H. M. Harrington, superintendent of city schools, Bridgeport, 
Conn. 
Hon. Ariel Parish, superintendent of city schools. New Haven, Conn. 
Hon. N. 0. Dougherty, superintendent of city schools, Peoria, 111. 

55 



8 CIRCULARS OF INFORMATION FOR 

Hon. A. P. Stone, superintendent of city schools, Springfield, Mass. 

Hon. W. W. Waterman, superintendent of city schools, Taunton, 
Mass. 

Hon. Albert P. Marble, superintendent of city schools, Worcester, 
Mass. 

Hon. Wm. iN". Barringer, superintendent of city schools, Newark, 
K J. 

Hon. Henry B. Pierce, superintendent of city schools, New Bruns- 
wick, N. J. 

Hon. E. Y. DeGraff, superintendent of city schools, Paterson, N. J. 

Hon. Ghas. W. Gole, superintendent of city schools, Albany, N. T. 

Hon. B. B. Snow, superintendent of city schools. Auburn, N. T. 

Hon. L. 0. Foster, superintendent of city schools, Ithaca, N. T. 

Hon. H. R. Sanford, superintendent of city schools, Middletown, 
N. Y. 

Hon. U. W. Gutts, superintendent of city schools, Orange, N. T. 

Hon. L. S. Packard, superintendent of city schools, Saratoga Springs, 
N. Y. 

Hon. Andrew McMillan, superintendent of city schools, Utica, N. Y. 

Hon. J. A. Nichols, superintendent of city schools, Yonkers, N. Y. 

Hon. Henry S. Jones, superintendent of city schools, Erie, Pa. 

Hon. L. O. Poose, superintendent of city schools, Harrisburg, Pa. 

MISCELLANEOUS. 

Hon. Jul. Katzenberg, school commissioner, New York City. 

Hon. W. O. Garrison, superintendent of schools, Cumberland Gounty, 
N. J. 

Hon. Henry E. Pellew, school commissioner, New York City. 

Mrs. E. W. Walworth, school commissioner, Saratoga Springs, N. Y. 

Hon. W. L. Hoyt, school commissioner, Charleston, N. Y. 

Hon. C. Henry King, school commissioner of Richmond County, 
Stapleton, N. Y. 

J. H. Hoose, PH. D., Cortland, N. Y. 

J. M. Hawkes, New York City. 

H. B. Smith, New York City. 

I. W. Smith, superintendent of schools. Children's Aid Society, New 
York City. 

Amos M. Kellogg, A. m., editor of the New York School Journal, New 
York City. 

Edwin Leigh, m. d., Brooklyn, N. Y. 

Hattie N. Morris, Brooklyn, N. Y. 

Joseph H. Palmer, Yonkers, N. Y. 

John G. Murphy, Fishkill-on-the-Hudson, N. Y. 

W. A. Campbell, High School, Hoboken, N. J. 

David E. Rue, Hoboken, N. J. 

56 



DEPARTMENT OF SUPERINTENDENCE. 9 

FIRST SESSION — TCTESD AY EVENING. 

New York, February 8, 1881. 

The first session of the department was held in the hall of the Cooper 
Union this evening. 

Mr. N. A. Calkins, chairman of the committee of arrangements, in 
calling the meeting to order, said : 

Ladies and Gentlemen : The Department of Superintendence of the 
National Educational Association has honored the city of New York by 
meeting here. 

I now take pleasure in introducing to you the president of the board 
of education in New York, Hon. Stephen A. Walker, who will give the 
address of welcome. 

Mr. Walker spoke as follows : 

Mr. President and Gentlemen of the Convention, Ladies 
AND Gentlemen: I take great pleasure in performing the office as- 
signed me upon your programme and in welcoming you to the city of 
New York. I hope that this duty, having come to me as an official, will 
not seem thereby perfunctory or in any degree the less personal and 
cordial. 

New York has been said to be a German city; it has been said to be 
an Irish city. Neither is true. It is a cosmopolitan city, and so far as 
devotion to the common schools is concerned it is, has been, and always 
will be, with even justice and a large liberality towards all, an Ameri. 
can city, and to those who come here representing that idea and bearing 
these credentials our homes and our institutions are hospitably open. I 
welcome you to Cooper Union. 

An Englishman who was lately here wrote to a paper in his own 
country that he thought this place should be called " a cellar of oratory.'' 
It is true we reach it without an elevator, but many good things of this 
life are kept in cellars, and the wine of free speech has never had a bet- 
ter storehouse than this. This place, gentlemen, is already historic. 
Could these walls have been covered with phonographic plates these 
past five and twenty years, we might take them down and there read 
the record of everything in politics, everything in social science, every- 
thing in finance, which has agitated the people or guided the forces and 
affairs of the nation. Democrats from this platform have argued for a 
high tariff and Eepublicans advocated free trade. Millionaires have rep- 
resented the beneficent advantages of an unlimited currency, and men 
without a shilling in their pockets have favored contraction. This has 
been the focal point of every presidential and gubernatorial campaign 
since its doors were opened, and, when the issues have been at white 
heat and orators have found, by long practice upon the rural districts, 
what stories took the best, what arguments struck the closest, they have 
here made their final efforts. Here, in the gloomy or the cheerful daya 

57 



10 CIECULARS OF INFORMATION FOE 1881. 

of the war, stood Dickinson and Sumner to confirm and inspirit the 
hearts of the people. And here, just twenty-one years ago this present 
month, fresh from the heat of partisan debate in Illinois, stood the rugged 
form, here were heard the winning, wise, and weighty words of Abraham 
Lincoln. 

But you are not only welcome to this historic hall : you may find a 
worthy reception to the topmost story of this edifice. From corner 
stone to flag stafl:' there is not a square foot of space undedicated to the 
improvement and education of the people. 

I congratulate you, Mr. President, on the purpose that brings you 
together and the happy issues that may be expected from your assem- 
bling. You are here to welcome each other, to hear each other, perhaps 
what is still more delightful, to hear yourselves. The good that may 
arise from the presentation and discussion of views may be diflBcult to 
calculate. You as superintendents are, I suppose, probably with very 
few exceptions, graduates from the corps of working teachers. If so, 
you are familiar and long have been with the complaint so frequently 
in the mouths of teachers, that the public fails to recognize their voca- 
tion as a profession, and only grudgingly, if at all, accords it the dig- 
nity in speech and nomenclature of which it is worthy. I state the fact 
of the complaint without argument, but it occurs to me as aiiropos to 
this occasion to say that there is an element wanting in the strictly pro- 
fessional character of the teacher's vocation which it may be, in the 
course of years, within the power of gatherings like this to supply. 

Strictly speaking there can be no profession in the absence of a 
digested and sj^stematic iirofessional literature, and just that the teach- 
er's art is not furnished with ; of course I speak not of text books -— of the 
making of these there is truly no end — I mean philosophical treatises 
on the fundaments of pedagogy, the philosophy of the mind of youtli in 
distinction to that of the mind of maturity. 

How is it with the law ? I can select two volumes from my library 
and hand them to a young man of parts trained to study and say, 
" Young man, master those two books. You may separate yourself 
jfrom all human intercourse ; you may exclude all other subjects for 
reading or study. If in two years or five years you can come to me 
having thoroughly mastered from these books the principles you find 
asserted and elucidated in them, you are a lawyer." Much will come 
from experience. The application of principles is the test of success, 
but grounded in these principles he is equipped for work, and after 
forty years of work the successful pleader or advocate can point to his 
two or his twenty thousand volumes which have formed his modes of 
thought and have been the source of his strength and power, and say, 
the whole is a perfect and rounded philosophical system, the applica- 
tions of the principles of natural justice to the infinite vicissitudes of 
human experience. I wiU not enlarge on so fascinating a theme ; it is 
so in the other learned professions. Paul and the Apostles, St. Augus- 

58 



DEPARTMENT OF SUPERINTENDENCE. It 

tine aud the fathers, speak from every pulpit ; Hii)pocrates and Galen 
minister at every bedside. A s^^stematized philosophical professional 
literature is the source of all strength and power. 

I beg leave to suggest that your assembly may, while not intending 
it even, contribute to so wholesome a result. Literature is an evolution ; 
the fittest survives. Some words here spoken may strike new veins of 
thought, and your humblest speaker may turn out to be the educational 
codifier of the future. 

Again, Mr. President and gentlemen, I welcome you in the name of 
the board of education, in the name of the city of New York, in the 
name of its first citizen, the founder of this edifice. 

I beg leave to express the hope that a wise discretion, a faithful sug- 
gestiveness, and a sound wisdom may be present in all your delibera- 
tions. 

Hon. Albert P. Marble, president of the Department of Superin- 
tendence, replied as follows : 

On behalf of the Department of Superintendence I thank you for the 
very kind words of welcome which you have given to this body. The hos- 
pitality of the city of New York we all know something about, and from 
your words we think we shall know considerably more before the week 
is ended. This association has been in existence nearly a quarter of a 
century, and its printed reports published each year form something of 
a literature. There is an inspiration in this noble edifice, devoted from 
top to bottom to education, and we expect that as we enter upon this 
meeting we shall feel it. In conversing with a judge of the supreme 
court, about six months ago, he said to me of the profession to which I 
have the honor to belong that it was greater than to be a judge of the 
supreme court, "because you are the men that make the men that make 
judges.^ And again I wish to thank you on behalf of the association 
for the cordial words of welcome which you have given us ; and now, 
ladies and gentlemen, I wish to say a few words to you. 

The National Educational Association was organized in 1857. We are 
therefore hard upon its quarter centennial. The body is composed of 
l)ersons actively engaged or interested in the work of education. Early 
in the history of the association there were organized within it depart- 
ments composed of those members specially interested in one branch of 
education. These departments have increased in number till we now 
have one of superintendence, one of normal schools, of elementary in- 
struction, of higher education, of industrial education. There is also a 
council of education, designed to formulate conclusions to which the dis- 
cussions of the association may lead. Membership in the general asso- 
ciation is a prerequisite for membership in either of these departments. 
The proceedings of the association and the addresses delivered are 
printed annually in a volume which is distributed among the members. 
The proceedings of the several departments are included in these vol- 
umes, each of three or four hundred pages. 

59 



12 CIRCULARS OF INFORMATION FOR 1881. 

The Department of Superintendence is one of the oldest of these. I 
find it first mentioned in 1858. This, then, must be at least its twen- 
tieth anniversary. It has heretofore held its winter meetings in the city 
of Washington. The membership includes State, city, and township 
superintendents of schools. Superintendents from half, sometimes from 
three-fourths, of the States of the Union attend these meetings. Such 
is the body here met. It was through the influence of this department 
that the Bureau of Education at Washington was established, and Gen- 
eral Garfield made a telling speech in the House of Kepresentatives on 
the passage of the bill creating the Bureau. By means of this Bureau 
information respecting the public schools and all other kinds of educa- 
tion is disseminated. This department is also the medium by wliich the 
latest and the best in educational reforms, especially that which relates 
to the public schools, is spread abroad ; for the interchange of ideas^ 
both in public discussions and in private talk, tends to this result. 

The body which this assembly represents, the teachers of the land, 
are the builders of the future America. Their work is not seen in a 
day; the results are far-reaching; the conducting of a nation's edu- 
cation should command the highest wisdom. Congress legislates for 
the present America with but partial reference to the future. Educa- 
tion relates solely to the future. Is there any grander work than this ? 
If the Interior — largely concerned lately about a few Indians — is made 
a Department of the General Government, how about Education ? It 
may be that the subject ought to be confined in a small bureau ; and it 
may be that it ought not. This department of the Educational Associ- 
ation has never urged more prominence for its affairs. It has chosen to 
work quietly, as the Bureau at Washington has. But the example of 
other nations suggests my inquiry. There is no national control of edu- 
cation ; it may be that there should never be even the semblance of 
such control; but as an individual — for this is not said as a representa- 
tive of the department — I do not see that anybody need to be fright- 
ened, if, in some particulars and with proper restrictions, the National 
Government should act in the matter of public and universal education. 
Why not ? Is it not of interest to each of us whether our fellow citi- 
zens, who participate with us in the exercise of sovereignty, are intelli- 
gent? 

There are many publicists who advocate, in all matters, the fullest 
exercise of local option. They appeal to Jefferson, who is its great 
apostle. Let us see what he says about public education ; it applies to 
all grades. In the discussion of *^A bill for the more general diffusion 
of knowledge'' before the legislature of Virginia, 1779, he said : 

It becomes expedient for promoting the public happiness that those persons wlioiri 
nature hath endowed with genius and virtue should be rendered, l)y liberal education, 
worthy to receive and able to guard the sacred deposit of the rights and liberties of 
their fellow citizeois, and that they should be called to the charge without regard to 
wealth, birth, or other accidental condition or circumstance. But the indigence of 
60 



DEPARTMENT OF SUPERINTENDENCE. 13 

tbe greater uamber, disabling them from so edacating at their own expense those of 
their children whom nature hath fitly formed and disposed to become the useful instru- 
ments of the public, it is better that such should be sought for and educated at the 
common expense of all than that the happiness of all should be confided to the weak 
or wicked. 

There is an awakened interest in this conntry on the subject. The 
New South joins us in fraternal contest to obtain for itself the benefits 
that have flowed from public universal education at the North. In build- 
ing up a new system they at the South have this advantage of us: there 
is no old lumber in the way. The Peabody fund has been a stimulus 
for tliem, and it w ill continue to be so. This new interest at the South 
displays itself in building up ; at the North it shows itself in attacks 
with a view either to reform or to destroy. In either case o'ur critics 
are our best friends. For no institution, no individual, attains its full 
strength without a contest. The young eagle learns to fly by being 
thrown from the cliff; its eye grows strong by gazing on the sun — so 
they say. The child contends with measles, whooping cough, chicken 
pox, and what not before he is a man. We never knew the strength of 
the Government till it was tried. So the public school system must resist 
attacks, or its friends will not know what it is worth. Accordingly, we 
say to Mr. Richard Grant White: "Please write us another Common 
School Failure." We glory in the way the first article was met; we 
didn't know before how strong the schools stand in the affections of the 
people. We leave it to the free college from which he was graduated to 
discipline him; we wait cheerfully the next discharge. Trained in the 
public schools, it may be said that a man ought to know whether they 
are a failure, for he has experienced their influence in his own person. 
But he may not be able to diagnose his own case. Perhaps he does not 
discriminate among the influences to which he has been exposed. A 
man of great ability ought to be satisfied. But if he will attack his 
schools, who knows but he may next find fault with his grandmother? 

The awakened interest in education is evidenced by the reformer, 
numerous varieties of whom make their appearance through the public 
public prints almost daily. They develop scientifically, as they think. 
They are active, and enthusiastic, and visionary, and empirical, and 
alert. Defects they find, of course ; they prescribe a remedy ; it fails. 
They try another ; it does not cure. They create a revolution ; it does 
not pervade the land. And then, exhausted and discouraged, they bow 
the head in sackcloth and sit them down in the wilderness of faded 
hopes and feeble products, which their own morbid imagination has 
created ; and there, like the ancient prophet, the lamenting Jeremiah, 
they dejjlore the forlorn state of our Israel! They might save them- 
selves the trouble of these exi^eriments and failures by studying the 
work of other people. They would see that the race has gone through 
the experience; and that the individual might profit by his ancestors, 
and not try to learn it all for himself. It would be amusing if it were 



14 CIRCULAliS OF INFORMATION FOR 1881. 

not sad to see liow teachers and all concerned in school work are made 
the subject of adverse criticism. No case of fraud comes up but the 
blame is laid at their door; no smash-up on a railroad but the defective 
education in our public schools comes in for a rap; no record of immo- 
rality appears but the '^godless schools" have to take the blame of it. 
If an accident happens in a school such as often happens at home the 
teacher was careless, of course. I cut this from a paper last autumn : 

A SCHOOL TEACHER BURNED TO DEATH. 

Fanuie Knapp, a teaclier in one of the Sutton public schools, was fatally burned 
Monday because one of her pupils threw a lighted match under her dress. The flames 
spread so rapidly that she was injured beyond recovery before they could be extin- 
guished, and she died in a few hours. 

Xot much was said about the unfortunate Fanuie Kuapp. The i)ublic 
was not much concerned about her; she was nothing but a teacher, and 
she was paid a salary. It turned out later that it was the girl, a pupil, 
who had died ; the teacher exposed her own life in trying to extinguish 
the flames; that was all. A good deal was said about the unfortunate 
child, but nothing was made public about the heroism of the teacher! 
If the accident had happened through any fault of hers how " our schools" 
would have been berated. No complaint is made of this tendency; the 
schools can stand it: they will grow better in consequence of it. 

In contrast with the critics and the reformers, are those who expect 
of the public schools the miracle of universal, omnipotent, all pervad- 
ing, ceaseless activity and influence. If a new mode of ventilation is 
devised, it must be applied at once to the public schools; every sani- 
tarj' improvement seeks at once the public schools; every moral 
reform, temperance, sewing for the multitude, cookery, the society for 
preventing cruelty to animals, cruelty to children, cruelty to men and 
women, and everything, and the society to furnish top boots and fur 
mittens to the people of Borneo — all are no sooner provided with a 
chairman and secretary than they move at once upon the public schools 
to inaugurate the new benevolence. They estimate that one-sixth of all 
the population are in school ; a very small contribution from each will 
aggregate a large sum ; each child, when inspired with the new spirit, 
will be a missionary at home; and the whole community can in this way 
be moved. Like Sellers, they think 'there's millions in if Every 
good thing, they think, should be at once introduced into the public 
schools. The fact is, they can't all be introduced there. 

A youthful citizen of a city where this sentiment prevailed full as 
widely as the Maine law was executed, had imbibed this spirit of the age, 
and too much of a spirit unfortunately not confined to this or any other 
age; he reached a conclusion which he announced in front of a saloon, 
with a slow and gloriously indifl:erent tone of voice, and with an air of 
lofty superiority to the ordinary utterances of mankind: " Whiskev's a 
good thing; it ought to be introduced into the public schools." 
62 



DEPARTMENT OF SUPERINTENDENCE. 15 

There is a class in the community which is possessed with the notion 
that all the school methods heretofore adopted and practised are wrong. 
Children must not be condemned to plod away in the old ruts. Let us 
make it interesting for the little folks. No more of the dull, dry study t 
Xomore poring over books. Study nature. Let the child go forth into 
the fields, beside the brooks, and " list to nature's voice " — all in a highly 
poetic strain. That is all very good in moderate quantities. But nature 
alone cannot secure good education; there is work in it, and work means 
sweat. There is, indeed, one easy road, down hill all the way. And you 
know where it leads to ! The friends we are now describing make teach- 
ing almost wholly oral — what the Orientals would call '' chin-chin.'' 

There is philosophy, if not modern " methods of education," in the 
following : 

Deer Isle, np near Mouut Desert, has plenty of schools for the native children, but 
all the boys are rushed through the course at an early age and sent to sea, for which 
they are prepared by a course of navigation. One young chap had a teacher who was 
fond of natural history but did not know much about mathematics. One day, after 
she had given him a long dissertation upon a bee that had flown in at the window, 
the little fellow, who knew he could have at the longest only three months' schooling 
before going to sea, suddenly exclaimed: '* I say, missis, 'sense me, but I dunno a« I 
care how a bumblebee's wings is made; I hain't no time for sech things; I want to 
know how to cipher ! " 

Turning, now, from the elementarj^ schools, let us for a moment con- 
sider another class of ^' educators" who aim at a higher state than the 
ordinary mortal attains. In the classic shades of some ancient univer- 
sity, they pass through all the philosophy of the ancient classics ; Greece 
and Rome they exhaust: they wing their adventurous flight to the pre- 
historic philosophy of the east; Buddha and Confucius they note in 
l>assing; and then they go on to protoplasm, the original germ of things, 
primordial cells, and the development theory of the physical man ; and 
beyond this they advance to the primordial cells of mind, the essence 
of the uncreated ego^ and the great First Cause, the ethereal, idealistic 
entity, or whatever it is called, the mother, the original matrix of the 
universe. 

With these superior beings, so developed, etherealized, and subli- 
mated, the ordinary affairs of the world dwindle into insignificance 5 the 
things that engage common men sink into nothingness. These philoso- 
phers affect an '^indifference." In their eyes you see the dreamy, far off 
look which betokens the sage rapt in the contemplation of the great 
unknowable and the unattainable. They are often unsuited for the 
business, the pleasures, the achievements of this century and this age. 
To the question of the training of the young they come clothed in doubts 
concerning the possibility that the mass of men can ever attain that 
blissful state to which they have come. They give up as hopeless the 
attempt to raise the multitude; and so they confine themselves to the 
problem of opening the eyes of the select few who may attain Nirvana, 

63 



16 CIRCULARS OF INFORMATION FOR 1881. 

the blissful state of Buddha. This state, which they have reached, is 
thus set forth in the Light of Asia by Edwin Arnold, lately published: 

ThtiB "finishing the Path;" free from Earth's cheats; 
Released from aU the skandhas of the fiesh ; 
Broken from ties — fr'om UpMilnas — saved 
From whirling on the wheel ; aroused and sane 
As is a man wakened from hateful dreams. 
Until — greater than Kings, than Gods more glad! — 
The aching craze to live ends, and life glides — 
Lifeless — to nameless quiet, nameless joy, 
Blessed Nirvana — sinless, stirless rest — 
That change which never changes! 

Let the demigods rejoice in that state and admit to it the few conge- 
nial spirits whom they can find. We want none of it in tliis country 
except as a spice, a condiment to mingle in little doses to flavor the 
body politic. 

Another class of our friends seek in the public schools preparation for 
every trade and occupation in life. They confound the general prepa- 
ration which we ought to give and can give with that special preparation 
which comes of long practice in actual affairs. Instead of a geography, 
they would substitute a plane ; for a slate, they put in a hammer. This 
l)laying at work is a sham ; the boy sees it to be a sham ; he becomes 
a sham. True education is broader than that. Hear what Horace Mann 
said forty years ago : 

Far above and beyond all special qualifications for special pursuits is the impor- 
tance of forming to usefulness and honor the capacities which are common to all man. 
kind. The endowments that belong to all are of far greater consequence than the 
peculiarities of any. The practical farmer, the ingenious mechanic, the talented 
artist, the upright legislator or judge, the accomplished teacher, are only modifica- 
tions or varieties of the original man. The man is the trunk ; the occupations and 
professions are only different qualities of the fruit it yields. The development of the 
common nature, the cultivation of the germs of intelligence, uprightness, benevolence, 
truth, that belong to all — these are the principal, the aim, the end; while special 
preparation for the field or the shop, for the forum or the desk, for the land or the 
sea, are but incidents. 

Standing on tliis broad foundation, the development of man, the schools 
will be useful and rest secure. The contiguous territory of all sorts of 
trades in school is sand. Whoever builds upon it will see his house 
swept away. And within the proper sphere of public school education 
there is Wv.rk enough to do. 

Into this great mart, with the products of every land, float the peoples 
of the whole world. Here, the liberty loving Englishman escapes the 
restraints of an insular life ; the sturdy Scotchman plants his family 
tree on this soil ; the Irishman finds here the freedom denied him at 
home. Here the mercurial Frenchman and the phlegmatic German min- 
gle, with a product better than either. Spain and Italy, Austria and 
Turkey, Eussia and Sweden, Korway and Denmark, send their quota to 
make the city cosmopolitan. Asia, Africa, and the islands of the sea 

64 



DEPARTMENT OF SUPERINTENDENCE. 17 

make contribution to a society here, where all peoples, tribes, and tongues 
meet, and whence issue streams to flow all over the laijd. This city 
needs, the country needs, some alembic in which these heterogeneous 
elements shall be fused into homogeneity ; some agent or force that shall 
transmit all nationalities into American citizens. That alembic is the 
public schools ; that force is education. 

Mr. Marble then read the announcements for the meetings of the 
week, and introduced William T. Harris, ll. d., of St. Louis, who 
read a paper on " The present aspect of education,'' the manuscript of 
which has not been revised in time for this publication. 

At the conclusion of this paper the department adjourned to meet 
the next morning at the hall of the Young Men's Christian Association. 

SECOND SESSION — WEDNESDAY MORNING. 

New York, February 9, 1881. 
The second session was held at 9.30 A. m., in the hall of the Young 
Men's Christian Association. Mr. Marble called the meeting to order, 
and said that as the secretary and treasurer were absent, the first 
business would be the election of an officer pro tempore, whose duty 
would be to report the meeting, collect fees, &c. Mr. H. M. Harrington, 
of Bridgeport, Conn., was nominated and elected unanimously. Mr. 
Marble then introduced Superintendent Andrew McMillan, of Utica, 
N. Y. 

Mr. McMillan said: 

In the first place I propose to inquire whether statistics are necessary 
as aids to our work, and, if tfiey are, then whether they ought to be 
specific and accurate in all respects, throwing away all estimates and 
getting down to exact facts 5 and, in the next place, whether they ought 
not to be uniform, so that we can make comparisons readily. 

He then proceeded to read the following paper : 

uniformity of school statistics. 

Statistical facts, however crude in character or limited in extent, 
have been recognized by all nations as the legitimate foundation for the 
operations of general government. These were at first collected in the 
simplest form, being merely an enumeration of the population, chiefly 
for the purpose of ascertaining the numerical national strength, for the 
purposes of offensive or defensive military operations 5 hence, the census 
of population may be reckoned as the progenitor of all statistical systems. 

The establishment of governments brought also the necessity of pro- 
viding means for their support ; hence the imposition of taxes upon the 
resources, mainly the industries, of the country. 

The collection of these revenues necessarily disclosed the social, phys- 
ical, and intellectual condition of the people, furnishing data on which 
2 CIR 65 



18 CIRCUL.VRS OF INFORMATION FOR 1881. 

plans of government were framed and operated. Thus, in a primitive : 
manner, at a .period far remote from the present, was laid the founda- 
tion for our present comprehensive system of statistics, to which we are 
very largely indebted for a fund of general knowledge. 

As early as the fourteenth century statistical records were officially 
made, and of such importance to students of political science were they 
deemed, that elaborate works descriptive of commerce, population, &c., 
were compiled, published, and used as text books in the universities of 
the principal countries of the Old World. 

In the sixteenth century valuable works on this subject were published 
from time to time, and widely circulated, some of them going through 
several editions. 

Prom these small beginnings originated the system of collated statis- 
tical information, upon which all progress, whether scientific, physical, 
moral, or intellectual, is established and carried forward. Says an em- 
inent writer: "That it is necessary for a government, in order to gov- 
ern well, to acquire information upon matters affecting the condition 
and interests of the people, is obvious. Indeed, the civilization of a 
country may almost be measured by the completeness of its statistics. 
However rude the government may be, it cannot attempt to make laws 
without having acquired the means of forming a judgment, however 
imperfect, as to the matters brought under its consideration. In this 
sense, statistics may be said to be coeval with legislation.'' Although 
the value of statistical information was universally acknowledged, no 
action seems to have been taken looking to the establishment of an 
international congress of statisticians until the year 1853. At that period, 
however, delegates from the various representative governments of the 
Old World, uniting with our own, met in conference in Brussels for the 
purpose of effecting harmony and uniformity in the statistical work of 
nations. Much was accomplished for the object contemplated, which 
was, to enable each government to make comparisons readily and accu- 
rately with the others. The results prove that incalculable benefits 
Jiave accrued to all from the efforts of this convention. 

In our own country rapid advancement has been made in collecting and 
disseminating statistical information, both by the Government and vari- 
ous societies devoted to the purpose. If in private life an individual 
would be successful in business, he must at the close of each year know 
the exact condition of his affairs as compared with that of previous 
years, that he may thus be enabled to arrange his plans for the future. 
So, also, must a government annually ascertain the exact condition of 
all the departments of which it is composed. No legislator is competent 
to assist in framing the laws of a country without first having made him- 
self familiar with the moral, social, and political condition of the people. 

This knowledge can only be obtained by studying statistics relative 
to the material resources, industries, education, and other topics of his 
own country and of other nations. Thus only will he be enabled by com- 

66 



DEPARTMENT OF SUPERINTENDENCE. 19 

parison and study to recommend the passage of laws that will tend to 
the general improvement of his state or countrj^. 

In collecting statistics the government of course must take a compre- 
hensive view of the needs of the several departments that unitedly aim 
at the welfare and prosperity of the country, each department, how- 
ever, especially desiring to study mainly such matters as pertain to its 
special work. The agriculturist seeks information in regard to improve- 
ments in agricultural implements, the extent of the land under cultiva- 
tion, its adaptiveness to certain crops. Statistics in regard to the extent 
and condition of agriculture will virtually control the market in bread- 
stuffs, not only here, but in foreign countries. 

Manufacturing interests are affected by statistical knowledge of sup- 
ply and demand 5 knowledge which also forms the basis upon which to 
extend commerce, build canals, conduct railroads, and found cities. It 
reaches far into every plan of social and political economy affecting the 
interests of individuals as well as communities. So in all departments 
of government is correct statistical information not only desirable, but 
absolutely indispensable. 

In the department of education we may learn much through the reg- 
ular channel of personal observation in our routine duty, we may experi- 
ment with the varied methods of teaching, adopt new plans of discipline, 
improve and extend the course of study, and by noting mistakes and 
remedying imperfections bring our respective departments of school 
work to a condition somewhat commensurate with our high standard ; 
but much piore could be accomplished were we able to add to this local 
knowledge general statistical facts bearing upon the subject, and col- 
lected from aU parts of the country, which should se^e as the basis of 
comparison and useful deduction. With the ample provision made by 
government for collecting facts connected with schools, it would seem 
that we have but to turn to ofiOicial reports to obtain all desired informa- 
tion. But it is just here we are confronted by an obstacle of no small 
dimensions, and which so far as I know nowhere else exists in the wide 
domain of statistical research. I refer to the lack of uniformity in the 
methods of collecting facts and data pertaining to school work in the 
different States of the Union. 

It is admitted in the outset that special acts adapted to widely diver- 
sified districts necessarily involve a large amount of detailed statement. 
But this detailed work can be so condensed and generalized as to be- 
come available for State and national reports. I refer now, however, to 
the irregular systems of keeping school statistics, which are not only 
apx>arently unnecessary, but render reports coming from the several 
States nearly useless for purposes of useful comparison. 

Take, for example, statistics in regard to the legal school age as it 
exists in the various States. This is of course an arbitrary enactment, 
made for the purpose of securing an equal distribution of the State school 
fund among the various districts in just proportion to the school popu- 

67 



20 CIRCULARS OF INFORMATION FOR 1881. 

lation of each. But pecuniarily it can make no difference whether the 
limits of that age be prescribed as 4 and 21 or 6 and 18 years, since the 
pro rata will be the same in either case. 

In illustration I cannot do better than refer to the last annual report 
of General Eaton, United States Commissioner of Education. 

From this document the legal school age, as reported from 38 States, 
6 Territories, 3 Indian reservations, and the District of Columbia, is as 
follows : 

Of 5 it is from 4 to 21. Of 1 it is from 7 to 18. 

Of 8 it is from 5 to 21. Of 1 it is from 10 to 18. 

Of 9 it is from 6 to 21. Of 1 it is from 5 to 17. 

Of 3 it is from 7 to 21. Of 1 it is from 6 to 17. 

Of 2 it is from 4 to 20. Of 1 it is from 4 to 16. 

Of 3 it is from 5 to 20. Of 2 it is from 6 to 16. 

Of 3 it is from 6 to 20. Of 2 it is from 5 to 15. 

Of 2 it is from 5 to 18. Of 1 it is from 8 to 14. 
Of 3 it is from 6 to 18. 

From these data we find that 17 different periods of time are estab- 
lished as legal school age in forty-eight States and districts. For pur- 
poses of comparison it will be seen that this report of school population 
of the United States is not only valueless, but may lead to misapprehen- 
sion and gross deception, as one or two examples will clearly show. The 
legal school age in the State of Florida is from 4 to 21 years, being a 
period of 17 years, while in the State of Texas it is from 8 to 14, or a 
period of only 6 years. Hence, we find a striking disproportion in these 
two States of children of school age as compared with the entire pop- 
ulation. 

Again, the State of New York prescribes the school age as from 5 to 
21 years, while the State of Massachusetts limits it to 5 and 15 years. 
Again, referring to General Eaton's report, I find the school population 
of the State of New York to be 1,615,256 and the number of pupils en- 
rolled in school to be 1,032,052, showing 583,204 persons of legal school 
age not attending school during the entire year. In Massachusetts the 
number of children of school age, according to the same report, was 
297,202, and there were enrolled in school 310,181 pupils, being 12,979 
more than the entire school population. Judging from this statistical 
standpoint the inference is clear that illiteracy is much greater in New 
York than in Massachusetts, which is not true, as the last published 
United States census report shows that the number of persons above 10 
years of dge who cannot read is 1 per cent, greater in Massachusetts 
than in the State of New York. Could the same school age be adopted 
in all the States, this difficulty and confusion in the comparison of sta- 
tistics on this point would be avoided, and at the same time they would 
be just as useful for local purposes. 

There is also a great difference in the manner of keeping the financial 
statistics, not only in the different States, but also in the different dis- 

68 



DEPARTMENT OF SUPERINTENDENCE. 21 

tricts of the same State. This often leads to unintentloaal injustice, 
especially in regard to the comparative cost per pupil for a year's tuition, 
as the comparison is made on the entire amount expended for all school 
purposes instead of on the current expenses. Tables founded on these 
reports are often arranged in years when some districts or cities have 
erected one or more school-houses, while in others no extra expenses 
have been incurred. Of course the tuition would be much greater in* 
proportion in one catie than in the other, as the new school-houses may 
cost as much in that particular year as the entire contingent expenses. 
Would it not be wise, therefore, to classify expenses under two general 
heads, as ordinary or current expenses and extraordinary expenses'? 

It seems to me there might be more uniformity in the manner of keep- 
ing the records of school attendance. In some cases the average at- 
tendance is made out at the close of each month, and the yearly average 
is compiled from these monthly reports ; while others make the average 
for the entire year. 

Again, there is a great diversity in obtaining the number belonging, 
some striking the names of pupils from the roll after an absence of five 
consecutive days, and others after an absence of ten days, &c. Perhaps 
this, however, is not of so much consequence, as all manage to get the 
average attendance on number belonging at about 98 per cent. I believe, 
however, that this average is not required in State reports, and ought 
to be stricken from all reports. The whole number enrolled and the 
average attendance are all that is needed for comparison. 

I might go on and point out many other discrepancies in the present 
manner of keeping school statistics, but enough have doubtless been 
presented to show that reform is needed in this department of our work. 
In closing, I will present for the consideration of this association the 
following outline for blanks for keeping school statistics sufficiently in 
detail for general reference, and which can easily be compiled from the 
more detailed reports that may be required in different localities. 

ANNUAL REPORT FOR CITIES OR DISTRICTS. 

1. Total population according to the last national or State census, . 

2. Number of children between the ages of 6 and 16 residing in the at the 

-date of this report, . 



3. Number of public schools in the , . 

4. Number of private schools in the , . 

5. Number of pupils enrolled in the public schools during the year. Boys, ; 

girls, ; total, . 

6. Number of pupils enrolled in the private schools during the year. Boys, ; 

girls, ; total, . 

7. Whole number of days' attendance of pupils in the public schools during the year, 
• ; boys, ; girls, ; total, . 

8. Whole number of days the schools were in session during the year, . 

9. Average daily attendance of pupils in the public schools during the year, found 

by dividing the whole number of days' attendance by the number of days the schools 

▼ere in session. Boys, ; girls, ; total, . 

69 



22 CIECULARS OF INFORMATION FOE 1881. 

10. Number of teachers employed in the public schools during the year. Male, ; 

female, ; total, . 

11. Number of teachers licensed by State authorities. Male, ; female, r 

total . 

12. Number of teachers licensed by local authorities. Male, ; female, ; 

*otal . 

13. Annual salary paid men principals. Maximum, ; minimum, ; average. 



14. Annual salary paid women principals. Maximum, « ; minimum, ; aver- 
age, . 

15. Annual salary paid men assistants. Maximum, ; minimum, ; aver- 
age, ^ . 

16. Annual salary paid women assistants. Maximum, ; minimum, - — ; aver- 
age, . 



17. Number of volumes in public school libraries, . 

18. Total value of library, . 

19. The number of public school-houses in the is : Frame, ; brick, 

stone, ; total . 

20. Total number of sittings in all the sehool-houses, . 

' houses, ; 



21. Value of school property : < 



sites, ; 

furniture, - 



apparatus, — 
^ total, . 

FINANCIAL. 

Beceipts. 



1 

• 



1. Amount on hand at date of last report . . 

2. Amount received from State fund 

3. Amount received from local tax 

4. Amount received from all other sources , 



Total 

Expenditures. 
Ordinary expenses : 

1. Teachers' wages 

2. Supervision 

3. Janitors' salaries 

4. Fuel 

5. For ordinary repairs 

6. School books 

7. All other incidental expenses, such as printing, rent, &c 



Total 

Extraordinary expenses : 

1. For sites 

2. For building and purchasing school-houses 

3. For extraordinary repairs I 

4. For new furniture and apparatus 

5. For new library books 



Total 

Amount on hand at date of this report 



Total 

6. Assessed valuation of the city or district 
70 



DEPARTMENT OF SUPERINTENDENCE. 23 

( ordinary 

7. Total tax for school purposes : <( extraordinary 

( total 

C. Tax per dollar on the assessed valuation of the city, for ordinary expenses . . 

9. Tax per dollar on the assessed valuation of the city, for extraordinary expenses. 

10. Average expense per capita for year's tuition, based on number enrolled, 
including incidental or ordinary expenses ^ 

The discussion of this subject being laid before the meeting, Mr. 
Stone, of Springfield, Mass., said that he had listened to the reading 
of the paper with a great deal of interest, and was glad that other people 
were bewildered in attempting to compare the school statistics of the 
different cities. He did not see how this matter could be reached unless 
by compelling the adoption of a uniform system. He said that the 
populations of Springfield and Portland were nearly the same, while 
the school population of Portland was 10,000 and of Springfield only 
6,000, owing to the difference in the school age in the two places. He 
thought that the per cent, or average attendance was often very mislead- 
ing. He had only a day or two before visited a school where there 
were only twelve present, forty-four pupils having the measles* 

Mr. McMlllan said he thought the gentleman (Mr. Stone) had mis- 
understood him 5 that he had taken very broad grounds. He sympa- 
thized very much with Mr. Stone that there was not more uniformity 
especially in regard to school population. 

General Eaton said that different localities recognized school periods 
of different lengths for special reasons. He thought that children 
should be enumerated by years, from 5 to 21, perhaps, inclusive. Then 
there would be no difficulty in making comparisons. In 1870 the 
Bureau of Education had great difficulty in making its tables so as 
not to be misleading, but now, notwithstanding the differences in the 
school period in the different States, it was able to present tables of 
two hundred cities quite safe to study. General Walker has now col- 
lected his schedules for the census, and in them is contained the very 
information that Dr. Stone wants and that all want. He understood 
that General Walker had asked Congress for an additional appropria- 
tion in order to properly compile these schedules. In conclusion, re- 
ferring to the high school discussion as a great question agitating the 
public mind to-day, he said that a foreigner coming to this country found 
the high school in our cities a distinctive American feature, one specially 
and most closely connected with the large intelligent class upon which 
the strength and vigor of American institutions especially depend, and 
added that a suitable method of reporting the facts connected with this 
grade of instruction is needed, so that it may be properly understood. 

Dr. Phelbbick spoke of the high estimation in which the school sta- 
tistics of the United States are held in Europe. 

Mr. Smart said that there was nothing so uncertain as facts except 
figures; that facts often lied and figures generally did; and so he 
thought there could be no subject which could be discussed to more 

Tl 



24 ,CIRCrULAE8 OF INFORMATION FOE 1881. 

advantage than this. He said that a certain per cent, would be found 
enrolled in the public schools, and that Massachusetts was given as 110 
per cent, because the children were enumerated from 5 to 15 years of 
age and admitted after they were 15. He thought that it was very 
necessary to have the information contained in General Walker's sched- 
ules, and moved that a committee of five be appointed by the chair to 
present this matter to the attention of Congress. 

Considerable discussion ensued as to the number on committees and 
their duties, participated in by Messrs. Wickersham, Eaton, and Phil- 
brick; and the chair (Mr. Marble) then appointed the following com- 
mittees: 

To memorialize Congress: J. H. Smart, Indiana; A. P. Stone, Massa- 
chusetts; Aaron Gove, Colorado; D. F. DeWolf, Ohio;- M. A. I^ewell, 
Maryland. 

Committee on the unification of school statistics: J. D. Philbrick, Mas- 
sachusetts; J. P. Wickersham, Pennsylvania; C. W. von Coelln, Iowa; 
A. Parish, Connecticut; J. O. Wilson, District of Columbia; James P« 
Slade, Illinois; W. W. Waterman, Massachusetts; N. C. Dougherty, Il- 
linois; E. A. Hubbard, Massachusetts; Andrew McMillan, New York. 

After a recess of five minutes, Mr. Marble read invitations for the 
members of the association to visit a number of schools, and more espe- 
cially the Formal College of the City of New York. 

WEAK PLACES IN OUR SCHOOL SYSTEM. 

Mr. Marble then called upon Hon. J. P. Wickersham, State super- 
intendent of public instruction of Pennsylvania, who said: 

As the president is aware, I have no formal paper to read on this 
question. All I propose to do is to make a few remarks, pointing out 
with a friendly spirit such weak places as I have met with in the admin- 
istration of public education. We have had very severe criticisms of 
late upon our system of education, from the outside. They do not receive 
from me any great sympathy, because they are written by persons very 
little acquainted with the public school system. 

A prudent general before beginning a battle rides along the line for 
the purpose of ascertaining whether there are any weak places that the 
enemy might take advantage of. We ^re fighting the great battle of 
public education, the education of the people, and it has seemed to me 
that as superintendents it would be very wise for us to look along our 
line and see if there are not some weak places that an enemy might 
take advantage of in a close fight, in the close fight which is coming. 

I have little sympathy with the recent book by " Gail Hamilton." As 
she looks at it, our system has too close an organization; the teacher is 
not free enough to work out his own individuality. These criticisms it 
seems to me are not well founded. She ought to have remembered that 
there is a kind of organization that builds up, and does not tear down 

72 



DEPARTMENT OF SUPERINTENDENCE. 25 

or repress; that organizatioii is necessary in every great work; that noth- 
ing is accomplished without it ; and although here and there this great ' 
machine may press heavily upon one or another, yet we must have a 
machine in education as in everything else, and machines are good 
things, even in politics, provided they aim at a high purpose. This book, 
Mr. President, I consider a weak book. 

Then we have the criticism of Eichard Grant White. Who is Eichard 
Grant White 1 What does he know about our syst^ems of education ? Has 
he ever attended our educational meetings ? What does he know, that 
he should undertake to pronounce our public school system a failure? 
What experience has he had that he can speak on this subject f I have 
no hesitation in pronouncing that paper of his, as published in the Korth 
American Eeview, as unworthy of the subject, unworthy of the author, 
and unworthy of the great Eeview in which it appeared. 

He quotes as proof of these failures that the applicants at West Point 
have not succeeded as well in late as in former years. You and I know 
that this is not the fact. This has again and again been proven to be 
untrue. 

First of all, I think it a weakness that school boards' and school com- 
mittees do not i)ossess a greater knowledge of the subject of their duties. 
They are elected by the people in nearly all our school districts, large 
and small. I know there are a few exceptions. I think it a weakness 
that they do not possess more special knowledge in reference to the mat- 
ter intrusted to their hands. These gentlemen are generally men of 
intelligence. They are good business men. They are lawyers, doctors, 
clergymen, merchants, farmers, and are generally selected judiciously 5 
and yet their want of special knowledge is a weakness. 

As school directors these gentlemen are intrusted everywhere with the 
duty of providing apparatus and text books. No one but a teacher, and 
no one but an expert teacher, is prepared to do this. Again, the duty 
of these gentlemen is to construct a course of study. This is one of the 
most diflBicult pedagogical subjects that we have to deal with. Then, 
too, they are to be the judges of results of teaching, of methods of edu- 
cation, and the selection of teachers, and yet they are not specially fitted 
for it. The only discovery made at Quincy was that the members of the 
committee were unfitted to deal with the question of public schools; but 
this was a discovery of the greatest value, and should be made known 
everywhere. 

Now, Mr. President, I want to point out another weakness, that is, the 
want of more experts in the work of supervision. We have probably a 
thousand gentlemen holding the position of superintendent of schools in 
States, cities, and counties throughout this country. We need a larger 
number who will devote their lives to the business of supervising schools. 
The work of supervising schools in this country is not well done, is not 
thoroughly done. We need a much larger force. Probably no State in 
this country is better organized than my own. We have ninety-two 

73 



26 CIRCULARS OF INFORMATION FOR 1881. 

superintendents in my State, and they are all commissioned by the de- 
partment of public instruction, and all work together as one man. But 
then we have not half as many in the State of Pennsylvania as we need. 
We must look to it all along the line, that wherever we can we may 
strengthen it. It is weak in this respect in Ohio and weak in Massachu- 
setts and weak elsewhere. We should strengthen this right arm of the 
whole system. 

Now, Mr. President, let me point out another weakness, which is that 
the status of the teacher in the United States of America is not very 
satisfactory. It requires high art to educate a child. It requires far 
more skill than to chisel out a statue or paint a picture. Yet, the most 
difficult art in the world, the most difficult of all arts, is to train a child 
up to be a man, a full grown man. How young the teachers are! How 
frequently they are changed! We have them about five years, and then 
they are gone. Their term is short, their salary low, their tenure of 
office uncertain. We should see to it that the status of the teacher 
should be more satisfactory. We should multiply our normal schools 
and make them better. We should increase our teachers' salaries and 
press forward the whole work of lifting teachers up to a higher profes- 
sional plane. 

I want to call your attention to another weakness, and that is, chil- 
dren are not kept in school long enough. Large numbers leave school 
at an early age. Many children simply learn the elements of reading, 
writing, and arithmetic. And should the public school system be held 
responsible for those that attend the public schools but for a day, or 
month, or year ? You will find in the prisons of the country a large 
number of those who have been in the schools for a short period ; very 
few who have graduated from high schools. More than half of the in- 
mates of prisons have been at the public schools a short time, but have 
acquired only the mere elements of knowledge, and therefore the public 
schools are not to be held responsible for a weakness of that character. 

And this leads me to point out only one other weakness, and that is, 
that we still want a plan by which those that do not go to school can be 
brought into school. I have not much faith in a compulsory law in this 
country ; that is, by means of fines and punishments. But there must be 
a way, and we must find a way, to gather these children into some suit- 
able institution. I think perhaps it can be solved in this way: by mak- 
ing it the duty of school boards as much to look after the children out 
of school as those that are in school. Then give them power to appoint 
an agent, half constable and half missionary, more missionary than con- 
stable, and bring them into the schools. School boards and teachers 
and good citizens can do much, and, to make their efforts fully effective, 
there ought to be schools for neglected children in all cities and thickly 
settled counties. 

These weaknesses are of a general character. These are the points 
at which our system is weak, and which, if we want to win a victory 

74 



DEPARTMENT OF SUPERINTENDENCE. 27 

for education in this country, we must apply the necessary means to 
strengthen. 

Hon. B. G. KoRTHROP, secretary of the State board of education of 
Connecticut, said : 

I will merely give a skeleton of the points I will urge. I think it is 
a point of great weakness that we have not in Washington a high 
school. It is necessary, if a high school be maintained in that city, 
that it should be supported by the National Government. 

I think a cardinal weakness is the insufficient qualifications on the 
part of our teachers. If we can have throughout America well qualified 
teachers we shall rejoice. When the Bishop of Manchester was in this 
country, M. Hippeau, of France, was here also. Each made his report 
to his own government, declaring that in the schools of America the 
one defect was the lack of thoroughly qualified teachers. 

I sympathize thoroughly with what has been said on the point of 
more competent and thorough supervision. Our schools suffer on ac- 
count of too frequent rotation in office. It is exceedingly desirable that 
this business should not be influenced by political motives. This is a 
great damage to the system. On that point I need not enlarge. 

Our friend has set forth the great weakness of non-attendance. It is 
a startling weakness, and we ought at once to prescribe a remedy. 
Every trade union is unanimous in enforcing compulsory education. I 
should deem a journey to the remotest corner of Connecticut amply 
repaid if it would bring in one child to the school. 

I think one other point of great weakness, not in our system, but of 
teaching, is that developed in Quincy ; that is, they showed there that 
hitherto the greatest weakness in American schools was in the failure 
to develop power of expression. Girard used to say: "The mother 
tongue — the great educator." 

Another point is in the dread, in the fear, which American teachers — 
and, I think sometimes, American superintendents — have of developing 
the memory. I do not hesitate to say that you cannot develop it too 
much. I would not advocate memorizing anything that cannot be un- 
derstood. I do advocate the committing to mind of the gems of litera- 
ture. 

Mr. DeWolf, of Ohio, said that it seemed that they were in the 
very infancy of knowledge in regard to remedies. How shall the status 
of the teachers in the country to-day be changed ? How shall the influ- 
ence of teachers be made to be felt outside the school room f It seemed 
to him that it was not enough to recapitulate these weaknesses, but 
that thought should be given to changing these things in the several 
States. 

Mr. Parish, of Connecticut, would not pretend to offer a remedy for 
all the difficulties considered. Good teachers are wanted. Where 
shall they be obtained ? Where is the power to demand good teachers 

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28 CIRCULARS OF INFORMATION FOR 1881. 

• 

and provide the means by which they should be made ? Liberal appro- 
priations are wanted for the schools. In his judgment, if one single 
class of persons of the community could be reached, these weaknesses 
would be removed, and that class is the parents. Theirs were the chil- 
dren in the schools. They had the most interest in them; not the 
teacher ; not the school committee. The teacher should go to the home 
and see what the father and mother think of the conduct of the child. 
If the parents can be reached, there is a beginning made to rectify this 
wljole work. 
Mr. Smart, of Indiana^ offered the following resolution : 

Beaolvedf That the Superintendents' Department of the National Educational Asso- 
ciation, now in session, hereby tenders to the Hon. Thomas R. Cobb, of Indiana, 
thanks for his effort to secure from Congress adequate appropriations for the support 
of the public schools of the District of Columbia, and especially for his recent endeav- 
ors to secure an additional appropriation for the purpose of erecting a high school 
building in Washington, thus aiding in making permanent provision in the capital of 
the country for that most important part of our American common school system, the 
free public high school. 

This resolution was adopted, and the meeting then adjourned, to meet 
in the same place at 3 p. m. 

THIRD SESSION— WEDNESDAY AFTERNOON. 

New York, February 9, 1881. 

Mr. Marble called the meeting to order, and, there being no business 
to come before it, at once introduced Prof. Charles O. Thompson, of 
Worcester, Mass., who read the following paper: 

THE CONSERVATION OF PEDAGOGIC ENERGY. 

The doctrine of the conservation of energy has given a forward im- 
pulse to all the physical sciences. When Joule showed that heat can 
be measured in units of work, and Tyndall, following Faraday's pregnant 
suggestions, discerned the law under which heat, light, and electricity 
are grouped as modes of motion, all thoughtful persons saw that whole 
continents of truth lay open to exploration. Physicists arose and 
trimmed their lamps. Mathematicians contrived new algebras for this 
new service; foot pounds, ohms, and farads speedily became familiar 
words ; innumerable phenomena which had been vagrants for lack of 
control came trooping into line under the new laws which had been rap- 
idly announced. Even the inner sanctuary of thought has been invaded, 
and men are accustoming themselves to think of thinking as so much 
molecular change in the substance of the brain. The possible discovery 
of a physical method of recording thoughts from the molecular activity 
of the brain cells is no more to be dismissed as an idle vagary than the 
telephone and photophone were fifty years ago. 

It is not remarkable that the brilliancy of the sudden and enormous 
gains in the scope of the sciences of matter should have obscured the 

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DEPARTMENT OF SUPERINTENDENCE. 29 

importance of the sciences of mind. Mankind have always studied first 
those phenomena which are most remote from themselves, and they 
have made steady progress towards themselves. Astronomy was a robust 
science, dwelling in secure round towers, when chemistry was bom, and 
much more is known concerning chemistry than is known about the 
mind. 

To such an extent have men been overpowered by the rush of new 
discoveries in physics that many have set about applying the methods 
of physical research to the phenomena of mind. This, of course, was 
a questionable process ; but it is most natural that the quickening of 
mind produced by physical research should have extended over the 
whole field of thought, and that men should demand increasing econ- 
omy in immaterial agencies when they saw the enormous gains in con- 
trol and economizing of the forces of nature. 

Those who think at all are becoming rapidly familiar with the methods 
by which physical science secures the most economical conversion of one 
form of energy into another, and are fretful over the results of school 
work. Without any thought of measuring an immaterial product by 
material units, it is yet impossible to avoid the effect which a habit of 
exactness in dealing with one form of energy has upon all thinking 
upon any other form. If by exact methods great economy has been 
secured in the conservation of physical energy, a reasonable and just 
demand is sure to follow for greater economy in the use of every form of 
energy. It is not difficult to explain the present critical temper of the 
public mind towards the public school on this principle -, and this criti- 
cal temper is full of omens of good, for criticism is directed, not against 
the end of the public school, but against the methods by which that end 
is sought 5 for, passing by the dreamers who would abolish discipline 
and have learning consist in an indolent absorption of agreeable informa- 
tion, and the wise men who would recall the mediaeval seclusion of the 
learned, it is true that the masses of the people believe in public schools 
and sustain them by large appropriations in spite of recognized defects 
in the management of them. There is not the slightest indication in any 
quarter of any weakening of the faith of the people of the United States 
in the common school. Assuming, then, that the schools rest on a sure 
basis in the popular conviction of their necessity, I propose in this 
pax>er to inquire how the pedagogic energy now expended is uselessly 
dissipated, and how more of" it can be converted into a better kind of 
man and woman. 

A few definitions may help us. 

Physical energy is the capability of doing work. It is either potential, 
as in a bent spring, when it can do work but does it not, or actual, when 
it does it, as in the spring released. The pendulum at the end of its 
swing has only potential energy; at the middle, only actual. Energy is 
the result of force. Of force we know nothing, except as it is revealed 
in energy. 

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30 CIRCULARS OF INFORMATION FOR 1881. 

Pedagogic energy is the result of teaching force. Of teaching force 
we know nothing more than that it is the power of one mind to awaken, 
keep alive, and direct a desire for knowledge in another mind. It is 
given in the structure of some minds. It cannot be imparted or acquired. 
At least there is no way known of doing this. It is an endowment 
akin in nature to that of the painter or sculptor. 

It is often confounded with skill, but it is not skill, for this may be 
acquired by manipulation, as the skill of the file cutter or die sinker. 
Like any other similar artistic endowment it can be broadened by knowl- 
edge and deepened by training. Thoroughly well informed, discreet, 
enthusiastic, and conscientious persons can often simulate these traits 
and act upon other minds in a way much like that of a teacher, as Mr. 
HoUey once won a wager by running an engine on a level track for a 
mile, without any fire or steam, by filling the boiler with compressed air. 
But the teaching force is instantly recognized when it is disclosed in 
pedagogic energy, though it eludes our analysis. 

Like every form of energy, a large part of this is now dissipated. 
The conservation of energy is the conversion of the largest possible 
amount of it into other forms. 

The end in view in a school is to make the most of the best possible 
teacher by giving his store of pedagogic energy free play upon the minds 
of his pupils. 

All the many forces that are blended in a good school are auxiliary and 
subordinate to teaching, and are vainly spent without teaching. For 
example, the enthusiasm of numbers when not directed after it is awak- 
ened may result in squint eyed observation, in bad taste in reading, 
and in illogical reasoning. 

Since our inquiries must be confined to the public school, let us put 
clearly before us the end in view of this school. 

It has been urged, of late, that the only duty of this school is to teach 
children to read, write, spell, and cipher. This is obviously not the 
chief end of this useful institution. If it were, it could be secured at vastly 
less than the present cost. But while this may be conceded to be the 
direct object of public instruction, there is an indirect object of -at least 
equal importance : I mean the formation of those habits of thought, that 
proper regard for the rights of others which can only be obtained through 
daily intercourse in the pursuit of a common end, and that habitual 
obedience to law which are the conditions of good citizenship in a repub- 
lic, and an enthusiasm for righteousness. The public school exhibits 
worth as the only ground of distinction ; it blends, in the formative 
training of early years, all those subtle but energetic forces that children 
from one rank exert upon those of another, and it gives full scope and 
eflBiciency to those leges non scriptae which embody and transmit the 
net result of ages of civilization and enlightenment, so that the expense 
of teaching the worst scholar examined by Mr. Walton, for instance, 
would be amply justified, if that scholar should leave school now, by his 

78 



DEPARTMENT OF SUPERINTENDENCE. 31 

enhanced value as a citizen at the age of twenty-one. For the full 
results of school life are not capable of measurement by an examina- 
tion in spelliug. The commonwealth cares vastly less about this boy's 
misspelling his words, making hieroglyphs for letters/and hesitating in his 
reading than about the kind of man he will be when he comes to vote. 
And wliile the kind of man he will be depends somewhat upon the joint 
action of the enthusiasm of many in a common pursuit, the family, the 
library, the church, and that most subtle power of personal character, it 
remains true that good teaching is the greatest and most influential 
force that acts upon him. 

How to make the most of good teaching is the simplest form of our 
inquiry. Inquiring how teaching is squandered, I call your attention 
first to the lack of logical sequence in the kinds of work assigned to 
different grades in the graded schools. 

Pupils reach the grammar school unable to add, subtract, multiply, 
and divide with rapidity and absolute accuracy, destitute of ability to 
observe natural phenomena sharply and to record their observations in 
clear and exact language, and with poverty stricken vocabularies. The 
grammar school is obliged, therefore, to leave its proper work and pre- 
pare for it. If all this work were done in the lower schools the gram- 
mar school could at ouce teach technical grammar, the science of arith- 
metic, and the lessons of history. These branches are referred to as 
those where reform is most needed. 

Philosophers have urged again and again the reasons found in the 
nature of things for recognizing the order of the mind's growth and the 
fstcnlties which predominate in childhood as the guiding principle in 
primary instruction, and they have been supported by a mass of testi- 
mony from successful and observing teachers ; but hundreds of schools 
are now taught in ignorance or in defiance of these principles at an 
enormous waste of time and money. 

Why should not technical grammar be excluded from all schools below 
the grammar grade? Why should not oral lessons in some natural 
history science — any one that the teacher knows or can be induced to 
learn — be substituted for the book lessons in grammar which are now 
inflicted on children, and managed so as to achieve and to secure that 
ease and fluency and accuracy in the use of words which are the essen- 
tial quality of a good style I 

A good deal of time is spent in our Massachusetts schools in reading 5 
yet, those who exandne boys for admission to higher institutions, or who 
guide their studies there, find that very few know how to read. Of 
course all know the common words and can call them by name 5 but 
very few know how to use books as sources of knowledge. Why should 
not the thorough reading of even one good author be substituted for 
the reading book in grammar schools, and so the shaping power of a 
good style be coordinated with other studies ? All good teachers wiU 
welcome the new departure in library management by which pupils in 

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32 CIRCULARS OF INFORMATION FOR 1881. 

the common school are guided by their teachers in the choice of books 
and in the right and proper use of them. 

To specify a practicable case, why should not reading be partly done out 
of some history of the United States, like Higginson's, and joined with 
brief exercises in narration, either orai or written ? It is not necessary 
to furnish every pupil with a book. Two or three copies are enough. 
This exercise might profitably replace fully one-half the current drili in 
reading books, with the following advantages : The lively interest of the 
pupils would be excited, additional and most excellent practice in the use 
of language would be secured, and the facts of history would be fixed in 
the memory without much effort. This would make history teaching in 
higher grades a much nobler exercise than it is at present. It would 
also tend to cultivate a taste for good English by bringing the minds of 
pupils under the influence of a good author in successive lessons; for no 
better way could be contrived to arrest and paralyze any tendency to such 
a taste than the exclusive use of reading books, in which the unhappy 
pupil runs a muck between two rows of authors, who pelt him with prose 
from one side and poetry from the other. 

There are schools where each of these proposed methods is on trial 
with such abundant good fruitage as to warrant serious attention to 
them. Why should not the work in arithmetic be courageously confined 
to acquiring skill, accuracy, and rapidity in simple computations up to 
the grammar grade ? It is a just complaint that boys and girls who have 
graduated from the grammar or even the high school cannot add and 
divide with accuracy and promptness. And if any one can state any 
good reason why more than half the current requisitions in geography 
should not be abandoned, a large number of parents would be deeply 
grateful. 

Another waste is the useless expenditure of time in teaching drawing, 
through all the grades, to every pupil. Somewhere, wherever the wisdom 
of school superintendents determines, this should cease, and those who 
evince marked aptitude for drawing should be gathered in evening classy 
for special instruction by an expert teacher. 

Another waste is the enormous overloading of the primaries. A good 
primary teacher can teach thoroughly about thirty pupils; but the 
rooms in towns and cities where she has less than fifty are the excep- 
tion rather than the rule. It follows that the pupils pass up without 
adequate training, the primary work must be done over, and, of course, 
the inadequacy of preparation increases at every stage. 

It is the common judgment of teachers in secondary and grammar 
schools that they could do substantially all the work now assigned them 
if the primary work were well and thoroughly done. That it is not so 
done is not the fault of the primary teachers; at least it cannot be shown 
to be their fault so long as they are doomed to the tale of bricks without 
straw. 

Nearly all the evils which afflict our public schools can be traced 

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DEPARTMENT OP SUPERINTENDENCE. 33 

directly to a root ia the primaries, aad a reform here means reform 
everywhere. The great problem of public instraction is how to effect 
such a reform. If we propose to increase the number of primary schools 
we are met by the obvious fact that no great increase in the amount of 
appropriations from the public treasury can be expected. It is at least 
a striking coincidence which seems to have the cogency of a law that 
the amount expended per scholar in the public schools does not exceed 
the rate of taxation per thousand. It sometimes falls below this limit 
and sometimes exceeds it by a dollar or two ; but whenever it exceeds, 
a retrenchment scene is sure to follow. 

It is necessary, then, to do better work with the means now in hand. 
I think it easy to show that if each primary school that contains more 
than forty pupils were divided into two equal parts, and each part taught 
by the same teacher a half day for the same number of days as now, 
every pupil will be better fitted for the next grade than he is now, and the 
teachers would not suffer any greater loss of vitality than now. Prob- 
ably the teachers would gain by the change rather than lose, in spite of 
the additional hour per day. 

The unoccupied half of the pupils could be provided for in two ways : a 
large part of them would remain preferably at home; but the other part 
whose parents cannot easily provide for them must be gathered into half 
time industrial schools. This arrangement would put an end to what 
is now the gravest evil in the primaries, namely, the conversion of the 
schoolroom into a place of temporary refuge for children whose parents 
ard unable to care for them. There is no reason why the school should 
be turned into a day nursery. It is wiser and more simple to deal with 
the evil than to evade it. The public is bound to care for poor children. 
Let the school do its work in its own way, and let the best thing be done 
for those children who ought to be provided for at the public expense. 
Let us frankly introduce the creche and not hide it under the guise of a 
primary school. 

It will not lead us very far from the point we are now considering 
to suggest that in every grade of school teaching energy is wasted in 
proportion as the number of pupils assigned to a teacher exceeds a very 
low limit. The enthusiasm of large numbers in the pursuit of a common 
end is a most valuable auxiliary, and cannot be dispensed with ; but, 
when class work begins, a very small number, ideally from ten to fifteen 
in a class, are all that any teacher can spend himself on without loss of 
energy. This, at least, seems to be the lesson of experience. The exi- 
gencies of the public school seem to fix the miniihum limit at thirty. It 
is very common to hear good superintendents adduce a small number of 
pupils per teacher as proof of the soundness of his administration. But 
by far the most striking and instructive exami)le of the advantage of 
small numbers is the work done at the United States Military Academy, 
at West Point. 

It is most useful to study the results of the course of study in the 

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34 CIRCULARS OF INFORMATION FOR 1881. 

United States Military Academy as a problem in education. Boys are 
received on precisely the same grounds as give them admission to our 
high schools, are taught for the same number of years in the same essen- 
tial branches, and emerge accomplished engineers, ready to cope suc- 
cessfully with the severe difficulties of military science j the boys emerge 
from the high school without readiness for anything except college. The 
difference is explained when the fact is stated that the teachers at West 
Point are selected for their known excellence as teachers, and no one 
ever undertakes to teach more than twelve students at a time. There 
is no evading the force of these facts. 

West Point has done a better and nobler work for education than for 
arms, but this inspiring achievement in education has been strangely 
overlooked. 

Let me not be understood as urging that West Point can be trans- 
planted into our common schools or that it ought to be exactly imitated* 
but it cannot be forgotten that the Military Academy has been sustained 
by large appropriations by the people of this country through all the 
vicissitudes of party politics, because it has done well and thoroughly its 
appointed work. It is, in an important sense, a public school. The peo- 
ple, therefore, can be relied on to sustain good work. And the great 
example of West Point as a success in pedagogy may teach us that train- 
ing is a higher end than the diffusion of information, and that the methods 
of instruction which have proved efficient and successful in any school 
are worthy of careful attention everywhere. 

It is impossible to avoid alluding in its turn to the strange neglect of 
the memory in our public schools. Nothing strikes an American observer 
of European schools more forcibly than the easy recitation by pupils of 
extended passages from good authors — an exercise almost unknown 
among us. In reacting from the danger of overtasking the memory the 
pendulum has swung to the extreme of neglecting it. 

Another waste of teaching force is the substitution of general intel. 
ligence for mastery as an end in view. The American boy now aims at 
knowing something about everything instead of everything about some- 
thing, so that the number who come to real life with a consciousness of 
mastery is annually diminishing. 

The quick instinct of students of social science detects this quality, 
and such inquiries as this begin to appear : Who will succeed the poets 
Longfellow, Lowell, and Holmes ? The orators, Phillips, Curtis, Bul- 
lock — all men advanced in life ? Are " great men" disappearing jfrom 
politics? The weak answer is sometimes essayed that the average 
attainments are so high that greatness has become impossible — as if 
excellence were an absolute instead of a relative quality. 

It is time to inquire with great earnestness whether our systems of 
public instruction have not begotten in us a certain confidence in the 
educating power of a system, apart from teaching, and whether in the 
necessary solicitude about school-houses, text books, charts, ventilation,. 

82 



DEPARTMENT OF SUPERINTENDENCE. 35 

&c., we have not overlooked the fact that all these things are subsid- 
iary to teaching, and without it are wholly futile. 

I have sometimes felt a grave fear, when I have observed the immen- 
sity of our new school buildings and our carelessness about the school 
teacher, that the historian of education a thousand years hence will 
style this the age of the mound builders. 

The words of Professor Weir, in the !N^orth American Eeview for Jan- 
uary, 1881, deserve serious consideration : 

I declare it to be a fact that just as tlie prevalence of mechanical agencies* in man- 
ufactnre has destroyed all personal skiU in handicraft, * * * so do these vast 
edacational machines, when divested of personal sympathies and personal impulses, 
tend to a like result in developing the mind. 

This want of mastery in the graduates from the schools is the grain of 
wheat in the bushels of chaft' about the lack of practical worthiness in 
them. 

How shall we render the course of study more practical ? I answer, 
first, by taking out a good deal of it and securing something like mas- 
tery of the rest. A boy who has mastered a few fundamental things is 
far more likely to become soundly intelligent than one who has been 
mastered, as most now are, by a good many things. Fewer studies better 
taught is the remedy for this evil. There are two special cases under this 
head which deserve notice. The high school is said to unfit boys and 
girls for practical life. ^'It is for the good of the commonwealth that, 
while nature is yet plastic, children should acquire the manual dexterity 
and the habits of patient, persevering labor which are essential to their 
happiness and their success.'' 

This is all true, in a sense. It is true in many cases that the high 
school graduates are fish hooks not bent on to any lines. But all 
attempts to cure this evil by introducing what are called more practical 
studies have failed. Book-keeping, laboratories, and cabinets leave the 
sore unhealed. The mistake lies in this substitution of smatter for 
knowledge, and if every high school scholar who is not fitting for col- 
lege should conclude his course by reviewing arithmetic, including all 
business forms, in the light of all the algebra and geometry he has 
learned, his geography by the aid of his physics and chemistry, his his- 
tory of the United States illuminated by all his acquirements in general 
history and civil polity, and his English grammar and literature in 
comparison with all other grammars and literatures he has any knowl- 
edge of, he would have a little real knowledge — a taste of the joys of 
mastery. 

Thus reflecting ui)on the common branches which are so vitally bound 
up with the common concerns and interests of men the light of all the 
higher knowledge which scholarship can acquire, we shall brighten and 
clothe with a new attractiveness the labors in which the great majority 
must spend their lives — 

Blessing toil, where toil abounds, with graces more ahoimding. 

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36 CIRCULARS OP INFORMATION FOR 1881. 

The second special case is that of those who, justly dissatisfied with 
the apparent tendency of the schools to create a distaste for labor, pro- 
pose to incori)orate handicraft in the curriculum. 

This measure does not proceed from a just comprehension of the nature 
of the evil it aims to cure, and will not be successful. 

It is sheer weakness to lay to the charge of any school the unwise dis- 
content with plain living, the haste to be rich, the foolish rivalries, and 
the general desire to secure a livelihood without working for it which 
are as old as civilization and apparently inseparable from it. 

Boys and girls always have sought to win the easier and more agree- 
able employments. They always will do this. The irreverence of youth, 
enhanced as it is by the relaxation of family discipline, and their impa- 
tience with the slow and toilsome beginnings of all solidly built lives, 
need to be restrained by patiently showing and illustrating and enforc- 
ing the more excellent way of obedience, industry, and method; but it 
is not a ground for sudden and novel changes in school systems. It is 
aggravated by the monstrous defects in home training and by the pol- 
lution of the atmosphere with filthy literature, but it is somewhat cor- 
rected and relieved by the regular sober discipline of the public school. 
For the only hope of success in this world lies in obedience to law; the 
only preventive of idleness is a habit of industry founded on an obedient 
spirit. Otherwise, skill in handicraft is no security against thriftlessness 
or vice. Every one who is at all familiar with large manufactories knows 
that one of the constant drawbacks is this: many skilful men, upon 
whom at critical moments everything depends, are liable to be over- 
come by appetite, and waste in idleness time which is more precious to 
employers than to them. 

The real practical question is, whether the youth who seek the avenues 
of trade shall be intelligent and thoughtful citizens, able to bear adver- 
sity with courage and prosperity without exultation, or brawling grum- 
blers in hard times and foolish dreamers in good. 

Again it is urged that youth would be allured to the mechanic arts by 
daily familiarity with them in the school room, and those endowed with 
aptitude for handicraft would be detected by the test and assigned each 
to his proper calling. This result, if attained, would only prove a good 
so far as skilled workmen were evoked by it; for there is already a 
great excess of unskilled labor. But why create new attractions when 
the old are great and mighty ? What assemblage of mechanical processes 
could be made in any building to affect the imagination or wake a 
slumbering aptitude which could compete with the exhibition which 
every town presents ? The air is lurid with the smoke of countless 
furnaces; every stream is worried with dams; the din of machinery on 
the grandest scale sounds an incessant call; thousands of workmen go 
as daily messengers between the shop and home, and make familiar in 
daily speech the marvels of mechanical achievements. No sober and 
inquisitive youth is denied access to mechanism of unbounded variety 

84 



DEPARTMENT OP SUPERINTENDENCE. 37 

and interest. This spectacle is not limited to a few hours of a crowded 
school day; night and day are filled alike with its wonders. 

Libraries abound in biographies of the great inventors, and every 
thoughtful boy can feed his imagination with the achievements of Ark- 
wright, Whitney, and Bigelow, This is the real developing school. This 
face to face communion with men of like sympathies and passions excites 
the growing boy more than lathes and engines and spindles. In the 
peaceful fields of mechanical triumphs, not less than on Marathon, the 
trophies of Miltiades will not permit a single young hero to slumber. 

The ranks of skilled labor in ordinary times are never crowded; but 
a reasonable man will pause before urging a scheme which must end in 
increasing the number and diminishing the intellectual resources of 
unskilled mechanics. 

Consider again that this demand for a class restriction in public 
education does not spring from mechanics and manufacturers, but 
mainly from those who have been able to command whatever education 
they desired, and it is very much to be feared that the gentlemen who 
urge this plea of overeducation, and propose manual training as a cure 
for it, are, perhaps, unconsciously cherishing the illusion of class educa- 
tion in a republican state, and must be challenged to answer Madison's 
question, "Why should we, here, in the realm of knowledge or in the 
public provision for the education of all, divide society into classes upon 
the ever vanishing line of rich and poor ? '' 

And consider that mere manual training will not suffice. It must be 
allied to machinery to be effective, and the teachers of our public schools 
will presently find themselves superintendents of machine shops; other- 
wise the graduate of the school is in danger of turning out a tinker. If 
you still claim a disciplinary value for the proposed manual training, 
this will not be denied. Neither will any one claim that every hour 
spent in school workshops is so much actually subtracted from the 
result of school training. But it is not, on the other hand, so much 
added ; and it is incumbent upon the reformer to show what the actual 
fifain to society is through handicraft to balance the necessary loss in 
intellectual training. The average pupil of the public schools now 
receives, at the public charge, 166 weeks' instruction of 30 hours each, 
or about 3 years. Is this too much I 

This has not been shown, and I do not think it can be. If it be de- 
manded that the public school should cultivate and enforce habits of 
industry, self restraint, personal independence, and regard for others' 
rights, or if it be claimed that the public school can be improved, no one 
will demur. Great improvements are making, and more can be made; 
but it is one thing to relieve the difficulties of a good and useful insti- 
tution and another to aggravate those difficulties by increasing, with- 
out improving, the labors imposed upon it. 

(1) The general intelligence which springs from the State school is as 
indispensable to a good market for the products of our manufacturing 

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38 CIRCULARS OF INFORMATION FOR 1881. 

skill as it is to that skill itself. We export cheap prints only to the igno- 
rant populations of Africa and the South Seas ; but only the finest prod- 
ucts of our most skilful workmanship can enter England and the conti- 
nent of Europe. The home market is equally sensitive ; and if we want 
to sell what our skill produces, we must not paralyze the market. 

(2) The amount of school time cannot be much increased. Whatever 
is taken from it for handicraft would be subtracted from the effective- 
ness of the school in other directions ; and the actual amount of instruc- 
tion which the average child of the working classes receives has already 
been shown to be too small rather than too great. By introducing 
handicraft, supposing it feasible on other grounds, we should do a great 
wrong to the average scholar and a great injury to handicraft. And 
consider how trifling at best is the amount of real craft a boy could get 
in a State school. It would vanish like the frosty coating on the iron 
which, in a winter morning, he carries to his forge. Knowledge of tools 
he can easily get in liis shop after his school is past, and all the easier 
for a sound school training. But how, or where, or when shall he repair 
his loss of the things the school should teach him? These precious 
hours once gone are gone forever. 

It is better, then, to pour all possible vigor, intelligence, and hope 
into the nerve of the arm which is to smite the anvil than to clothe that 
arm with any momei^tary gloss of unserviceable dexterity. 

(3) The atmosphere of the school-house is unfavorable to handicraft. 
The sort of workmen and the sort of work by which an artisan is sur- 
rounded during his period of training have even a larger share in deter^ 
mining the quality of his skill than the environment of a school in 
the formation of character. Workmen trained in any well known shop 
bear the unique inscription of that shop almost as plainly as the fabrics 
whose excellence gives at once its reputation to the shop and special 
value to the services of the men. Workmen not infrequently deteri* 
orate when transferred from a better* to a poorer shop. The environ- 
ment of handicraft is a matter of vital importance. 

Again, it is essential to success in teaching the industrial arts blended 
with intellectual training in a school course that the two should be 
started and carried on with harmony and equal prominence. The school 
must have but one end, and towards that all its forces must move. Noth- 
ing can form any part of the school which does not share its common 
life and partake of its common advantages. The parts of a good school 
are like the parallel bars of a compensating pendulum, the contraction 
of one balancing the expansion of another to give the exactly meas- 
ured swing of perfect synchronism. 

Only a small i)art of the pupils, under the most favorable circum- 
stances, would take this practice of choice ; and it could not be enforced 
upon all on any principle of equity. No Carthusian vow can be imposed 
upon the youth of the public school. The result must be the appear- 
ance in the school of a caste, which would be instantly fatal. 



DEPARTMENT OF SUPERINTENDENCE. 39 

All manual training in the use of tools given in this unnatural atmos- 
phere would be feeble and ineffective. The inadequacy of the scheme 
would be detected more quickly by the pupils than by supervisors, and 
would engender disorder and discontent. 

Xeither philosophy nor the common sense of the people decides that 
manual training is necessary for all pupils or essential to the public 
welfare; therefore the people cannot justly be taxed for the direct sup- 
port of institutions which 'benefit only a class. 

The first method applies in practice only to reformatory institutions. 
Beyond that, the state may and should foster by grants all useful insti- 
tations, and directly support through annual taxation only those which 
are essential to its perpetuity and which could not safely be left to pri- 
vate management. These latter are the public schools; and, while the 
exact line between essentials and non-essentials in public education has 
not been clearly drawn, yet the term "public schools'' is sufficiently 
clear and distinct for all practical purposes. 

We reach the conclusion, then, that the union of handicraft and school 
must be committed to special schools of technology, founded by private 
monificence and directed by permanent boards of management. 

(4) Time forbids me from enlarging upon the waste of energy caused by 
inadequate libraries. This want grows less severe each year. Indeed 
the growth of the free public library as a means of utilizing the intelli- 
gence which the schools create is one of the features of our times. 

(5) But all that has been said prepares the way for urging as the last 
form of waste the inadequacy of the preparation of teachers for their 
work and of proper supervision. The teacher is, after all, the school, 
and the school the teacher. Without this force all other allied forces 
slomber like the chemic forces of the plant till quickened by the light 
Great attention is given, and too much cannot be given, to the profes 
8ional education, selection, and supervision of teachers. 

But it has already occurred to some that the force of the teacher is 
not all commuted into knowledge, but that a large part is spent in 
enthusiasm — the affiance of light and heat. A good teacher can no 
more fail of enthusiasm than the sun can shine without heat. But the 
heat of enthusiasm is not to be disjoined from the light of knowledge. 

" The public schools are the people's universities," it is said, and we 
must give them a taste of everything that anybody knows. But the 
people have a right to knowledge and will not be denied it, and the 
people will in the end hold those to strict account who, charged with the 
solemn duty of providing what is best, took counsel of expediency or of 
fear. The people expect educators to recommend such measures as 
philosophy dictates, experience approves, and common sense supports. 

After the reading of this paiier the chairman gave an opportunity to 
any who might desire to discuss either this subject or the subject of the 
niorning. 

■ 87 



40 CIKCULARS OF INFORMATION FOR 1881. 

Superintendent Jones, of Erie, Pa., thought that the Military Academy 
at West Point, though a school supported at public expense, had two or 
three advantages over most public schools : it could compel its pupils 
to take its course of instruction entire ; it dealt with healthy pupils onlyr 
and it could eliminate the stupid or vicious from among them 5 whereas 
public schools are obliged to instruct children, healthy or sickly, bright 
or stupid. 

School Commissioner King, of Eichmond Co., N. Y., thought that 
West Point could be abolished and that just as high a grade of officers 
would come up, and that, too, from the public schools. There sht)uld be 
more competition among line officers. In his opinion if the positions in 
the Army were thrown open the public schools would furnish officers 
as good or better than now come from West Point. 

Mr. Northrop said that America had received a full equivalent for 
every penny expended on West Point, and the idea that any public 
school could take its place was preposterous and absurd. 

J. G. Murphy, of Fishkill, N. Y., advocated the use of the perceptive 
faculties. He said that all children should not be treated in the same 
way ; that a school of thirty pupils would have from three to seven dif- 
ferent classes of capacity. 

Dr. Thompson explained that he presented West Point as an institu- 
tion to be imitated by the public schools from the fact that it had done 
thoroughly and well the work it had undertaken. Students entered 
West Point at about the same age that they enter the high school, but 
much more is accomplished at West Point. Teachers who desire to ac- 
cumulate teaching force he thought would do well to study West Point. 

After a recess of five minutes Dr. Franklin B. Hough, chief of the 
forestry division, Department of Agriculture, Washington, D. C, read 
the following paper : 

our schools and our forests. 

In presenting a subject with this title, the question might be asked 
by some, " What possible connection can be traced between our schools 
of learning and the woodlands of the country ?" 

The Germans term a nursery" of young trees a Baumschule, a " tree 
school," and nobody will deny the strong analogy that exists between 
the early direction imparted to the young scholar in our schools and the 
young seedling of the nursery bed, both alike receiving in the tender 
and susceptible period of life's beginning certain tendencies that influ- 
ence all that follows to the end. This analogy was forcibly expressed 
by Pope in the familiar lines : 

Tis education form 3 the common mind, 
Just as the twig is bent the tree's inclined ; 

and imaginative writers have in all ages and in every language found 
apt opportunities for illustrating the various phases and vicissitudes of 

88 



DEPARTMENT OF SUPERINTENDENCE. 41 

linman life by what may|be learned from a tree. But dropping these 
fanciful analogies, which the active mind may follow to infinite extent^ 
we will at once enter upon the more serious consideration of a subject 
that is beginning to attract the notice of thoughtful men, viz, the rapid 
diminution of our forest supplies and the means by which the wants of 
a near future must be supplied. 

We assume that no one will deny as facts that the woodlands of thi» 
country are being cut down and used or are suffering from waste in a 
much greater degree than they are being restored by natural growth ^ 
that the maintenance of a due proportion of forests is highly important^ 
in fact indispensable to our wants, and that this limit has in many sec- 
tions of the country been already reached and passed. 

We think no one will deny that the clearing off of woodlands causes 
the springs and streams of a country to diminish and often disappear 
in summer; that the channels of mountain streams become eroded by 
torrents when the forest protection is removed; that streams once 
perennial and nearly uniform become liable to great alterations in vol- 
ume and to sudden overflow in heavy rains; that the supply of water 
for cities, for hydraulic power, and for navigation becomes irregular and 
deficient at seasons of the year when most needed, and that our fields, 
unshaded from the sun and unsheltered from drying winds, become liable 
to destructive droughts. 

But, besides these secondary effects, we should especially notice the 
growing scarcity of wood and timber as a material for use and an arti- 
cle of commerce in regions where it was once abundant, and the effect 
of this upon their prices, which are constantly tending to further increase 
as these supplies become less. 

In view of these facts let us at once proceed to inquire as to the duties 
of our schools in reference to our forests. This question of forest sup- 
plies has for a long period engaged the attention of governments older 
than ours, and we should be able to profit from their experience, apply- 
ing such modifications as differences in government and circumstances 
may suggest in order to adapt them to our own peculiar wants. 

We find in Europe that in every principal country upon the continent 
the woodlands belonging to the government and to local municipalities 
and public institutions are under the care of a special branch of admin* 
istration, which not only looks after their management to prevent injury 
or waste, but has for its especial duty to secure the restoration of forests 
when cut at full maturity or at appointed times, and this by means which 
shall most effectually secure the greatest possible benefit that the con- 
ditions allow. This management impUes the necessity of a well organized 
corps of agents specially educated to the duties of their profession, and 
for this preparation there have been established schools of forestry m 
every country that has a forest administration, and these schools have- 
been provided with full appliances for rendering their operation complete^ 
At these schools of forestry every branch of science that finds applica- 

89 



42 CIRCUL/LRS OF INFORMATION FOR 1881. 

tion in the cultivation and care of woodlands is taught and illustrated 
by excursions and practical labors in the nurseries and forests connected 
with the establishment. The attainments of the student are tested upon 
entering and at leaving, as well as at various stages- of his progress, 
and at the end of his prescribed course he is ready to enter the forest 
service upon a subordinate grade, from which he may rise by successive 
steps to more important stations. Finally, having spent his working 
years in the service, he is entitled to retirement upon a pension; and, 
if his career has been one of especial merit, honors and distinction are 
awarded him. 

As the course of instruction in these schools is strictly technical, the 
range of studies extends no further than to include the sciences that 
concern the forester's profession, including the legislation and juris- 
prudence of the forest code, the details of official business, and a knowl- 
edge of his duties in the transactions that may come before him in the 
various stations which he may be called upon to hold. The course 
varies somewhat in different countries, owing to differences in their 
forest laws, but it is substantially the same so far as depends upon 
mathemathical principles and upon the natural and physical sciences 
that are taught. 

To illustrate the range and extent of the course, we will present a list 
of the professorships and of the studies taught by each in the Forest 
Academy at Tharand, in Saxony, one of the oldest in Europe, and there- 
fore one in which we may expect to find the fruits of long experience 
'embodied in the course of instruction now in use. 

This school was begun at Zillbach in 1786, was more formally estab- 
lished in 1795, was removed to Tharand in 1811, became a public insti- 
tution in 1816, and from 1830 to 1870 was a school of agriculture and 
forestry combined. For the last ten years it has been a school of forestry 
only, and has an attendance of from fifty to seventy students, almost 
one-half of whom are foreigners attracted thither by the excellence of 
opportunities and ambitious to qualify themselves for the position of 
foresters to large estates or for employment in the forest service, now 
becoming more common under colonial governments. There is as yet 
no school of forestry in Great Britain, but much attention is now being 
given to the conservation of forests in India and other remote British 
colonies, and the agents aspiring to these appointments must resort to 
these special schools upon the Continent, whereof Tharand gets a con- 
siderable share. 

The academy is under the ministry of finance, and its course of in- 
struction extends through two years and a half. The student must show 
upon -entering, besides certain qualifications as to age, means of main- 
tenance, &c., the attainments implied in a full course of study at a 
Gymnasium or a Eealschule, and if be aspires to the Saxon service he 
must have worked half a year under approved instruction in a forest. 

The course is divided among ten instructors, as follows : (1) the director, 

'90 



DEPARTMENT OF SUPERINTENDENCE. 43 

who teaches the history and literature of forestry, forest regulation and 
improvement and police, and leads in certain excursions and practical 
exercises; (2) aprofessor of arithmetic, algebra, and geometry, and their 
applications to forest work and mechanics, accompanied with mathe- 
matical exercises 5 (3) a professor of chemistry and chemical technology, 
agricnltoral chemistr:^', and laboratory work ; (4) a professor of physics, 
mineralogy, and geology, who leads excursions in the application of 
these studies; (5) a professor of forest cultivation, protection, and admin- 
istration, hunting, and forest taxation, with practical excursions and 
exercises ; (6) a professor of general and forestal botany and vegetable 
physiology and microscopy, with exercises and excursions in natural 
history; (7) a professor of surveying, road making, draining, the* calcu- 
lus, &c., with excursions in surveying and measuring ; (8) a professor 
of general forest industries,^^ forest finances, and an encyclopedic view 
of agriculture, pasturage, &c. ; (9) a professor of zoology, and espe- 
cially of entomology; and (10) a professor of law and forest jurispru- 
dence. , 

There are connected with the academy a large library, an extensive 
and valuable cabinet, a forest garden, and a forest district in which all 
the practical details of regulation and management are going on and 
with which the student must become personally familiar. 

At the French school of forestry, at Fancy, the student must learn 
something of military discipline and regulations, and in the Eussian 
schools of forestry the military organization is carried still further and 
per\'ades the whole forest service. 

At Eberswalde, in Prussia, one of the best of forest academies, 2,648 
hours are given to instruction, extending through two years and a half, 
or a little less than five hours a day, of which 840 (about 32 per cent.) 
are given to the natural sciences, 440 (about 16 per cent.) to mathe- 
matics, 980 (about 36 per cent.) to the economical sciences, 180 (about 6 
per eent.) to jurisprudence, and 340 (a little over 10 per cent.) to exer- 
cises and excursions. 

The following is proximately a list of the schools of forestry now ex- 
isting in Europe : 

(1) Schools of forestry alone, — In Prussia, one at Eberswalde and one 
at Mtlndeu. In Saxony, one at Tharand. In Saxe- Weimar, one at Eise- 
nach. In Austria, secondary schools at Weisswasser in Bohemia, at 
Eolenburg in Moravia, and at Lemberg in Galicia; lower schools at 
Aggsbach in Lower Austria, at Wildalpen in Styria, and at Kreutz 
in Croatia. In France, one at Kancy and a School of Forest Guards at 
Bavas. In Italy, one at Vallombrosa. In Spain, one at San Lorenzo 
del Escorial^ near Madrid. In Russia, one at Evois, Finland. In Swe- 
den, one at Stockholm. 

(2) Forest departments in universities and imlyteehnic schools. — In Ba- 
varia, at Munich (lately a separate forest academy at Aschaffenburg, 
which is still in part retained) ; in Hesse-Darmstadt, at Griessen ; in 

91 



44 CIRCULARS OF INFORMATION FOR 1881. 

Baden, at Carlsrube ; in Brunswick, at the Polyteclinic Institution ; in 
Switzerland, at Ziirich. 

(3) Academies of agriculture and forestry. — In Austria, at the special 
high school, at Vienna; in Wiirttemberg, at Hohenheim, with a special 
course at the university in Tubingen for those aspiring to a place in the 
administration; in Eussia, one near Moscow, one at St. Petersburg, and 
one at ^ew Alexandria in Poland, with a special school of applied for- 
est industries at Lissano;- in Portugal, near Lisbon; in Denmark, at 
Copenhagen. 

(4) Academies of mining and forestry, — In Austria- Hungary, one at 
Schemnitz. Besides these special institutions, about thirty in number, 
at which the profession of forestry is made a particular object of in- 
struction, there are a multitude of others in which the importance of 
the subject is recognized and more or less provision is made. Thus, at 
three of the agricultural schools in France, an agent of the forest ad- 
ministration is detailed for this instruction, precisely as our own Gov- 
ernment details of&cers from the Army for giving military instruction in 
some of our colleges. There are at least seven schools in Sweden at 
which a course of one year in forestry is taught, and ten years ago there 
were thirteen elementary schools of forestry in that country. 

A few years after the Crimean war the Turkish government under- 
took to establish a school of forestry at Constantinople, and one has 
been founded recently in India, for the purpose of fitting the agents of 
the government for an intelligent performance, of their duties. 

Such being the provision made in other countries for supplying an 
educational want in their public economy, of which they had felt the 
need and without which they would have suffered an injury, let us next 
consider how our circumstances compare with theirs and what are our 
duties in view of the prospect before us. 

As for our wants : If we take into estimate the prairies and the plains, 
as well as the immense clearings in the older States, we shall find, prob- 
ably, in the whole country, a relatively smaller percentage of woodlands 
available for us than that of either France or Germany, where the or- 
ganization of the forest service is the oldest and most complete, and in 
some of our newer States and Territories relatively much less than the 
most poorly supplied country in Europe. It is true that our native sup- 
plies are very unequally distributed, and that in some regions they are 
largely in excess of the present local want. In other sections of the 
country the timber is at present altogether inaccessible by any existing 
means of transportation, and in others it is so remote that the expense 
of freight cannot be borne until the present market prices have greatly 
advanced, and it will be a sad day for those concerned in the wood in- 
dustries, and for their patrons, when the time shall come that it will be 
necessary to bring lumber and timber from these distant points. 

As already remarked at the beginning of this paper, the use and waste 
of forest products far exceed the growth, and this disparity is every 

92 



DEPARTMENT OF SUPERINTENDENCE. 45 

year increasing as new demands arise for local use or new markets are 
opened for exportation. It is therefore among the plainest of certain- 
ties that our people must in the near future feel the inconvenience of 
greatly enhanced prices and among the strongest of probabilities that 
they will then begin to realize the profits from the growing of timbers. 
To do this to advantage they will need a certain kind of education that 
our schools do not now provide, for, although there may doubtless be 
hereafter a great deal of empirical planting, just as there is of farming, 
without the planter being able to assign a better reason for his methods 
than that his neighbors do likewise or that his father did so before him, 
it is now too late to deny, and it is quite needless to prove, that in tree 
planting as in every other pursuit in business the man of best education 
attains the greatest success. 

It is within the knowledge of every one that our native forests present 
great diversity in their timber growth. In one locality we find the 
maple or the oak ; in another, the ash or the elm; in another, the hemlock, 
or the pine, the chestnut, the cypress, or the walnut, as the prevailing 
kind; and this difference will always be found due to the favoring con- 
ditions of soil or of subsoil, of subjacent rock foundation, of humidity 
or dryness, or of elevation or aspect that suit the wants of these par- 
ticular kinds. It may often happen that a species from another region 
or country may prove even more thrifty and profitable than any that 
are found growing in a native state, and in planting a prairie region 
where no timber has grown, at least within the period of our* memories 
or traditions, it is of the very highest importance that these capabilities 
and preferences be well understood beforehand. If we commit an error 
in the sowing of a farm crop the failure will not extend beyond the first 
year, and the farmer deserves no sympathy who will repeat his error in 
the next. But timber trees are at best of but slow growth, and a life- 
time might be lost in waiting to see the unprofitable growth of a tree ill 
adapted to its place, while a more intelligent choice and management 
would have brought a revenue to the planter. But what is our need 
from an educational standpoint and what is demanded of our schools in 
the interest of the forests? Will any of the foreign systems apply to 
our wants, or, if not, what modifications do we need to meet the require- 
ments in prospect? Let us see how the circumstances differ. 

In ^very foreign country where systems of forest management exist 
there are large areas of woodlands belonging to the government and to 
communes or other local municipalities and to public institutions. 

The inhabitants of communes often enjoy rights of common usage, 
either in the way of fuel and building material, or in the gathering of 
s^eds and fruits or of fresh leaves for feeding or fallen leaves for bed- 
ding their stock, or rights of pasturage, or some other privilege which 
has been secured to them by statute or confirmed by customs stronger 
than law. The management of common rights presents some of the most 
difficult problems with which the European forester has to deal. It 

93 



46 CIRCULARS OF INFORMATION FOR 1881. 

forms a branch of special iastraction in the schools of forestry, and it 
often becomes so serious a bar to improvement that these privileges 
must be bought off, commuted, or exchanged for some equivalent ben- 
efit before a reform can be secured. 

In many European forests certain kinds of game are reserved for the 
enjoyment of a privileged class, and their care and protection .come 
within the forester's duties and form a part of his education, even where 
their presence works an injury to the growth of the timber he is bound to 
cherish and proves a scourge to the neighboring farmer, who is forbidden 
under heavy penalties to injure the animals that may be destroying his 
crops and, it may be, further forbidden to fence his fields if it should 
hinder pursuit by those who may join in the chase. 

In some instances the government in former times reserved the first 
choice of timber for its navy, and might even take what it needed where 
most convenient, not sparing the lawn tree or the avenue planted by 
ancestors, if the caprice or the convenience of officials so decided, and 
there are still some rights of preference and some restraints upon pri- 
vate usage that may prove burdensome to the landholder. Finally, 
there are tenures and limitations upon the title to lands that may embar- 
rass or wholly prevent an industry that brings only a remote benefit; 
as no tenant would ever plant a tree that could only be cut after his 
lease had expired or make any other improvement that he could never 
enjoy. Now, our circumstances as regards the ownership and tenure of 
the land are as follows : 

The National Government has indeed some valuable tracts of timber 
land which it should lose no time in putting under a management tend- 
ing to secure the greatest benefit to the present and the future ; but our 
States own no land (except as granted for special objects) and it has 
hitherto been the policy of both the general and the State governments 
to transfer their lands to the actual settlers as soon as possible. In fact, 
all the land in the older States and much of it in the new;er States and 
Territories has already become private property under titles that are 
absolute and unconditional. Fortunately we have no rights of common 
usage in our woodlands, no rights of preference in their timber, no 
privileged 'classes having rights of chase upon the lands of vassals, no 
game but such as the owner of the land may choose to own or allow, 
and no hunting but such as he may permit or forbid. Our schools will 
therefore never have occasion to teach a forest code or the jurisprudence 
that may arise under it. They need pay no attention to game except as 
the state may enact laws for its protection in the interest of agriculture 
or for other common benefit ; and until a time shall come when our 
forests reserved for the supply of the timber market are owned by great 
corporations, having the stability and capital that give assurance of 
permanence, there will be no great opportunities for applying plans of 
am6nagement^ that shall govern the future working of a young forest 

' Technically used in France for the'legally regulated cutting of forests. 
94 



DEPARTMENT OF SUPERINTENDENCE. 47 

upon a private estate, until it comes to full maturity, for the use of gen- 
erations unborn. 

The graduate of a European school of forestry would scarcely find, 
use for the education he had acquired beyond his training in the physi- 
cal and natural sciences and in mathematics were he placed in the most 
responsible trust that our forest owners could offer; but in these 
branches the general principles are alike the world over, however codes 
may vary, and his success with us, as elsewhere, would be in direct pro- 
portion as he had learned to apply these principles to the conditions he 
might find and to appreciate the modifications in management that new 
circumstances might require. 

The education that our country requires in the interest of forestry 
(and which, from present prospects, our schools will ere long be called 
upon to supply) will not, in our opinion, be so much of a thorough and 
exhaustive kind for the special benefit of a few as of a more general 
and elementary character that shall come within the reach of many.. 
We need first and most of all, not simply in, our schools, but through- 
out our whole country and especially among the rural and agricultural 
classes, the diffusion of the simplest principles of political economy that 
teach the importance of our woodlands to the general welfare and the 
need of the material that they furnish for the supply of our indispensa- 
ble wants m life — a due appreciation of the incidental benefits which 
our woodlands secure to agriculture and to the sanitary and industrial 
interests that depend upon an adequate and duly equalized water 
supply. 

These utilitarian ideas are not in the least degree inconsistent with a 
due appreciation of the beauties of woodland scenery and the full en- 
joyment of all that is lovely in rural landscapes and forest shade. The 
forester looks with pride and pleasure upon the tree or the grove that 
his hand has planted, and as he watches its growth from year to year 
he cannot fail to acquire an attachment for the scenes and solitudes of 
a woodland life. 

To realize how much of the imagery of the i)oets and of beauty in 
landscape painting depends upon sylvan scenery and rural associations, 
we need but imagine how blank and dreary would poetry and painting 
be without them. Whatever tends to cultivate and extend this appre- 
ciation of the beautiful in nature is so far in direqt advancement of 
forestry, and it may be proper to here consider some of the means by 
which this may be done. We know in every phase ot life, in every 
pursuit of business or of pleasure, in every usage of society, how much 
mankind are influenced by the example of others. In some things we 
call this tendency to imitation a fashion and in others a custom, and in 
neither case can any better reason be assigned for the imitation than 
that it is the practice of others. 

We have an interesting example of a widespread and lasting custom 
of tree planting in English history. There is at present no country in. 

95 



48 CIRCULARS OF INFORMATION FOR 1881. 

the world where there is such an abaudauce of trees planted for orna- 
ment as in England. The well kept parks and landscape views pre- 
sented upon the estates of the nobility and the landed gentry are the 
pride of their owners and the admiration of travellers. This taste for 
rural ornament is largely due to the efforts of Sir John Evelyn more 
than two hundred years ago. This writer was an especial favorite at 
the court of Charles the Second and, as remarked by a subsequent 
editor of his writings, "from an early entrance into public life to an 

'extreme old age he considered himself as living only for the benefit of 
mankind." His best known work, entitled "Sylva: A Discourse of 
Forest Trees,'' acquired great popularity, as shown from the large and 
frequent editions that appeared during the author's life, and the per- 
j^nanence of this interest is further proved by the many later editions 
^hich have since been issued, almost down to the present time. Under 
the impulse and advice of Evelyn, the king and the nobility of that day 
^jegan extensive improvements in planting their estates, and the example . i 
thus set became a widespread fashion among landed proprietors through- 

• out the kingdom, which has continued down to the present time. We 

^have evidence of this immediate and effectual impression made by the 
writings of Evelyn in a dedication to Charles II prefixed to one of the 
later editions that appeared during the author's life, in which he says : 

-^'I need not acquaint Your Majesty how many millions of timber trees, 
besides infinite others, have been planted and propagated throughout 

^our vast domains at the instigation and by the sole direction of this 
work, because Your Majesty has been pleased to own it publicly for my 
encouragement;"^ and no more striking or beautiful tribute could be 
paid by a man of genius to one who had worked so lovingly for the good 

't)f his fellow man than was that by the elder Disraeli in his Curiosities 
of Literature, in which he says : "And surely while Britain retains her 

- awful situation among the nations of Europe, the Sylva of Evelyn will 
endure with her triumphant oaks. It was a retired philosopher who , 
aroused the genius of a nation, and who, casting a prophetic eye towards 
the age in which we live, contributed to secure our sovereignty of the 
seas. The present navy of Great Britain has been constructed with 

^the oaks which the genius of Evelyn planted." There is something, 
indeed, in a noble park that betokens stability and opulence in the 
owner, and there can be nothing more flattering to family pride than to 

' point out a grand avenue of majestic trees that an ancestor planted. We 
need not travel far nor seek long for illustrations of this feeling in our 
own country, for a man can scarcely plant a tree upon his homestead /^ 
lawn without ever afterwards looking upon its growth in size and 
beauty with satisfaction. If an accident happens to it he willingly 
spends much more than its simple value, if within the possibility of 
remedy ; or if maliciously injured he will resent it as if it were a personal 
injury. 

1 Disraeli's Curiosities of Literature, vol. II, p. 326 (New York, 1871). 
96 



DEPARTMENT OF SUPERINTENDENCE. 49 

It has sometimes been a custom to plant a tree to commemorate an 
event. It may record the nativity of a child in a family, or the visit of 
an illustrious guest, or some memorable event in history. Thus in the 
ancient Dutch city of Albany there are now great trees in the streets 
coeval with a present or a former inmate of the dwelling opposite and 
an aged elm that was planted to commemorate the arrival of General 
Burgoyne as a prisoner of war soon after the surrender of Saratoga. 
Throughout the length and breadth of our country we have trees 
planted during the Centennial year; and whenever a historical event is 
connected with a tree the tree becomes ever after an object of interest 
while it lives. The Eoyal Oaks that sheltered Charles the Second, the 
Charter Oak of Hartford, and the Treaty Tree in Philadelphia were 
monuments while they lasted and were cherished as relics when they 
fell. Of similar but more local interest are the class trees on our college 
grounds and the trees planted on special occasions to commemorate in- 
teresting local events. 

The promotion of a taste for rural adornment and ornamental planting 
being an object worthy of our earnest effort, as well from the aesthetic 
pulture and refined enjoyment they secure as from the favorable influ- 
ence that they exert upon plantations for utility, let us inquire as to 
the means by which this object of manifold advantages may be best 
secured. 

In our cities and large towns public parks are now very generally 
recognized as important agencies for the hygienic welfare and personal 
enjoyment of their inhabitants. The responsibility as to their manage- 
ment is naturally vested in the municipal government, and should be in 
charge of a special commission, upon whose intelligence and efficiency 
their success depends. The influence of public parks upon the general 
welfare should be more fully appreciated^ and there are many cities of 
large and dense population where these improvements have not yet 
begun. In others, where a beginning has already been made, the need 
and opportunity of a barren waste, a river bank, a shore, an island, or 
a point of land within or adjacent to the city limits has not yet been 
noticed, where a moderate expense might secure a little paradise of 
beauty and an inviting place of rest. The grounds around public insti- 
tutions, in rural cemeteries and the like, might often be made more 
agreeable to the eye if the opportunity for improvement were pointed 
out and sufficient means allowed. The interest in city parks might 
often be greatly increased by greater variety of species and by correct 
labels of their names. 

In villages we find greater opportunities for individual action and 
abundant advantages from a concert of effort which it is the special prov- 
ince of village improvement societies to secure. I am well aware that 
others present have given much attention to this class of associations, 
in which the efforts are sometimes not limited to the material welfare 
of their localities but extend to intellectual improvement and refinement 
4 CIR 97 



50 CIRCULARS OF INFORMATION FOR 1881. 

in social life. They deserve our highest coramendation and support, 
and the educational bearings of these efforts are too obvious to require 
special notice. 

The example of one village becomes the pattern of another 5 and should 
emulation arise between neighboring villages, we would not have it 
checked until each has outdone the other in rural adornment. 

From large villages the example tends to imitation in the smaller 
ones, where, although the means may be less, the opportunities of space 
may be relatively greater, and from these to private homesteads through- 
out the land. Although the intellectual and social refinement arising 
from these customs deserves first mention among their advantages, we 
may notice that they tend to enhance the value of the property that they 
adorn. They render a village more desirable for residence and invite 
the notice of those who, having earned a competence in the cities, are 
seeking to retire to the quiet shades of rural life, that still present ' 
attractions for intellectual enjoyment and the amenities of a refined : 
neighborhood. The farmer who would wish to enhance the market [ 
value of his land could not invest more profitably than in trees ; and it [ 
will be fortunate if he early learns the useful fact that there are corners . 
and waste places in abundance, now unproductive and unfit for other 
cultivation, that present the most favorable conditions for the growth of 
forest trees. 

The man who has cleared a farm out of the forest seldom or never 
plants a tree. He has come, from long custom, to look upon trees as 
an incumbrance to be removed; and whenever his home presents a 
noticeable amount of sylvan shade it is more likely to be the work of 
a younger generation, who have no sympathy with his aversion and a 
better idea of the comforts of home life. Americans have been re- 
proached for having but slight attachment to the homes of their child- 
hood ; and this willingness to sell to a stranger the land that a parent 
has cleared and cultivated, and on which their own early years have 
been spent, has been ascribed to a certain instability of character and 
an uneasy desire for change. 

There is doubtless a strong affinity between a love of home and of 
country, and it is true that an attachment to a homestead because of 
ancestral possession and family associations would greatly tend to 
increase our national prosperity and happiness. It would lead to sub- 
stantial investments for permanence and future enjoyment that the 
transient and speculative owner would never make, and it would tend 
to the more solid foundation of our public institutions generally. The 
man who settles temporarily for business and expects to depart when 
he becomes rich, spends no money upon public libraries and cares noth- 
ing for the charitable and educational establishments of the place, pro- 
vided they do not burden him while he remains. His influence will 
generally be adverse if these objects require expenses that bring no ; 
return during his stay, and he will prefer temporary expedients to per- j 

98 ! 



DEPARTMENT OP SUPERINTENDENCE. 51 

manent investments if they but serve to bridge over the time of his 
sojourn. The solid and substantial foundation of our institutions is 
laid by those having a permanent interest in the prosperity of the places 
where they are located. It is this class alone that erects monuments 
and that leaves evidences that its members have lived for the welfare 
of those who are to come after them. 

It is a point worthy of inquiry as to whether much of this indifference 
to the home of childhood and to the possessions of ancestors with which 
Americans have been charged is not due to their bleak and cheerless 
surroundings. 

We cannot doubt that the influence of a pleasant rural homestead 
and the choice memories of refined associations in early youth are as 
capable of making as strong an impression upon our native population 
as in any country whatever, and although in the absence of laws of 
entail and under the impulse of adventure or motives of interest or the 
force of circumstances a change of ownership may often happen and 
the choice and cherished homestead become the property of a stranger, 
still the chances become less as the attractions are greater, and a motive 
worthy of earnest and honorable effort is presented in favor >of mainte- 
nance in the family line. 

From this form of education by example, tending to promote a taste 
for rural planting and the enjoyment of rural scenery, which cannot 
fail to promote a more general plantation for utility, let us next consider 
the direct educational appliances that should be supplied in our insti- 
tutions of learning. 

Commencing with our colleges, we almost uniformly find, except in 
large cities, that they have sufficient land around them to justify a cer- 
tain amount of planting and often facilities for a first class arboretum. 
Instead of the plantation of one or a few species, it would be better to 
group together, in their natural relations, as great a variety of species 
as the soil and climate would favor — thus affording a ready illustration 
for comparative study and the means for becoming practically familiar 
with the characteristic features of each. Of course each species should 
be correctly labelled with the scientific as well as the popular name 
and it would be still better if the synonymes and the names in the more 
important foreign languages could be known. This object lesson would 
still be but imperfectly learnedj unless the student were required to 
know the leading facts concerning the native region, geographical 
range, uses, and best methods of propagation of each species under 
observation; and he should be able to point out the characteristic 
features of each. Our agricultural colleges should be required and the 
best endowed of our colleges should be induced to establish nurseries 
for the propagation of trees and for experimental study, and cabinets of 
wood specimens and wood products, with illustrations of the foliage, 
the fruit, &c., should be provided. 

In teaching the sciences of geology, chemistry, botany, zoology in its 

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52 CIBCULA.BS OF INFORMATION FOR. 1881. 

various branches, aiid climatology, their relations to forestry should be 
clearly defined and their application shown. We have already noticed 
the prominence that is given in European schools of forestry to practical 
exercises and excursions under the guidance of teachers, with the view 
of rendering the student thoroughly familiar with the subject of his 
studies and qualified to judge and act intelligently when thrown upon 
his own resources in after life. There can be nothing more rational or 
effectual in education than this, and in nothing in the whole plan of our 
system of education has there hitherto been so much neglect. No per- 
son should deem himself qualified to teach a science that he cannot 
illustrate in its applications as they appear in nature or are employed 
in the industries ; and we would most earnestly commend this point to 
your thoughtful consideration as a deficiency in our system of education 
that should be supplied. We are aware that chemistry, engineering, 
and to some extent the natural sciences are thus practically taught, but 
we would have the method extended to far greater degree than has yet 
been attempted. Finally, our college cla-sses, before graduation, should 
enjoy the privilege of some instruction, if only in a course of a dozen 
lectures, in which the general subject of forestry should be presented. 
These lectures might include a brief historical outline of the subject ; a 
notice of the codes of administration in various foreign countries ; their 
methods of management in the ordinary course of forest culture and 
under exceptionally difficult conditions, as for example upon mountains 
eroded by torrents or upon drifting sands ; the various modes of ex- 
traction and transportation; forest police; the prevention and control 
of fires ; the means employed for limiting insect ravages and other inju- 
ries 5 the usages of commerce ; the economies that apply, and the ques- 
tion of supply and demand. 

In this outline of what might be taught in our colleges, excepting 
the labelled collections of living trees and cabinets and excepting the 
special lectures upon forestry, I have suggested nothing but what our 
existing organizations ought to be able to supply, and this without 
materially adding to the duties already assigned. The application 
might require some preparation on the part of instructors to familiar- 
ize themselves with these duties and some modification in our text 
books, or, what would be better, a manual specially adapted to this 
subject that does not as yet exist in our language, but which could be 
readily supplied. 

Descending from our colleges to the academies, a modified form of 
the course above sketched might be conveniently applied. The labelled 
plantations of living trees and the cabinets would still find an appropri- 
ate place, and in the studies above enumerated, to the extent that they 
are taught, the applications to forestry might, with equal advantage, be 
made practically familiar from fresh specimens in the classroom and 
by occasional excursions in the groves. There is no more profitable 
mode for cultivating a habit of observation than by requiring the student 

100 



DEPARTMENT OF SUPERINTENDENCE. 53 

to discover and describe the differences that exist between objects that 
have a general resemblance but which are still unlike. For example, 
if branches from two species of the maple or the birch, the oak or the 
walnut, were assigned as a study, the mental effort involved in the ex- 
ercise would lead the close observer to notice differences in the leaves, 
the buds, the bark, and the wood that he had never recognized before, 
however familiar these objects may have been, and the habit of close 
observation thus called into exercise may prove of infinite service 
through after life. The formation of private collections in forest botany 
and forest products might often be encouraged among the students of 
our academies to great advantage, requiring them at the same time to 
learn by their own inquiry and research, from whatever source of infor- 
mation they can devise, as much as may be concerning their properties, 
their value, and their uses. A relish for rural adornment can be in no 
way so effectually inspired as by example, and if some leisure hours are 
spent in planting and cultivating trees the knowledge may prove of 
great service in after life. 

From the academies we pass to our public schools, where the extent 
of instruction must be modified to suit the more elementary course of 
studies that are taught. In the great cities the opportunities are few, 
and perhaps little can be done beyond familiarizing the scholar with the 
subject by cabinet specimens, engraved illustrations, and such instruc- 
tion as may be incidentally given in the text books used; but in the 
rural districts the earnest and faithful teacher has abundant oppor- 
tanities for inspiring a love of nature and of natural scenery, and there 
should be no school-house without its little plantation around it, which 
the inmates are taught to cherish and protect. The pupils may be en- 
couraged to undertake the cultivation of ornamental shrubs rather as 
a privilege than as an obligation, and many impressions alike pleasant 
and profitable may be planted in the scholar's mind, that, like seed in 
good soil, may perchance germinate and bear fruit in after years. 

As an illustration of the means by which the common schools may be 
made the agency of imparting correct ideas upon an important subject 
in rural economy, I will mention the measures adopted in recent years 
by the French government for the protection of insectivorous birds 
through the agency of their schools. Wishing to learn how this was 
done, I applied, some time since, to M. Waddington, then minister of 
education, who sent with his reply a series of circulars and documents 
having reference to the subject before us. • In his instructions to the 
prefects of departments, after noticing the injuries caused to agriculture 
by noxious insects, which have increased to a trulj^ alarming extent in 
recent years, he says : 

The ministers of agriculture aud of the interior have called my attention to these 
sad conditions, of which the principal cause is the disappearace or at least great reduc- 
tion in the number of insectivorous birds. These birds are the natural guardians of 
our harvests and the most ])recious auxiliaries of the farmer ; yet they are everywhere 

101 



54 CIRCULARS OF INFORMATION FOR 1881. 

treated as enemies. The cultivator, forgetting the constant services that they render 
him, sees only the little faults they commit ; children pursue them to destruction ; 
they are caught in nets ; their nests are hroken up ; and these useful friends which 
strangers come to buy for acclimation in foreign lands are gradually disappeaiing from 
our fields. Various circulars already have been addressed to the inspectors of acade- 
mies and numerous notes inserted in the official bulletins of the ministry with a view 
to stopping this destruction. Notwithstanding this, I deem it my duty to respond to 
the wishes of my colleagues by calling anew upon the teachers for their concurrence. 

I therefore desire you, M. le Pr^fet, to address instructions to all the teachers of your 
department, that they take pains to teach their pupils how to distinguish the insects 
that are injurious from those that are useful to agriculture ; and that they encourage 
them to destroy the former and protect the latter. It is also of first importance that 
children should be made to understand that it is to the interest of their families that 
they destroy no birds' nests, and that in doing so they show themselves both reckless 
and ungrateful. They should also know the penalties of law that they incur by so 
doing. [The statutes and ordinances forbidding this practice are here cited.] 

Teachers should also remind parents of the responsibilities incurred by allowing 
their children to destroy birds' nests, and that they are themselves liable to a fine for 
the acts of their minor children in allowing them to commit this act. I will add that 
in some communes that could be named teachers have conceived the happy thought 
of organizing a mong their pupils little societies for the protection of useful animals. 
These have done good service, and it would give me great pleasure to see their num- 
ber increased. I attach, sir, the most serious importance to the execution of this 
circular, the receipt of which you are requested to acknowledge. 

Among the other circulars were lists of birds and animals most useful 
to the farm and garden ; statements of prosecutions under the game 
laws that had been carried to full punishment; examples of the benefits 
fi?om the abundance of birds and of injuries from their scarcity, and 
pathetic stories to be read by the children that might well tend to enlist 
their sympathies in behalf of these feathered allies of the field. The 
following may be taken as an example of the class of stories thus brought 
under their notice : 

A sportsman was returning from an unsuccessful tramp, when a little bird accidentally 
crossed his path. With scarce a motive, for it was not a game bird, he discharged his 
gun, wounding the little creature, which fluttered slowly away. Curiosity led him to 
follow the trail till it led to the nest where the mother bird was found in a dying con- 
dition, and trying to protect its young that were co\'ered with its blood. The thought- 
less cruelty of his act so impressed the hunter that he resolved from that moment that 
he would never kill another bird. 

It may be thought that I am wandering from my subject in passing 

from trees to birds. But really, can we speak of rural scenery and sylvan 

life without associating them together ? la fact, this very subject of the 

protection of insectivorous birds for the benefit of agriculture presents 

a strong argument in favor of planting groves and belts of timber 

between our fields to afford a nesting place and a shelter for them 5 and 

the measure we have seen introduced in France from motives of public 

economy deserves attention in our own rural districts as much as in any 

other part of the world. 

In speaking of what might be done in favor of rural adornment, and 
iucideutaUy of plaatiug, through the instruction of our schools, it will 

102 



DEPARTMENT OF SUPERINTENDENCE. 55 

at once occur to us that our teachers should themselves be taught ; and 
hence we come to another phase of education that concerns our normal 
schools. We cannot here expect to do more than impart some general 
ideas on the subject ; but there should at least be provided half a dozen 
lectures before each graduating class, and something, if no more than a 
single lecture, should be given at our annual teachers' institutes upon 
this most important subject. 

In conclusion, we would remark that in this question of forest sup- 
plies and the incidental benefits of woodlands, now beginning to excite 
attention, we start with the disadvantage of having to encounter the 
prejudices of those who have been accustomed to look upon our wood- 
lands, if not too abundant, at least as infinite in amount aud in dura- 
tion. We must undeceive the overconfident, convince the doubtful, and 
awaken an interest in the indifferent. 

If we may borrow from the experience of our clergy, who generally 
find old sinners hard subjects for conversion, our greatest hope depends 
ui)on the impressions that may be made upon the young. This class we 
find in our schools, and we have the best of opportunities for inspiring 
in them a love of the beautiful, as well as of the useful, in the life that 
is opening before them. Although this association of the pleasant and 
the profitable should be a leading object in every phase of education, 
we may give prominence to the former without injury to the latter, and 
feel assured that, when a fondness for any study or pursuit is once estab- 
lished under pleasant and attractive associations, the uses will be dis- 
covered, although they may not have been directly pointed out. 

If we can induce the young man to plant a grove of trees for the 
charming contrast of light and shade that it will afford when grown, 
he will in due time discover, without being told by us, the market value 
of the timber in the trees that cast these shadows. The planter of a 
woodland of oaks and pines may enjoy their growth through a lifetime, and 
his children after him, until they become grand and majestic, yet this 
will not prevent us from figuring on their value for staves and shingles 
when they come to maturity and should give place to a new growth. 
Tis true the love of gain is low and sordid as compared with the more 
refined and honorable motives of life, and we should appeal to this only 
when the one you would influence will listen to no other. If by means 
of the latter we can secure the enjoyment that they afford, and at the 
same time assure the advantages of the former, we shall have reached 
the highest point to which our education can attain. 

Mr. Northrop, of Connecticut, spoke of the recent formation of the 
Association of Middlesex Falls, in Eastern Massachusetts, to lay out 
one of the finest p?rks in America. One object of this association would 
be to organize a school of forestry. He concluded by saying that until 
schools of forestry were established the principal substitute should be 
the teaching in the public schools, and that the minds of the scholars 

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56 CIRCULARS OF INFORMATION FOR 1881. 

should be imbued with a lov e of rural improvement, aud that the planting 
of trees should be encouraged. 

Mr. DeWolf, of Ohio, made some remarks upon the question of the 
morning. How can the status of the teacher be changed ? We are taught, 
he said, to look to the ministerial or clerical professions for certain 
classes of work, and these professions are expected to lead us. It seemed 
to him that those in his profession needed to understand that they had 
relations to society, and that just in proportion as they felt this they 
would have the same power that other professions possess. 

Mr. Northrop stated that there were in Connecticut sixty associations 
for rural improvement, and that he had aided in forming as many more in 
other States, aud in every case he thought the result had shown the 
wisdom of the organization. 

Mr. DeWolf followed with some remarks on tree planting. 

On motion of General Eaton, the department then adjourned to meet 
in the same hall at 10.30 the next morning, instead of 9.30, that the 
members might have an opportunity to visit the ISTormal College. 

A complimentary dinner was tendered the dej)artment this (Wed- 
nesday) evening at Delmonico's. 

Hon. William Dowd presided, and short addresses were made by Gen- 
eral Eaton, General Webb, Neil Gilmour. J. P. Wickersham, Aaron 
Gove, M. A. Newell, D. F. DeWolf, Dexter A. Hawkins, John D. PhU- 
brick, Mr. Page, J. H. Smart, Hosea Perkins, and Professor Scott. 

FOUETH SESSION— THUKSD AY MORNING. 

Newt York, February 10, 1881. 

The department having met, the members listened to some remarks by 
Mrs. Mary H. Hunt, of the Woman's National Christian Temperance 
Union, who spoke of the eviln^ of intemperance and the importance of 
training the children in the schools to habits of temperance, from the 
standpoint of physiology and chemistry. 

General Eaton then read the following paper: 

MUSEUMS ILLUSTRATIVE OF EDUCATION. 

This paper is entitled "Museums illustrative of education," by which 
expression I mean to indicate collections of articles, apparatus, and 
objects which may illustrate or symbolize the means and methods and 
processes of human instruction. 

The establishment of such collections involves the (question of their 
expense as well as the question of their relation to the principles of 
pedagogics. The first question naturally will be decided by the value 
of these museums as ascertained in the consideration of the second. 

All theories of education agree in emphasizing the importance of the 
senses in the cultivation of the intellect. The conditions of infantile 
life are mainly physical, and show few signs of the mental power of the 
104 



DEPARTMENT OF SUPERINTENDENCE. 57 

adult. The first years of the child are a waking up to its own wants 
and to the influences which bear in upon it through the avenues of the 
senses. The mother still stands to it as its next self, supplying its 
wants, protection, nourishment, and affection, and directly shaping 
those conditions of the environment which affect or direct development. 
The mother is first to repress the cry or to awake the smile, yet all parental 
agencies speedily find their limit, and others must be admitted, but the 
principles of growth remain the same. The scope of material conditions 
increases ; society, other than parental or family, appears, and the teacher 
is brought into requisition. His success will be determined by his skill 
in commanding the attention of his pupil. As a rule, he will find social 
economies placing him and his pupil or pupils during the hours of in- 
struction apart from the influences of the family and society and the 
means and opportunities of observation. Aside from himself and his own 
attainments, the chief instrumentality at his command is the book. 

The schools as thus constituted to-day, of teachers, pupils, and books, 
with all their conditions, have not come by chance, but are a growth, 
the marks of which can be distinctly seen if we attempt a comparison 
of them with the schools of a quarter century, a century, or two cen- 
turies ago. Take the subject of text books. The homely little horn- 
book of the old days has expanded and multiplied itself into numerous 
and various spellers, readers, arithmetics, geographies, and other text 
books. 

The legs of the little pupils do not so often dangle from their seats. 
The lighting, heating, ventilating of the room, indeed the conditions of 
tUe school generally, are more healthful. Something to aid illustration, 
such as blackboards or charts, adorns the walls. The dunce block is 
absent, the ferule less common, and the relation between the teacher 
and pupil is less that of distance or of physical force on one hand and 
fear and unnatural restraint on the other, but it has become a nearer 
approach to tlie relation between the worthy parent and the worthy 
child. 

And yet these advancements of the school on previous decades and 
centuries are not quite satisfactory. The teacher with genuine power 
to instruct and train will find a thousand ways to introduce devices, 
imagery, motives, by which the pupiPs attention will be increased, his 
conceptions made more clear, and the result more nearly satisfactory to 
the philosophical view. To the close observer these improvements sug- 
gest a purpose to discover and realize, if possible, the relation in which 
the child is first found to parent and surroundings. 

In the history of races and of human culture antedating the use of 
letters, we have the growth of oral trp^ditions. But here and there a 
man arises with the histrionic power. He can represent and imitate 
others, and he meets at once a response from those who hear or witness 
his exhibition. Another is so constituted as to have power on the side 
of conscience in moralizing, and finds a corresponding response from the 

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58 CIRCULARS OF INFORMATION FOR 1881. 

consciences of those around him. Still another has the power of rhythm, 
and weaves into poetic language and imagery the experiences, the 
heroic acts of others, or the striking traditions or the solemn precepts 
of the moralist, and finds perhap3 a chorus of voices responding to his 
measure. 

At another point, historically, we find that a great mind, through its 
various avenues of information and reflection, has advanced its accumu- 
lations far beyond its contemporaries, and the possessor of this mind be- 
comes a teacher. If it be Socrates, his pupil is any one who will con- 
verse with him ; his place of instruction, the wayside, shop, or garden ; 
and the illustrations and the imagery used are drawn from familiar 
objects and exjieriences. If it be Plato, he walks with his pupils in 
the groves of Academe and discourses upon the profoundesl subjects o^ 
philosopliy. If Aristotle, he adds to philosophical discourse, and leads 
to heroism by reading to Alexander the pages of Homer. If it be Jesus, 
the Saviour of men, He goes about doing good ; His disciples follow 
Him ; He teaches the greatest doctrines of life, drawing His illustra- 
tions and imagery from the objects about them and the experiences of 
their common life. 

But with the introduction of letters the increasing record of facts, the 
advance of knowledge, and the development of science made it both 
possible and necessary for the learner and the teacher that selections 
should bo made of tlie subjects to be taught and that the mass of the 
facts brought into view should be reduced and rendered available for 
the period of school days. 

We need not stop to inquire how religious motives in all great move- 
ments have proved supreme. 

It is suttlcient to note that in the middle ages, when the education 
which we now have began to take form, the methods of instruction, con- 
trolled by the Supreme ecclesiastical power, were shaped to the acquisi- 
tion of knowledge from the book only, and were necessarily of the most 
abstract character. 

We are all aware how little was then known in all departments of 
natural history or natural sciences. We cannot pause to consider the 
agitation i)roduced by the researches which have advanced these de- 
))artmentH of knowledge. The theory that ecclesiastical ideas then held 
and fornuilated were infallible and admitted of no change encountered 
antagonisms on the i)art of all who sought to improve the methods of 
instruction or to enter new fields of learning. 

The absurdities and barbarisms of the schoolmasters of three or five 
centuries ago we pass over. It is our misfortune as educators that we 
are still largely under the dominion of these abstract methods, though 
the greatest evils have been encountered not in the application of these 
abstract methods to adult minds or to minds after they have reached 
the period of reflection and reason in which the processes of abstraction 
become natural; the chief misfortune lies in their application to the 
too 



DEPARTMENT OF SUPERINTENT>ENCE. 59 

period of youth, when the senses perform so large a part in all mental 
operations. 

We are told, as you know, that the brain is often not matured till the 
child is ten years old. The teacher must take him as he is. He must 
expect him while a child to act as a child, to learn as a child, to speak 
as a child. 

These difficulties are specially intensified in all efforts to instruct those 
who are unfortunate either in the loss of sight or hearing or deficient 
in mental powers — unfortunates whom no one attempted to teach in 
ancient times and who have only within a very recent period, under 
the advanced ideas of christian philanthropy and the progress of modern 
science, been touched by the semi-creative power of education in schools. 
These teachers have found it possible to succeed only by meeting the 
issues which I here bring to the attention of educators in general. 
They have first studied the child and marked the signs of incipient 
development. They have analyzed the subjects of instruction and the 
methods in general use, and found how these could be modified to meet 
and answer the conditions of their pupils. Their triumph is a marvel, 
and we hold that the teacher of the normal child, normally developed, 
may improve his methods by a similar process ; and in affirming this 
we do not admit that the book is useless, that our schools are failures, 
that our teachers are all ignoramuses, that we are all on the wrong track 
now. 

While we do not deny that we may learn from every civilized nation, 
we believe and affirm that we have teachers, that we have methods, that 
we have school-houses and appliances and institutions of all grades (ex- 
cept the very highest), that we have systems of education nowhere ex- 
celled, and that on the whole our education, as imperfect as it now is, 
is producing a society better fitted to live a better life on a larger scale 
and with better results than are found anywhere in the history of the 
past or under any other form of education. 

We are among those who believe in American institutions and that 
they embody more good for a great people than any other. We are not 
so blind as to think we have all that is best. We would learn from all 
others and draw to ourselves by suggestion and appropriation every 
benefit they can confer. A moment's consideration will bring to mind 
the line in which to apply to our education the correctives which we arc 
considering. Prof. Joseph Henry was accustomed to express his idea 
that our education needed a corrective by saying that we should, in the 
order of instruction, consult the order of the child's development. We 
must study the child as he is, physically, mentally, morally, in his ma- 
terial and spiritual conditions and surroundings, and seek to compre- 
hend his destiny. As we have seen, those who deal successfully with 
the development of defective youth come into the most intimate rela- 
tions to their actual conditions, and by their nice adaptation of methods 
bridge over blindness or deafness or imbecility, and reach, nourish, 

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60 CIRCULARS OF INFORMATION FOR 1881. 

train, and secure growth. Dr. Howe found there was one and only one 
available medium to the mental powers of Laura Bridgman, the sense 
of touch or feeling, and we have the marvellous result: Laura is intro- 
duced to the world of knowledge common to others. Applying the same 
principle in the education of those who are sound, who are without any 
special defect, we should devise methods adapted to the best develop- 
ment of the entire capacity of the child. In not doing this we commit 
our greatest blunders. In correcting these blunders we must guard 
jigainst the tendency to fall into greater evils. The. so-called object 
teaching has been offered as a panacea, yefc we often visit a school 
where these object methods are employed and find the dev^elopment of 
the child quite as partial and defective as under the old methods. The 
evidence is positive against any exclusive method. Professor Bain 
observes : 

Young and old alike on seeing a good picture are apt to rest there. Such is the 
tendency of all representations, sketches, maps, and the rest. The most valuable helps 
to geography are models, and if these could be multiplied in schools the conceptions 
of the general forms of countries would be vastly enhanced ; while the subsequent 
lessons of juxtaposition and relative situation would find a groundwork of remarkable 
cohesiveness. 

What we want in our instruction and training, we repeat, is to use in 
due proportion all the child's capacities for his harmonious development; 
not to use solely his perception, or reflection, or expression, or memory, 
or imagination, or reason. At best there will be much in every child 
which the teacher cannot comprehend, and with forty or fifty pupils to 
the teacher there is need that all helps should be in his hand. In these 
perfected schemes the book will ever hold the preeminent place. Indeed, 
the child who acquires a taste for reading the book and skill in han- 
dling it has the clew to all learning, whether he have a teacher or school 
or not. 

But while the wisest endeavors arc used to make the book most effec- 
tive, it can impart only second hand information. It is equally as im- 
portant that the pupil should be taught how to acquire also knowledge 
at first hand: to bring his. own eyes, his own ears, experiences, observa- 
tions, to the service of his mind. And yet his memory must be trained 
alike in its recollective and retentive capacity; he must know how to 
reason, too, on what he experiences or observes or reads. His imagina- 
tion must be stimulated and enriched by the power and beauty of fable, 
imrable, poem, song. 

Both Socrates and the Great Teacher of Men employed with the great- 
est skill the power of imagery to reach the heatt and direct the conduct 
through the imagination. 

Instead of doing this whole work for the child, which is 'here urged, 
we find that one teacher is strong in operating on the sensibilities, 
another in forcing obedience upon the will, another in arousing con- 
science, another in quickening the reasoning faculties, another in culti- 
vating the memory, another in inciting reflection, another in developing 

108 



DEPARTMENT OF SUPERINTENDENCE. 61 

expression, another the taste, another the perceptions dependent upon 
the senses. What we want and are urging is that an education shall 
comprehend all these. 

A grand defect lies not with the purpose and desire of the teacher, 
but in the lack of possibilities. The teacher in Siam cannot travel with 
his royal pupil to Siberia to convey to him a correct idea of snow and 
ice. He must do it through words and imagery. If we cannot have 
the thing, we must have the most pertinent illustration or image of it. 
Since we cannot go everywhere for these observations, we must gather 
and concentrate their illustrations. The past cannot reenact itself for 
the student of history. As the book aids him in the study of centuries 
gone, so the museum must. bring together specimens of the armor, im- 
plements, furniture, architecture, and arts of those historic ages beyond 
his observation, and arrange and group them in a manner adapted to 
his information. *' Certain it is," as Bacon observes, " that into the 
deep, fruitful, and operative study of many sciences, especially natural 
philosophy and physic, books be not the only instrumentals 5 wherein 
also the beneficence of men hath not been altogether wanting ; for we 
see spheres, globes, astrolobes, maps, and the like have been provided 
as appurtenances to astronomy and cosmography as well as books ; we 
see likewise that some places instituted for physic have annexed the 
commodity of gardens for simples of all sorts, and do likewise command 
the use of dead bodies for anatomies." 

The idea is as old as the Temple of the Muses. We have all read of 
the museum at Alexandria, established by Ptolemy 284 years before 
Christ, and of that one founded by the Eoman Emperor Claudius. Then 
we get glimpses of those at Pergamos, Antioch, and Byzantium. In 
modern civilization the idea has received great enlargement. Years ago 
Prof. Joseph Henry remarked: 

There is scarcply any subject connected with science and education to which more 
attention is given at the present day than that of collections of objects of nature and 
wt, known under the general denomination of museums. This arises from their grow- 
ing importance as aids to scientific investigation and instruction. As they are in- 
tended to subserve different ends, they are of different characters. There are, on the 
one hand, large central museums, supported by government appropriations, and on the 
other, local museums, which are established and sustained by societies and voluntary 
individual aid. 

One of the most interesting forms which museums have assumed in 
our day is that wherein the collection of articles for the promotion of 
public information is combined with that very ancient commercial de- 
vice, the fair. Many cities and countries have organized such exhibi- 
tions, notably the World's Fairs of 1851 and 1862 in London, the Uni- 
versal Expositions of 1867 and 1878 in Paris, the Weltausstelluug of 1873 
in Vienna, and our Centennial of 1876 at Philadelphia. Each exhibition 
of this kind has stimulated and inspired the people who beheld it and 
bas left behind it a permanent museum of great value for the future 
instruction of the public. 

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62 CIRCULARS OP INFORMATION FOR 1881. 

Now, while the student of pedagogical theory and practice finds much 
in these exhibitions and museums which teaches him, it is only at ex- 
ceptional times and in special places that he can have frequent access 
to material illustrating the progress, methods, and conditions of his art. 
Impressed with the fact and bearing of this deficiency, educators have 
from time to time endeavored to organize collections illustrative of the 
subjects and methods of instruction. 

Comenius, among other valuable works, prepared his orbis pictus. 
He would have the word learned in connection with the thing ; thus, in 
the study of science the scholar must, as far as possible, have the objects 
themselves before him, and, when this cannot be done, correct drawings 
or pictures of them. He would have the - true order of instruction 
learned from nature, and emphasizes the employment of the senses. 

Later there came Pestalozzi, reviving the same propositions in a 
modified form : first, he would teach the thing and the word together; 
second, he considers that the only effective agents through which to 
acquire the knowledge of things are the senses, chief of which is that of 
sight ; third, the child should study the objects immediately around 
him ; fourth, from this starting point the sphere of knowledge must be 
extended by the gradual enlargement of observations. 

Then came Frobel, seeking to perfect what these eminent men had 
already attempted in the application of nature's method in the education 
of the child. 

It should be recollected that during the progress of these changes iu 
theory and practice the subjects of instruction were multiplied. Botany, 
mineralogy, zoology, chemistry, physics, and . astronomy maiie great 
advances. Each engaged the attention of master minds. Experiments 
and illustrations in the presence of the pupil increased, and by degrees 
he was encouraged to attempt manipulation for himself. Under the old 
classical curriculum the library was the chief aid required in instruction, 
but now cabinets of minerals and of botany were introduced, and in time 
collections of specimens illustrative of all the physical sciences. 

Dr. De Ouyper, a distinguished professor at the University of Li^ge, 
says, in his report on polytechnic and higher industrial schools in Ger- 
many, that the success of these schools is to be ascribed to the educa- 
tional auxiliaries wLich the student finds in the varied and complete 
collections connected with the schools. These collections educate both 
the professor and the student. The famous Royal Industrial School at 
Berlin (Dr. Reuleaux's) has at present 16 distinct collections ; the Min- 
ing Academy at Freiberg has 11; the Polytechnic School at Munich, 
27; the Polytechnic School at Carlsruhe, 12; the Polytechnic School at 
Darmstadt, 15 ; and the Polytechnic School at Brunswick, 14. 

In 1877 the Saxon ministry of public instruction thought it of suffi- 
cient importance to issue a special circular calling attention to the 
excellent papier m'3,ch6 and other models prepared for the use of schools 
by the Museum Salvator at Dresden. 

110 



DEPARTMENT OF SUPERINTENDENCE. 63 

The increased use of illustrations in science and physics affected the 
methods of teaching the classics and mathematics. The professor oi 
Greek and Latin now adorns his room with maps, plane and raised, or 
the localities mentioned in the text, with typical representations of 
architecture, and with the busts of the celebrated persons mentioned. 
The change is no less in the methods of teaching mathematics. Says 
Herschel : 

Number we cannot help regarding as an abstraction^ and consequently its general 
properties or its axioms to be of necessity inductively concluded from the considera- 
tion of particular cases. And surely this is the way in which children do acquire 
their knowledge of number, and in which they learn its axioms. The apples and the 
marbles are put in requisition, and through the multitude of gingerbread nuts their 
ideas acquire clearness, precision, and generality. 

Says Mr. John Stuart Mill: 

The fundamental truths of the science of number all rest upon the evidence of sense ; 
they are proved by showing to our eyes and to our fingers that any given number of 
ohjects, ten balls, for example, may by separation and rearrangement exhibit all the 
diflferent sets of numbers the sum of which is ec^ual to ten. All the improved methods 
of teaching arithmetic to children proceed upon a knowledge of this fact. All who 
wish to carry the child's mind along with them in learning arithmetic — all who (as 
Dr. Biber in his remarkable letters on education expresses it) wish to teach numbers 
and not mere ciphers — now teach it through the evidence of the senses, in the manner 
we have described. 

Mr. Spencer observes, quoting Mr. Wyse: 

A child has been in the habit of using cubes for arithmetic; let him use them also 
for the elements of geometry. I would begin with solids, the reverse of the usual 
plan. It saves all the difficulty of absurd definitions and bad explanations on points, 
lines, and surfaces, which are nothing but abstractions. 

Huxley says : 

But if scientific training is to yield its most eminent results, it must, I repeat, be 
made practical. That is to say, in explaining to a child the general phenomena 
of nature, you must, as far as possible, give reality to your teaching by object lessons ; 
in teaching hiui botany, he must handle the plants and dissect the flowers for himself; 
in teaching him physics and chemistry, you must not be solicitous to fill him with 
information, but you must be careful that what he learns he knows of his own knowl- 
edge. Don't be satisfied with telling him that a magnet attracts iron. Let him see 
that it does ; let him feel the pull of the one upon the other for himself. And, espe- 
cially, tell him that it is his duty to doubt until he is compelled, by the absolute 
authority of nature, to believe that which is written in books. Pursue this dis" 
cipline carefully and conscientiously, and you may make sure that, however scanty 
may be the measure of information which you have poured into the boy's mind, you 
have created an intellectual habit of priceless value in practical life. 

Combe remarked in general : 

The true plan is to present the object to the children. Let them examine its form, 
size, color, and other particulars, and afterwards tell the name, and spell it. All 
nature is adapted in the most beautiful manner to the faculties, and the study of 
nature imparts great ph'xasure. Thus the curiosity of children to know things is insa- 
tiable. You are aware that they will break their playthings to see what is within. 
When properly taught, the elements of all the sciences ai'e simple. Talk to a child of 
geometry, triangles, and hexagons, and you will puzzle it completely. But present a 
figure, let it notice that it has three sides and three corners, then tell it that all such 

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64 CIRCULARS OP INFORMATION FOR 1881. 

figures are triangles, and it readily understands the matter. So of the other geomet- 
rical figures. Children always take pleasure in learning by actual presentation. 
They can be instructed in almost anything which can be presented to them directly 
and subjected to their senses. 

nerbert Spencer affirms also as a general principle: 

The rudimentary facts of exact science are now being learnt by direct intuition, 
as textures find tastes and colors are learnt. Employing the ball frame for first les- 
sons in arithmetic exemplifies' this. It is well illustrated, too, in Professor De Mor- 
gan's mode of explaining the decimal notation. M. Marcel, rightly repudiating the 
old system of tables, teaches weights and measures by referring to the actual yard 
and foot, pound and ounce, gallon and quart, and lets the discovery of their relation- 
ships be experimental. The use of geographical models and models of the regular 
bodies, &c., as introductory to geography and geometry respectively, are facts of the 
same class. Manifestly a common trait of these methods is that they carry each child's 
mind through a process like that which the mind of humanity at large has gone 
through. The truths of number, of form, of relationship in position, were all origi- 
nally drawn from objects; and to present the truths to the child in the concrete is to 
jeam them as the race learned them. By and by, perhaps, it wiU be seen that he can- 
not possibly learn them in any other way; for that if he is made to repeat them as 
abstractions, the abstractions can have no meaning for him, until he finds that they 
are simply statements of what he intuitively discerns. 

If, after considering the opinions of such eminent authorities, there 
be any who deny that the changes here urged are improvements, it will 
be in vain to present to their attention further arguments. Educators 
generally have accepted or are accepting these principles, but from 
what has already been said it is evident that when they speak of the 
museum illustrative of education they mean something quite different 
from the cabinet or apparatus by which the teacher of science or mathe- 
matics points his lesson. The several subjects of instruction will indeed 
find here their appropriate illustration ; but, passing beyond these, such 
museums will contain all material which can, to the eye of the teacher, the 
parent, and the administrator, convey information respecting the rela- 
tions of education to man, to industry, to art, to science, yes, to civiliza- 
tion. Such a collection will be to normal training what a natural his- 
tory museum is to instruction in science, what an herbarium is to botany. 
Here the teacher, the superintendent, the sciiool-house builder, the maker 
of school furniture, the sanitarian, the sociologist, should find material 
for thought and information. 

Statesmen and students of history here find in the use or neglect of 
these methods the secrets of the greater or less progress of nations. 

The protest against abstract methods in the training of early child- 
hood and the effort to make more complete aids and illustrations have 
made rapid strides within t he last fifty years. Already we have infor- 
mation of sixteen museums in Europe specially illustrative of education. 
These are located at Vienna, BudaPesth, St. Petersburg, Amsterdam, 
Rotterdam, Brussels, Paris, Berlin, Rome, Palermo, London, Munich, 
Dresden, Ziirich, Moscow, and Berne. 

The pedagogic museum holds the relation to the general museum that 
the pedagogical library holds to the general library. The general library 
112 



DEPARTMENT OF SUPERINTENDENCE. 65 

attempts to make a collection of books exhaustive of its kind, and the 
general museum attempts to make a general collection of articles ex- 
haustive of its kind and illustrative of its subject. 

What Mr. Perkins, that eminent friend of art, has said of collections 
in his department, viz, that " we aim at collecting material for the edu- 
cation of the nation in art, not in making collections of art," educators 
may say with reference to museums illustrative of education. We do 
not seek to make collections of objects of curiosity merely. We seek to 
make collections which will be illustrative of the condition, progress, 
and improvement in education, whether these relate to systems, or insti- 
tutions, or methods, or subjects, or appliances. 

All who have studied the development of education in Ontario under 
the eminent Dr. Eyerson have been impressed with the aid his improve- 
ments received from the educational museum he so early established. 

The Japanese government, after sending commissioners to see the 
best systems, institutions, and methods, and calling to their aid experts, 
administrators, and teachers from all parts of the world, expended large 
sums of money in collecting the material for a museum illustrative of 
education. 

Few governments are more thoroughly convinced of the necessity of 
educational museums than the government of the French Eepublic. 
There may have been differences of opinion among the great men who 
have been at the head of the ministry of public instruction since 1870 — 
Messrs. Jules Simon, Waddington, Bardoux, and Jules Ferry — but on 
this point they are not divided. 

In 1878, when France had no educational museum, the government 
appropriated 100,000 francs in order to enable the teachers to visit the 
Paris Exposition, the museum par- excellence. M. Bardoux, minister 
of public instruction, in addressing the 12,000 tea<jhers who had come 
to Paris, said, among other things : 

You cannot be good teachers unless you are continually learning yourselves, and you 
cannot instruct children successfully unless you study every day the progress of the 
art of teaching. You must acquaint yourselves with new methods of teaching and 
with the latest improvements in school apparatus. We (the government) intend to 
establish educational libraries all over the country, and we shall endeavor to give you 
permanent cantonal museums. 

Pedagogical aids advance most rapidly in the form of libraries. 
According to the report dated in 1880, 929 of these libraries were estab- 
lished in France. According to recent information they have increased 
to 1,725. Some departments have one and others as many as sixty- 
three. 

Jules Ferry, minister of public instruction, published a suggestive list 
of books from which selections could ^be made by those organizing these 
libraries. First, are works relating to general pedagogics, such as those 
of KoUin, Madame decker, Eousseau, Guizot, Locke, Herbert Spencer, 
and Jules Simon ; second, works on practical pedagogics, those by de 
5 ciR 11^ 



66 CIRCULARS OF INFORMATION FOR 1881. 

G6rando, Girard, Madame Pape-Carpentier, Levasseur, and Legouve; 
third, books of reference, such as the works of Joly, Cavier, Hippeau, 
Buisson, and Greard; fourth, works on the history of education at home 
and abroad, foreign and domestic school legislation and reports. 
The minister adds : 

It is not the number of books, but their value, which makes a pedagogic library. 

The question of establishing museums illustrative of education has 
long interested American teachers and officials. They have closely 
watched the i)rogress of this idea elsewhere and have considered its 
application at home. Their opinions, as expressed in a large number of 
letters recently received at the Bureau of Education, are strongly in 
favor of establishing such a museum in connection with the educational 
library already collected, in order that the first source of information 
for the student of pedagogics, namely, the literature of the subject, may 
be adequately supplemented by the second, to wit, its illustration. 

They believe that there should be one place in the country where the 
American educator or teacher may study all that is known touching 
any given phase of education. They also believe that the nation can 
and should do this, which States and cities, however powerful, cannot 
do as well, and which private institutions, for obvious reasons, cannot 
hope to accomi)lish at all. 

A small appropriation has been made by Congress for cataloguing, 
caring for, and increasing this collection, and the Bureau desires the best 
suggestions from every quarter in order to make its use most effective 
for the improvement of education throughout the country, as contem- 
plated in these brief statements and hints. 

A telegram was received and read from Superintendent Andrew J. 
Kickoff, of Cleveland, Ohio, announcing his inability to be present on 
account of illness. 

It was then voted that Hon. J. W. Patterson should deliver his address 
in the afternoon instead of the evening, as announced. 

Mrs. Walworth, school commissioner of Saratoga Springs, N. Y., 
asked whether something could not be done to teach the elementary 
principles of honesty and morality in the public schools. 

Mr. Gove, of Colorado, said that there was no city in the country 
where the teacher was not required to present testimony of a moral 
character and upright life, and that the influence of the teacher was 
better than text books or formulas of morality. 

Mr. DeWolf, of Ohio, urged that the committing to memory of the 
gems of literature was a most efficient means of teaching morality, and 
said that much could be done by the teachers towards answering these 
questions by living good and godly lives themselves. 

Mr. MuEPHY, of Few York, thought that some teachers were not of 
high moral character, and cited the case of a teacher in Troy who sent 
her pupils out to buy beer. 

114 



DEPARTMENT OF SUPERINTENDENCE. 67 

Mr. XoETHROP, of Connecticut, said that what this gentleman had 
said he believed to be exceptiojial ; bethought the great majority of the 
teachers in the public schools were christian teachers, who were seek- 
ing to illustrate by their lives the principles of morality and virtue. 

Mr. Sanfoed, of Middletown, K. Y., rose to advocate the morality of 
the teachers of his State, and was followed by Mr. Barringer, of !N^ew- 
ark, X. J. 

Hon. J. W. Patterson, observing that General Eaton had called at- 
tention to the fact that education has two sides, objective and subjec- 
tive, said that the child at home begins his instruction in the objective 
method, which is the natural method of teaching. The perceptive facul- 
ties are developed first; afterwards the child begins to reflect. Object 
teaching is as old as the world. He asked if there was not danger that 
the other side of education, the development of the power of thought, 
might be forgotten. 

Mr. Smart, of Indiana, recurring to the point introduced by Mrs. Wal- 
worth, wished to enter a protest against the assumption that the school- 
master is responsible for everything. He denied that he had such re- 
sponsibility. He thought that children are not cared for at home as 
they should be. Still, teachers do not do as well as they can. The best 
kind of work and the best instruction in morals are going on in schools 
every hour of the day. In his judgment the power of self control is one 
of the greatest moral forces, aiid the schools were teaching this very 
thing. 

!Mr. Slade, of Illinois, thought it was the influence exerted by the 
teacher that would tell, not what is in books ; that if the pupils were to 
be made what they should be there must be character in the teachers. 
The public schools are the grand leveller, not by dragging any down, 
but by bringing up the lowly and the humble. 

^Irs. Walworth explained that she did not bring any charges against 
teachers, as they were generally well meaning and intelligent, but she 
thought many teachers in the northern part of Few York had little 
knowledge and might receive instruction on this point. 

Dr. Philbrick, of Massachusetts, referred to the paper which had 
been read as in no way one-sided, but an exact statement of facts. No 
substantial progress could be made, except in the solid study of educa- 
tion or x)edagogics. One important thing is to have pedagogical libra- 
ries ; another, to have a great pedagogical museum at Washington. 

General Eaton moved that a committee of five on resolutions be ap- 
pointed. Adopted. He then exjiressed regret that Dr. Elisha Harris, 
of Albany, N. Y., who was to read a paper on "Education and health," 
could not be present. 

Eemarks were then made by Mr. Carleton, Mrs. Hunt, Dr. Philbrick, 
and General Eaton, and the department then adjourned, to meet at 3 

P. 31. 

115 



68 CIRCULARS OF INFORMATION FOR 1881. 



FIFTH SESSION— THUKSDAY AFTERNOON. 

New York, February 10, 1881. 

Mr. Marble announced the committee on resolutions as follows: J. 
O. Wilson, District of Columbia ; H. S. Jones, Pennsylvania ; Charles 
Northend, Connecticut ; Aaron Gove, Colorado ; and E, A. Apgar, New 
Jersey. 

Hon. J. W. Patterson, Stat« superintendent of public instruction in 
New Hampshire, read the following paper : 

NATIONAL AID TO EDUCATION. 

The old masters of the world arrogantly assumed that every Roman 
citizen was born a ruler ; and hence the vainest as well as the greatest 
of Roman orators said, *^Any one can make himself a jurisconsult in a 
week, but an orator is the production of a lifetime." Aristotle, more 
thoughtful and observant of the causes and drift of human affairs^ said, 
" All who have meditated on the art of governing mankind have been 
convinced that the fate of empires depends on the education of chil- 
dren." The political philosophy of the great Athenian voices the expe- 
rience of all the ages since his day. It would be easy to fill the time 
allotted to me with utterances of similar import from publicists and 
practical statesmen of every period and phase of civil progress. 

The conservative forces of government are moral, not physical. It 
is the intent and spirit of the people which give validity and inviola- 
bility to law. Without this it is soulless and impotent. Statutes 
cannot bring order and prosperity to a state whose citizens are not 
a law unto themselves. A people who have not an intelligent appre- 
ciation of liberty, and do not see the line beyond which it passes into 
license, will perpetually chafe and rebel against its necessary limita- 
tions. They are not safe guardians^ of civil freedom, if they do not 
apprehend its nature and the institutions by which it is reduced to a 
system of practical government. Individuals who, like children and 
madmen, have not the capacity or disposition to govern themselves in 
a way to subserve their own or the public interest, cannot claim the 
right of self government. Equally, a state in which a large majority of 
the people do not comprehend the nature and genius of free institutions 
cannot assert the right of popular government, and has no cause to 
complain of the restraints of a higher power that would suppress the 
violence or fraud that tends to the overthrow of law and liberty. Should 
the intelligence of the electorate of any State of our Union decline so 
low as to render self rule a farce or a peril, unquestionably that article 
of the Constitution of the General Government which guarantees a 
republican form to every State comes into action and is paramount to 
all State authority. The guarantee carries with it an implied power to 
guard against such a contingency, not necessarily by force, but by 

116 



DEPARTMENT OF SUPERIXTENDENCE. 69 

demanding or providing in each State the means of popular education. 
It is idle longer to talk of this as an exclusively local or State question. 
It involves the welfare and Ufe of the Union, and is therefore a national 
question. It is true, " the national charter," as Judge Tourgee has said, 
^^is dumb in regard to it 5 " but it is potentially in it. The conception 
is as old as the convention of 1787, and destined soon to come to its 
birth in some living form. As the great war powers slumbered in the 
Constitution till wakened into activity by the necessities of the Govern- 
ment, so this will be seen to be a legitimate offspring of fundamental 
law when the instinct of self preservation shall demand it. The Eepub- 
lic carries with it, written or implied, the right to perpetuate itself; and 
national education being essential to that end, its maintenance will be 
found necessary to transmute the blind, brutal instincts of ignorant 
masses into intelligent forces of strength and prosperity. We have not 
yet realized the full measure of disaster possible to a free state based 
upon popular ignorance, but the drama is on the stage and may yet 
become a tragedy of blood. 

I will not repeat statistics familiar to the public mind, but must recall 
for your reflection the painful fact that 45 per cent, of illiteracy in six- 
teen States of the Union has not only iilaced all political power, in that 
section of the country, in the hands of a majority of the remaining 55 
I)er cent, of voters, but, not to mention its weight in the electoral college, 
has given to one-twelfth of the voting force of the Kepublic 72 per cent. 
of i)ower in the lower and 84 per cent, in the upper branch of Congress. 
The illiterate balance of power, incapable of understanding or too weak 
to defend their rights, may be excluded or defrauded at the polls, the 
constitutional guarantee of State republics defied, and the vast interests 
of the country subjected to a usurped power of legislation. 

But history suggests to our apprehension yet graver perils. This 
blended mass of humanity, which to-day may be the convenient instru- 
ment of personal avarice or ambition, awakened in the bitter conflicts 
of party to a consciousness of its strength, held by no moral restraints, 
and maddened by some real or fancied social wrong, may at length 
sweep down, with the resistless power of elemental forces, in the States 
so cursed, all the forms and landmarks of an inherited liberty, or, like 
a Parisian mob, stain its altars with the blood of the purest and ablest 
of the land. Should such an emergency come to us, as it has to other 
republics, nothing but national power could arrest the desolation ; and 
tlie Executive, in the discharge of his duty, would be forced to intervene 
to rescue society from destruction. When we reflect that such possibil- 
ities may become an accomplished fact, shall our activity in the cause 
of popular education be paralyzed by the timid assertion that the work 
is not national, but one left to the care of the several States ! What if 
the States refuse or neglect to care for this common interest ; shall the 
nation slumber over the restless volcano till it is too late to save our 
interests, our honor, or our liberties ? A people upon whom the respon- 

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70 CIRCULARS OP INFORMATION FOR 1881. 

sibilities of the ballot have been cast have a right to denuuicl of the 
government which conferred it a degree of intellectual training which 
shall enable them safely to discharge its functions. But we are told we 
cannot afford to thus secure the future at the cost of sacrificing the 
fundamental principle of the local distribution of power. Here we are 
met again by the ever recurring, never ending dogma of State sover- 
eignty, which, without the discrimination of the ghost of Banquo, stalks 
obtrusively into every subject, seemingly unconscious that it is a ghost. 
State rights are sacred and impregnable barriers to the usurpations of 
central power, but are impotent and untimely obstructions in the path 
of national safety. Will not all State rights perish in the doom that 
awaits the universal decline of popular intelligence ? But will some 
advocate of local sovereignty tell us how a national supervision of this 
great department of the common welfare is to imi)eril State rights more 
than the regulation of commerce and currency f The exercise of con- 
current educational powers in the States is no more dangerous ta per- 
sonal or State rights than the discharge of concurrent judicial functiona 
or the exercise of a concurrent power of taxation. The objection is the 
spectre of a disordered fancy, and has no real existence. But if it "were 
true, it would be no loss to exchange a paralyzed State function for a 
national one that would breathe vitality through the whole organism 
of society. Of what value are rights to a State, if its papulation can- 
not discriminate or comprehend them, and have not the ability or Spirit 
to defend them ? Abstract political powers are a Utopian dream without 
the intelligence to recognize and embody them in practical laws and 
institutions. Political power is a dangerous weapon in the hands of a 
people who have not the wealth, the arts, the utilities, the industries, 
the altars, and the homes that spring from the schools. j!^ot simply our 
foreign influence and Federal unity, but the domestic prosperity and 
security of the States must fall with the decline of local intelligence. 

The laws of trade and social economy, the inventive skill, the thrift 
and enterprise of business, the capacity for industrial production, and 
the accumulations of wealth, the growth of brain power,^ and moral 
stamina which bring influence and character to communities have their 
birth and nourishment in the schools. All these and the absolute se- 
curity of States against the encroachments of Federal power will he 
found in a system of free universal education. The ingenuity and skill 
of the workshop, the sense and manliness of the farm, the scope and 
enterprise of commerce, the genius and heroism of arms, the wealth 
and pathos of literature — all industries and all professions droop and 
die in the eclipse of popular intelligence. 

The question of congressional aid to eduscation is fundamental^ and 
has been forced into the arena of legislation against the wish of parties 
by vexed problems for which statecraft can find no other solution. The 
situation is abnormal and disgraceful, and demands the forecast of pru- 
dent statesmanship rather than the empiricism of politics. Experience^ 

118 



DEPARTMENT OF SUPERINTENDENCE. 71 

teaches us that this great interest cannot longer be left to the exclusive 
care of the States. 

The census of 1870 revealed the startling fact that more than one- 
fourth of our whole population above the age of ten years could neither 
read nor write and more than one-half the population of the late slave 
States above that age were illiterate. We do not allude to this in a spirit 
of crindnation, but because it is an essential fact in the discussion. The 
advantage of the ^orth, and especially of Xew England, in this regard 
has resulted jfrom the circumstances of settlement and the character of 
their industries. This difference constitutes no legitimate ground of 
inaction. We of the !N'orth cannot innocently refuse to cooperate in an 
effort to remedy this grea^t public peril because it is largely local, nor 
ought we to complain that the funds demanded for its removal, to be 
effective, will have to be distributed on the basis of illiteraey, and there- 
fore unequally; for, while we may not derive as many advantages, we 
shall be benefited as essentially as the less favored section and in the 
only way in which the evil can be reached. ' We are one people. Our 
industrial and political interests are bound in a perpetual wedlock, and 
the whole family of States must rise or fall together. We cannot say 
one to the other, "I have no need of thee," but the members should 
have the same care one for another, and whiether one member suffer, all 
the members puffer with it, or one member be honored, all the members 
rejoice with it. 

There is an explicit grant of power in the third section of the fourth 
article of the Constitution, "to dispose of, and make all needful rules 
and regulations respecting, the territory or other property belonging 
to the United States." Basing its action upon this constitutional pro- 
vision, Congress, in pursuance of a policy adopted anterior to the 
organic law, has, at successive periods since the administration of 
Washington, made grants of land for educational purposes, aggregating 
95,737,714 acres. It has also made direct appropriations of money for 
this purpose, which amount to $47,785,197.93. In many of these cases 
Congress has made, in accordance with the letter of the Constitution, 
specific regulations for the expenditure of the sums appropriated. 

In view of this record, covering the whole period of our history, it is 
too late to question the power of the General Government to appropriate 
public funds for educational purposes and to disburse the same directly 
by its own agents. Such appropriations on the basis of illiteracy are 
not liable to the charge of an unequal distribution of public funds ; for 
they are not given as donations to States or citizens, but for '* the com- 
mon defence and general welfare." Like forts and lighthouses at ports 
of entry and military and naval schools, they are not local but general in 
their purpose and effects. But in what form this national aid can best 
be applied is a practical question, demanding the most careful consid- 
eration. The independent right of the General Government to educate 

its people for the proper discharge of their public functions is incident to 

119 



72 CIRCULARS OF INFORMATION FOR 1881. 

its very existence. But as intelligence is an antecedent condition of self 
government, it must be conceded that the right to educate its citizens 
belongs also to each State; that right, however, cannot limit the obliga- 
tion to the States, for the citizens of the States are citizens of the United 
States, and therefore the General Government, whose powers are supreme 
within their range, is bound to secure to all the children of the Eepublic, 
directly or through the States, suitable and sufficient opportunities to 
prepare them to discharge intelligently and safely their political duties. 
The public welfare is the supreme law of every State, whether founded 
upon a written or unwritten constitution ; but the attempt to supplant 
State schools by a national system, or to establish a binary system, 
would be a measure so radical and hazar dous that it should only be 
resorted to as a last expedient against the dissolution of the Eepublic. 
On the other hand, the distribution to the States of national funds, to 
be disbursed by them without supervisio n or responsibility, would be a 
failure as a permanent educational policy. Eevenuesso received would 
be lost in the scuffle and antagonisms of politics, or, like the old " surplus 
revenue " of 1836, vanish into thin air through a thousand follies. 
Should this not happen it would be diverted into special channels by 
dominant State prejudices or be made to minister to the higher educa- 
tion, while popular ignorance, which it is designed to remove, would 
be left to increase. 

Colleges and universities will spring as a natural growth from public 
intelligence, but common schools must be planted and fostered by the 
government. The most urgent demand of the Eepublic to-day, looking 
at its political and social necessities, is a system of free primary instruc- 
tion that shall reach all classes, races, and sects, and be directed and 
inspired by a supervision at once intelligent and unflagging. Unfortu- 
nately, districts the most benighted and deplorable are the last to realize 
their situation, and others have not the means to better their condition. 
National aid should be applied to the localities and populations most in 
want, and by an impartial intelligence that will make no mistakes. 

In matters of such moment Congress should be guided by the rules of 
business which hold between private parties. Let it be sui'e that the 
thing paid for will be received. Security is the law of business between 
honest men, and surely parties who ignore conscience and repudiate 
solemn obligations have no reason to complain if held to the same rule. 

To devise a wise and practical plan of national aid and supervision of 
instruction should be the work of an intelligent commission familiar 
with the wants and conditions of all sections ; and even this would have 
to be perfected by experience, like other permanent institutions. 

I would not presume to foreshadow a system in matters so fundamental 
and organic 5 but we may venture to suggest that the plan adopted and 
so successfully administered in the distribution and application of the 
Peabody fund would be a safe and instructive precedent for statesmen 
in the disposition of national funds to the same cause. I am disposed 
120 



DEPARTMENT OF SUPERINTENDENCE. 73 

to believe that, whether the proposed aid is to come from an invested 
fond or from annual appropriations, it should be paid directly to dis- 
tricts by educated and responsible agents appointed by the executive, 
and on such conditions as to improve and lengthen schools already ex- 
isting and to secure the establishment of others in localities where they 
are needed. These school agents should act in harmony with local offi- 
cials as far as possible, but be independent of State control and required 
to examine by visitation and report in detail the condition and wants 
of their respective districts to the Commissioner of Education. Such 
beneficent supervision by the Government if judiciously conducted 
would be felt to be beneficial to all interests, and would serve to draw 
the fellowship of the States into a closer union by invisible ties of grati- 
tude and love. Or, if in any case prejudice, pride, or some fancied right 
should refuse to submit to an inspection designed to increase and per- 
petuate the blessings of liberty, it would furnish to the Government an 
opportunity to assert its paramount sovereignty in a case that would 
command the approval of jnankind, which might be an incident little 
to be feared or regretted. It is best that the lines of power should 
be sharply drawn, and questions of jurisdiction set at rest by the court. 
We do not insist on mixed schools nor attempt to lay down the specific 
conditions on which public moneys shall be distributed for educational 
purposes ; but we insist that it should be in accordance with the con- 
stitutional provision that " !N^o State shall make or enforce any law which 
shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United 
States." 

I am not unaware that this scheme of national intervention in the 
educational interests of the country has been opposed on the plea that 
we cannot show any express power delegated to Congress to establish 
a system of schools in the States, and that consequently the power is 
reserved to and belongs only to the States. Our answer is that the 
objection is irrelevant, for we are not asking for the overthrow of State 
systems or the establishment of a national system. We are simply 
asking that Congress may go into the States and direct the expenditure 
of funds which, it is admitted, it has a right to appropriate for such 
purposes. 

When Government appropriates public moneys, they should be dis- 
bursed by agents responsible to itself; but, if States have exclusive 
control of education, funds given for its advancement may be so diverted 
as to defeat the end in view. It has been done, and may be done again, 
without remedy. 

But the right of such supervision is denied, on the allegation that it 
is not in the bond. I admit it is not in the letter ; but I claim that it is 
the intrinsic life of the bond, without which it could not exist. If we 
are to deny to Congress all powers incidental to those expressed in the 
Constitution, we must abolish the Department of Agriculture and the 
Coast Survey, so essential to two of the great industries of the country ; 



74 CIRCULARS OP INFORMATION FOR 1881. 

shut up our Naval and Military Academies, ,and fold our arms in war 
and rebellion, and go to pieces for want of the constitutional power of 
self defence. Nay, one-third of the legislation of Congress is void, and 
the very charter of our liberties becomes a procrustean bed upon which 
the Republic is bound, and beyond which it can never hope to reach in 
all the progress of the ages. 

We are told that " Federal education was not contemplated as neces- 
sary to * establish justice, to insure domestic tranquillity, provide for 
the common defense, promote the general welfare, and secure the bless- 
ings of liberty to the people.' " Such language in our country and at our 
time is marvellous. Without popular education popular governments 
have no right of existence and cannot be maintained when established. 
The Republic has as legitimate a right to protect itself against ignorance 
as against pestilence and rebellion. Education informs and quickens the 
inventive powers, by which improved methods and new forces are given 
to productive industry ; it lifts the poor from the ranks of dependent 
labor into the fields of enterprise and responsibility, and surrounds 
them with the utilities and beauties of life ; it opens to the intellect the 
realms of thought, and leads it through the galleries of art and science; 
it gives to the nation wealth for poverty, strength for weakness, and pri- 
macy for subordination 5 but not for one or all of these does the Repub- 
lic open its treasury for the advancement of knowledge. It is solely as 
an act of self defence that the Government comes to the rescue of the 
schools. For this, if the proceeds of the sale of the public lands are 
insufficient, it has the right to pour out millions and dictate and control 
the method and the direction of their disbursement. 

In this connection Ve should remember that the strongest defences of 
nations are not armies and navies, but the affections and patriotism of 
their citizens. A common pride in the achievements and a common 
faith in the character and destiny of the government are essential to its 
peace and perpetuity. Discordant creeds are the precursors of faction 
and dissolution. The schools are the nurseries of public sentiment, and 
should have but one curriculum of political philosophy and civil history. 
The past is admonitory of the future. To remove a cancer and leave its 
roots is not cure, but relief. The fatal hour is only delayed. In war he 
conquers whose principle survives the conflict of arms. If history is 
reversed, if treason and patriotism are transformed, if opposite theories 
of government are inculcated, and pride and shame interchanged in our 
sources of national thought, are we acting the part of a prudent regard 
for the welfare of posterity f Are we not holding a chalice of blood to 
the lips of our children, and is it playing the role of statesmen for our 
public men to shut their eyes and ignore such facts ? Has our govern- 
ment no power to enforce, I do not say a uniformity of text books, but 
the inculcation of a common national sentiment and political philosophy 
in the schools? 

I realize how difficult and delicate is the subject of which I speak, 
122 



DEPARTMiENT OF SUPERINTENDENCE. 75 

but it is legitimate to the occasion, and it would be cowardly to blink 
it out of sight. I cherish no feeling of sectionalism and would utter no 
word of crimination; but I am sure it is not wisdom to allow great dan- 
gers to drift us in silence into irretrievable ruin, when there is no real 
ground of difterence. of theory or action, but only pride and prejudice. 
The irreconcilable antagonism between free and slave labor, from which 
sprang the divergent theories and sectional bitterness of our old time 
pohtics, having perished with the war, there is nothing left but habits 
of thought and wounded pride to withhold us from mutual regard and 
a cordial cooperation in all that can advance the prosperity and glory 
of the country. Neither can deny to the other honesty of convictions 
or courage in battle, and this rescues the dead of both sections from dis- 
honor. Why contend longer over obstructions and dead issues ? , Credit 
and trade, labor and skill, civil power and the social amenities, are all 
paralyzed by this persistent rancor of sectional jealousy, surviving its 
causes for a score of years. Our respective industries would be strength- 
ened and made lucrative by mutual confidence and the fraternal emula- 
tions of business. Property would appreciate and resources develop, 
science be quickened and literature enriched, private virtue become 
more sacred and social happiness more universal, if we should give less 
time to the differentia of politics and more to the essentials of life. So 
long as opposing theories as to the nature and later history of the Gov- 
ernment shall be taught in the different States, so long there will be 
bitterness and vitui)eration in the press, angry debates and disgraceful 
scenes in Congress, and portents of more direful disasters in the future. 

But the cure must come from without. The Ethiopian cannot change 
his skin, nor an insane man reverse his thoughts. If reason and self 
interest have lost their control in the States, there must be a supreme 
power that holds and moves them in their orbits, if we are a nation, that 
can reach and remove the causes of discontent and peril. 

The census reveals the fact that a large percentage of the illiterates of 
the country are of foreign birth. Emigration has become the policy of 
European states, as a relief to their institutions from the strain beneath. 
Our country has been made the field into which the ignorance, poverty, 
and hate of these revolutionary masses have been poured. Like pent-up 
gases they become harmless, for the most part, when the pressure is 
removed ; but, crippled in capacity and with nothing to tax, they crowd 
under, the protection of Federal law into the States and fill their school- 
houses with children. It is but right, therefore, that the enhanced bur- 
dens thus thrown upon the property of the States, if they do their duty 
to the children, and which in the aggregate amount to millions, should 
be relieved by national aid. There must be a rapid and constant decline 
in the intelligence, capacity, and character of our population, if these 
teeming millions are left uneducated and unassimilated. 

We do not often stop to consider what changes have taken place since 
our gates were thrown open to the world. The influx of the overcrowded 

123 



76 CIRCULARS OF INFORMATION FOR 1881. 

peoples East and West by the moderu facilities of transportation could 
not be anticipated a century ago. This change necessitates correspond- 
ing changes in our internal policy. The schools must be multiplied and 
improved in methods and force, so as to keep pace with this drifting 
multitude, whose numbers outrun their means. 

The failure to assimilate these millions, and bring them into fuU 
sympathy with our institutions and habits of thought, is already felt, 
especially in those great centres into which they have crowded in the 
largest numbers. It is not immigration or change we deprecate, but 
deterioration. The successive invasions of England were terrible visi- 
tations, but they poured fresh vigor and broader sentiments into the 
old Briton, from whose mixed blood has sprung the brawny liberty 
loving Englishman of history. With them there was a constant growth 
through their ages of battle. But our pauper immigrants are not Saxon 
or Korman invaders, and we fear a constant decline through our ages 
of trade. The children of these strangers within our gates must be 
made American in thrift and skill and in their political aspirations and 
pride 5 they must be lifted by knowledge above the control of party 
passion and be inspired with a personality that will not suffer them to 
be the tools of personal ambition ; they must be made to apprehend the 
nature and genius of our institutions and to love the flag of the Eepub- 
lie as the symbol of freedom and power. Does the past justify us in 
the belief that the States will do all this I The age is characterized by 
broader views and quickened efforts in the cause of popular education. 
Governments have at last been forced to adopt it as the policy of suc- 
cess. Its power has been discovered in the productive force imparted 
to industry, in the triumphs of science, and in the achievements of war. 
Discoveries and inventions are the footsteps of its progress ; it is recog- 
nized in the gift of the ballot and the subordination of leaders to the 
popular will; it is heard, not in the drum roll, but in the music of 
machinery; its growth is realized in the widened uses of literature and 
the utilities of art; lightning and steam are the contestants in its Olym- 
piads, and it gathers its battle flags at Sedan. 

While the statesmanship of Europe is pouring out millions in the 
rivalry of her systems of schools, shall we stand still to be swamped in 
the surf that rolls from her shores ? To-day we are hardly abreast with 
England, France, and Prussia in the character and resources of our 
schools. And shall we be told that the Government must fold its arms 
with the shallow pretence of a want of power and leave this work exclu- 
sively to the States, which cannot realize or feel the responsibility of this 
magnificent competition of empires in the march of knowledge and the 
growth of mental power? The policy will be a cowardly and suicidal 
acknowledgment of im potency, and, if persisted in, we shall learn to our 
sorrow that an ignorant people is an inferior people in all the elements 
of national greatness. If the bill now pending before Congress is too 
narrow for either aid or incitement, let its gifts be enlarged to the 

124 



DEPARTMENT OF SUPERINTENDENCE. 77 

measure of our wants. The nation is not impoverished when it gives 
to itself. Revenues so bestowed will be a profitable investment. It is 
but casting bread upon the waters that will be found after many days. 

We should be glad to help build the waste places made desolate by 
war, if only hereafter they may be allowed to blossom with the fruits 
of an intelligent industry and social peace. The day is not distant, I 
trust, when both the ^N^orth and South will learn that the rivalries of 
labor and trade and the emulations of literature and science are more 
profitable than the squabbles of politics or the feeding of old fires that 
ought to be dead. Let us unite in the noble enterprise of making our 
country foremost in the march of intelligence, foremost in the dignity 
of power, and foremost in the purity of its civilization. 

The national domain is the common property of the Republic, and 
should be used to promote the general welfare. We can conceive of no 
employment of the proceeds of its sale of more general and lasting 
utility, and none more honorable to a free, christian people, than its 
application to the building up of a permanent system of free schools 
that shall be adequate to supply the demands of the future. This is an 
essential condition of national stability and prosperity. Ko subject of 
legislation more urgently demands a liberal appropriation than this. 
It will be an irreparable misfortune if, in a scheme so grand in its nature 
and so far reaching in its influence, we come to a deadlock over the 
puerile conceit that any material or moral interest can suffer from a 
concurrent but careftdly defined advisory control of popular education by 
the General Government. In this the interests of the State and nation 
are one, and cooperation may bring them more closely together. Noth- 
ing is demanded which can limit or subvert any valuable prerogative of 
State power. Enlarged intelligence imparts a clearer apprehension of 
rights and an enhanced power to defend them. Armies and navies are 
defences against foreign aggression, but school-houses are the natural 
and effective security of governments against the domestic faction and 
violence that are engendered in the homes of ignorance. 

The people are the sovereigns and citizens of both the State and the 
nation, and can claim the right to be fitted for their political functions 
from both. When the first is unable to discharge its trust, the latter 
should come to its aid in a peaceful cooperation. But when a State 
wilfully neglects to provide the means of knowledge for the poorest and 
humblest of its children, the supreme power of the nation possesses, 
beyond a reasonable doubt, the right to intervene in the interest of 
national intelligence, and provide, in such way and by such agents as 
Congress may judge best, for the education of the children of its 
neglected citizens. But we will not dwell upon this, for the question 
to-day before the American people is rather one of patriotism than one 
of right. The caU is not to the defence of a prerogative, but to the dis- 
charge of an imperative duty. National inferiority and ultimate anarchy 
or despotism are the inevitable fruits of popular ignorance, that cannot 

125 



78 CIRCULARS OF INFORMATION FOR 1881. 

discern the real interests or the conditions of safety and prosperity to 
the country. School-houses have done more for the German Empire 
than military academies for France or great universities for England. 
Industrial success, military power, political superiority, intellectual 
achievements, and national character, all have their springs in high 
popular intelligence. Our destiny as a republic and our place in the 
march of civilization are involved in the maintenance or failure of a 
system of free universal education. 

The paper excited animated discussion, in which many of those present 
participated. 

Dr. Philbeick referred to the interest which Presidents Grant and 
Hayes had manifested with respect to national aid for education, dwelt 
upon the favorable progress of public sentiment as shown in the atti- 
tude of Congress, and expressed his conviction that the time had come 
for urging the matter. 

Mr. KOETHROP, of Connecticut, admitted that his views had changed 
within a few years, and he believed the present conditions of the country 
warranted national aid for the support of education. 

Mr. Newell, of Maryland, deprecated any interference on the part 
of the General Government with the local management of school affairs, 
but was deeply impressed with the need of national aid, especially in 
the work of extending education through the South. While the south- 
ern people are anxious to educate their masses, the blacks as well as the 
whites, he knew that they are not able to bear the expense. 

President Andrews, of Marietta College, dwelt upon the distinction 
between national aid and national control. He hoped that the Burn- 
side bill would not pass in its present form, but that the States would 
receive help according to their illiteracy. 

Mr. Mo WRY, of Khode Island, believed that the power and influence 
of the Kational Government should be exercised within proper limits in 
the interests of education, and he desired the passage of the Burnside 
bill as a measure of great public utility. 

Mr. Marble announced that the hearing of the reports of the com- 
mittees was in order. 

Mr. S]viART, chairman of the committee to memorialize Congress, 
said that the committee were not prepared to report yet. 

It was voted to leave this matter to the further consideration of the 
committee, and it was authorized to attach the names of the members 
to the memorial. 

The committee on the unification of school statistics was also con- 
tinued. 

By invitation Frederick A. Talcott, of the world's fair committee, 
addressed the meeting and presented the claims of the fair, asking the 
cooperation of the teachers in making a fine educational display. He 
was followed by Ex-Govemor Crawford. 

126 



DEPARTMENT OF SUPERINTENDENCE. 79 

The following resolutions were adopted : 

Hesohedf That the members of the National Superintendents' Association, now 
assembled, have heard with pleasure the statements in regard to the forthcoming 
world's fair of 1883, which have just been made by the gentlemen representing the 
commission, and that in response thereto we hereby pledge our hearty support to this 
great enterprise. We pledge also our best endeavors to make an exhibition of our 
educational products at the fair which shall form one of its most interesting and 
profitable features. 

Eemlved further y That the executive committee of the United States international 
commission be hereby requested to place the educational exhibit of the world's fair 
of 1883 on an equality of rank with the other great sections of the exhibition, and 
that a separate department be created in which all the educational products exhibited 
J»y institutions, States, and nations may be placed. 

Mr. Wilson, of Washington, chairman of the committee on resolu- 
tions, subnutted the following resolutions, which were adopted : 

Besohedy That the thanks of the Department of Superintendence of the National 
Educational Association are due and are hereby tendered to Superintendent N. A. 
Calkins and the friends of education of New York associated with him, for the admir- 
able arrangements made for the present meeting and for the elegant and bountiful 
entertainment provided for the members on Wednesday evening. 

Besolvedy That the thanks of the department are due and are hereby tendered to the 
president of the College of the City of New York, the president of the Normal College, 
and the superintendent of the Museum of Natural History for cordial invitations to 
visit their respective institutions. 

Besolredy That the thanks of the department are due and are hereby tendered to the 
proprietors of the Grand Central Hotel for the excellent accommodations afforded the 
members at special rates. 

Dr. WiCKERSHAM movcd that the association reiterate its former 
opinion in regard to national aid to education. Carried. 

Mr. MowRY announced the next meeting of the American Institute 
of Instruction. 

The department then adjourned sine die. 

127-128 



CIRCULARS OF INFORMATION 



OF THE 



BFIIEATJ OF EDUCATION 



]Sro. 3-1883. 



•v 



PROCEEDINGS OF THE DEPARTMENT OF SUPERINTENDENCE OF 

THE NATIONAL EDUCATION\\L ASSOCIATION AT ITS 

MEETING AT WASHINGTON, MARCH 21--->3, 183?. 



WASniXGTON: 

GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE. 

1SS2. 



29-:i0 



r 






CONTENTS. 



Page. 

Letter of tbe Commissioner of Education to the Secretary of the Interior ,5 

List of members of the department 7-9 

Prelimiuary meeting 10, 11 

Information necessary to determine the merits of the heating and ventilation 

of a school building, by Dr. John S. Billings, u. s. a 11-19 

The chemical examination of air as applied to questions of ventilation, by Dr. 

Charles Smart, u. s. a 19-28 

Obstacles in the way of better primary education, by Hon. H. S. Jones, ph. d.. 2S-35 

Membership of committee on national aid to education 35 

Chairs of pedagogy in our higher institutions of learning, by Prof. G. Stanley 

HaU, PH. D 35-44 

Remarks on national aid to education, by Rev. A. D. Mayo, d. d 44-48 

National aid to education from a northern standpoint, by Hon. Dexter A. Haw- 
kins, A. M 48-55 

Remarks on national aid to education, by Hon. J. L. M. Curry, ll. d 55-60 

Education i6 Alaska, by Rev. Sheldon Jackson, d. d 61-75 

Resolution respecting a national appropriation for education in Alaska 75 

Remarks to teachers, by W. W. Godding, M. D 75-80 

Some fundamental inquiries concerning the common school studies, by John M. 

Gregory, ll. d 80-96 

Resolution respecting the clerical force of the Bureau of Education 96, 97 

Discussion of Dr. Gregory's paper 97 

How to improve the qualifications of teachers, by W. T. Harris, ll. d 98-105 

Resolutions respecting the death of W. D. Henkle and S. H. White 106 

APPENDIX. 

Report of the commission on school buildings iu the District of Columbia 107-112 

31-32 



LETTER 



Department of the Interior, 

Bureau of Education, 

Washington^ June 10, 1882. 

Sir : I bave the honor to present the following papers for publication. 
The topics are specially pertinent to the present condition of educa- 
tional discussions. The essays and papers are by some of our most 
thouglitful and able educators. Appearing in this form they have the 
advantage of carrying with them the opinions and comments of other 
experts. Their present publication wir greatly' relieve demands upon 
the Office. 

1 have the honor to be, very respectfully, your obedient servant, 

' JOHN EATON, 

Commissioner, 
The Hon. Secretary of the Interior. 

Publication approved. 

H. ]\I. TELLER, 

Secretary. 

33-34 



NATIONAL EDUCATIONAL ASSOCIATION. 

DEPARTMENT OF SUPERINTENDENCE. 



MEMBERS IN ATTENDANCE. 

SUPEKINTEXDEXTS. 

Hon. Jobu W. Akers, State superiutendent of public iiistnictiou of 
Iowa, Dea Moines. 

Hon. H. Clay Armstrong, State superintendent of education of Ala- 
bama, Montgomery. 

Hon. J. W. Bartcli, superintendent of schools, Shenandoah, Pa. 

Hon. John M. Bloss, State superintendent of public instruction of 
Indiana, Indianapolis. 

^ Hon. B. L. Butcher, Sjtate superintendent of free schools of West 
Virginia, Wheeling. 

Hon. R. L. Came, superintendent of schools, Alexandria, Va. 

Hon. Geo. F. T. Cook, superintendent of colored schools, Washing- 
ton, D. C. 

Hon. Yarnuiu B. Cochran, State superintendent of public instruction 
of Michigan, Lansing. 

Hon. V. G. Curtis, superintendent of schools, Corry, Pa. 

Hon. U. W. Cutts, superintendent of schools. Orange, N. J. 

Hon. D. F. De Wolf, State commissioner of common schools of Ohio, 
<'olumbus. 

Hon. J. W. Dickinson, secretary of State board of education of ^Nlas- 
sacbusetts, Boston. 

Hon. John A. Dix, superintendent of schools, Elizabeth, N. J. 

Hon. G. T. Fletcher, superintendent of schools, Augusta, Me. 

Hon. Aaron Gove, superintendent of schools, Denver, Colo. 

Hon. George Howland, superintendent of schools, Chicago, 111. 

Hon. Henry Houck, deputy State superintendent of public instruc- 
tion of Pennsylvania, Harrisburg. 

Hon. H. S. Jones, superintendent of schools, Erie, Pa. 

Hon. Wm. A. Lindsey, deputy State superintendent of public instruc- 
tion of Pennsylvania, Harrisburg. 

Hon. A. P. Marble, snperintendent of schools, Worcester, Mass. 

Hon. M. A. Newell, State superintendent of i)ublic instruction of 
Maryland, Baltimore. 



8 CIRCULARS OF INFORMATION FOR 1S32. 

Hon. J. A. Xichols, superiutencleut of schools, Yonkers, N. Y. 

Hou. Birdsey G. Xorthrop, secretary of State board of education o 
Connecticut, Hartford. 

Hon. Gustavus J. Orr, State scbool commissioner of Georgia, At- 
lanta. 

Hou. John C. Scarborough, State superintendent of public instruc- 
tion of iN^orth Carolina, lialeigh. 

Hon. Wm. H. Shelby, superintendent of schools, York, Pa. 

Hon. Henry E. Shepherd, superintendent of schools, Baltimore, Md. 

Hon. Thos. B. Stockwell, State commissioner of public schools of 
Eh ode Island, Providence. 

Hon. Hugh S. Thompson, State superintendent of education of South 
Carolina, Columbia. 

Prof. F. IS". Thorpe, superintendent of schools, I^orth East, Pa. 

Hon, J. Ormond Wilson, superintendent of schools for the District of 
Columbia, Washington. 

Hon. Henry A. W^ise, assistant superintendent of schools, Baltimore, 
Md. 

Hon. Allen Wright, superintendent of schools of the Choctaw Na- 
tion, Indian Territory. 

MLSCELLAXEOUS. 

C. W. Bardeen, editor School Bulletin, Syracuse,!^. Y. 

Dr. Henry Barnard, Hartford, Conn. 

Dr. J. S. Billings, Assistant Surgeon General United States Army 
Washington, D. C. 

Jas. H. Blodgett, Rockford, III. 

Prof. J. P. K. Bryan, Charleston, S. C. 

Ecv. A. W. Burr, principal of Hallo well Classical Academy, Hal- 
lowell. Me. 

J. E. Bushnell, New Haven, Conn. 

Rev. J. W. Chickering, Washington, D. C. 

Adolf Cluss, architect, Washington, D. C. 

Dr. Cochran, Staunton, N. J. 

Hon. AY. A. Courtenay, mayor, Charleston, S. C. 

Hon. J. L. M. Curry, LL. d., general agent of the Peabody educa- 
tion tund, Richmond, Va. 

Hon. Edward Danforth, Elmira, N. Y. 

Hon. J. Dent, commissioner of the District of Columbia, W^ashington, 
D. C. 

Wm. C. Dodge, esq., member of school board, Washington, D. C. 

Rev. S. Domer, Washington, D. C. 

Mrs. Sarah B. Earle, Worcester, Mass. 

Gen. John Eaton, United States Commissioner of Education, Wash- 
ington, D. C. 
36 



r 



DEPARTMENT OF SUPERINTENDENCE. 9 

Prof. J. Entlioffer, Washingtoii, D. C. 
William H. Gardiner, esq., Portsmouth, X. H. 

Dr. W. W. Goddiig, Siiperiuteudent of the Gov^eniinsut Hospital for 
the Insane, Washington, D. C. 

Dr. J. M. Gregory, XJrbana, III. 

Prof. G. Stanley Hall, ]S"orth Sonierville, Mass. 

Hon. Dexter A. Hawkins, Xew York. 

Hon. J. W. Hoyt, governor of Wyoming, Cheyenne. 

Kev. Sheldon Jackson, d. d., Xew York. 

Geo. T. Littlefield, esq., Boston, Mass. 

B. G. Lovejoy, esq., member of the school board, Washington, D. C. 

H. G. McCall, Montgomery, Ala. 

Kev. A. D. Mayo, D. D., Boston, Mass. 

Gen. E. D. Mnssey, Washington, D. C. 

Prof. C. C. Painter, Fisko University, Nashville, Tenn. 
Rev. W. W. Patton, president of Howard University, Washington, 
D. C. 
Hon. J. D. Philbrick, ll. d., Boston, Mass. 

Mrs. Louise Pollock, principal of the National Kindergarten, Wash- 
ington, D. C. 
Miss Susie Pollock, Frobel Institute, Washington, D. C. 
Rev. A. T. Porter, D. D., Cliarleston, S. C. 
Rev. J. E. Rankin, D. D., Washington, D. G. 
Zalmon Richards, Washington, D. C. 
J. W. Schermerhorn, New York. 

W. E. Sheldon, editor Primary Teacher, Boston, Mass. 
Dr. Charles Smart, United States Army, Washington, D. C. 
Hon. J. H. Smart, Indianapolis, Ind. 
Justin U. Smith, agent for Scribner & Co., New York. 
J. T. Smith, Warwick, R. I. 
Lyndon A. Smith, esq., Norwicli, Vt. 

Prof. H. C. Spencer, principal of the Spencerian Business College, 
Washington, D. C. 

Gen. E. Whittlesey, secretary of Board of Indian Commissioners, 
Washington, D. C. 
J. M. Wilson, Washington, D. C. 



10 CIRCULARS OF INFORMATION FOR 188?. 



PRELIMINARY MEETING — TUESDAY EVENING. 

Washington, March 21, 1882. 

A preliminary meeting of tlie members of the Department of Super- 
intendence was held in the red parlor of the Ebbitt House at 8 p. m., 
for the purpose of i^erfecting arrangements for the sessions which were 
to be held oil the subsequent darys, pursuant to a call issued March 1, 
1882. 

The president, Hon. W. H. Ruffner, was absent. On motion of Mr. 
Newell, of Maryland, Hon. T. B. Stockwell, State commissioner of 
schools of Rhode Island, was chosen president pro temi)ore. The sec- 
retary, Hon. H. S. Jones, was in attendance ; and an arrangement was 
made by which the proceedings should be reported and prepared for 
publication by Mr. J. E. Rockwell, stenographer. 

Mr. Wilson offered the following resolution ; which was adopted : 

Resolvedj That an executive committee consisting of three members of this depart- 
ment, whose duty it shaU be to arrange and report the prograratue of papers and 
business for this meeting, be appointed by the president pro tempore. 

The Chair named as this committee Messrs. Wilson, of Washington, 
Orr, of Georgia, and Howland, of Chicago. 

General Eaton said that the question of national aid to education 
now before Congress was, he believed, one which should have the special 
attention of this association, and, while favoring no particular bill, he 
hoped that members would do all in their power to bring about some 
suitable legislation during the present session. 

Rev. A. D. Mayo spoke of the necessity of this aid in the South, owing 
to its impoverished condition. Dr. Orr referred to the need of immedi- 
ate help in his State (Georgia) because of the vast amount of illiteracy 
there. Mr. Armstrong, of Alabama, spoke of the amount exi^ended 
in Alabama for schools ($410,000) during the last year. The people are 
anxious to do everything possible, but need help. 

Mr. Northrop made pertinent remarks on this subject ; and was fol- 
lowed by Colonel Thompson, of South Carolina, who spoke of the de- 
velopment of the public school system in the State which he represented. 

Professor Painter, of Nashville, read a memorial which he had pre- 
pared regarding national aid ; and Mayor Courtenay, of Charleston, 
made some statements in regard to the taxes imposed for the support of 
schools in his city. He concluded by saying that it now took four years 
to put up a school-house there, and that three more buiklings were 
wanted at once. 

On motion of General Eaton, the executive committee was instructed 
^' to select a committee on the subject of national aid, to prepare reso- 
lutions and present this matter in behalf of this association before the 
joint meeting of the congressional committees on education and labor." 

38 



DEPARTMENT OF SUPERINTESDENCE. 11 | 

Tbe subject of national aid wsts fnrther diacnased li.r Messrs. North- 
bop, Fletcher, and Mayo ; and a motion made "by Mr. Sheldos was 
]mm\, proviiling tliat tlio couiiiiittee be requested to consider the dis- 
triliiition of the moneys with a riew to dotenniniog in wbat way It man 
bftsHn; done tlirongh the existing sdiool otHcers of each State. 

Tlie department then ailjournod to meet in the lectnre room of tbd 
regational CImrcli on tlie following morning. 

FIRST SESSION— WEDNESDAY MOKNING. 

Washington, Mnrck 22, 11 
{be meeting was called to order by 3Ir. Stockwell, president pp( 
tpore, and was opened by prayer by Eev. J. E. Bahkin, d. d., 
Washington. 

Mr, Wilson, trom tho executive committee, reported the following 
order of exercises for the morning session : 

Tbe infbnnation necessBiy to 'letermine the merits of the heating and Tentilation <d 
RMbool Iraildiug, b;; Joiiu S. liillingB, siirgeoD, United Slates Anuj'. 

Oo tie ohemidal esauiiualion of air aa applied to queatiousof ventilation, by Caps 
(ainaiul Assistant Surgeon Charles StnarC, United Slat«!t Army. 

Concerning obstanlea in. the way of better pTiinnry eiliination, by Hon. H. S. Joi 
Mrperintendent of schonLi, Erie, Pa. 
City systems, by Hon. John D. Philbriek, i,L. D. 

Chairs of pe<la([ogy iu onr inatitntiona for superior iDstniutinii, by Prof. G. Stnii 
Hall, Cambridge, Mass. 

The attention of the members of the department was first called t<J 
the presentation of the following paper by .ToiiN S. Bili.isgs, snrgeoDjI 
Uuited States Anny : 



^^^1 



dtpobmation necessary to determink the merits of th: 
heatina and ventilation op a school buildino. 



le question as to tbe best meaL-s of heating and ventilatiug sclio 
buildings is one of great interest, and one which not infreqnently cornel 
before me for consideration in the form of an inquiry as to whether till 
heating andventihiting arrangements of some given building are satia-* 
factory. Unfortunately, when I am finestioned about it, it is nsually 
after the. fashion in which the soothsayers were qnestioned abont Nebu- 
chadnezzar's dream. You will i-ememlier that they were asked not 
only tofnruish an interpretation of the dream, but to describe the dream 
itself; and iu like manner I am often asked for an opinion as to the snf- 
liciency of tho ventilation of a building without being furnished witi^ 
the necessary data n£ion which aloue an intelligent opinion can be base* 
I must confess that there seems to be no special difBculty in obtainiol 
opinions nnder such circumstances, as most people seem to be quite ret 
to answer as to whether a given school, or alt the schools of a giveil 
place, are well heated and ventilated or otherwise; and I havenndoolfl 
most of those present have views more or less defluite as to tm 



12 CIRCULARS OF INFORMATION FOR 1882. 

relative value of certain so-called systems of heating and ventilation 
wbicb they have seen in action. While I do not wish in the smallest 
degree to express doubts as to the value of these opinions to those hold, 
ing them, I must say to you that for scientific purposes and for the 
satisfaction of other people they are unfortunately not of much use. 
What is wanted for scientific purposes is, not the opinions, but the 
facts upon which the opinions are baaed; and the purpose of my remarks 
is to indicate as briefly and clearly as possible some of the facts which 
it is most important to ascertain to enable one to judge of the merits of 
the ventilation of a given place. These facts may be divided into two 
classes: first, those which may be ascertained by examining the build- 
ing itself while the school is in operation; and, second, those which can- 
not be known by a single observation, but only from a series of them; 
iu other words, from records. To the first class belong location, expos- 
ure, plan, dimensions, materials, workmanship, air space, air supply, air 
distribution, number of persons, necessary and unnecessary contamina- 
tions, character and sufiftciency of heating apparatus; to the second be- 
long records of the results on the health of pupils and teachers, records 
of temi)erature, and records of cost. 

Let us consider each of these points briefly. 

Tlie location and exposure of a school building are of importance in 
connection with its heating and ventilation, partly in relation to tlie 
purity of its air supply and partly because the winds have a much 
greater effect upon the movements of the air within a building than is 
ordiiuirily supposed; and this is especially the case in a building con- 
Htructed ift* ordinary brick and mortar, with common plastered walls, 
not painted, papered, or calcimined, which is the case with our ordi- 
nary school buildings. In a building of this kind, which is freely exposed 
to a strong wind, there is a very decided movement of air through tlie 
windward side, and a corresponding tendency to an exhaust through 
the opi)osite side. This tendency is sometimes so strong that the open- 
ings on the leeward side which were intended for inlets of fresh air to 
the lieating surfaces have their action reversed and will be found act- 
ing as outlets, in which case it is by no means impossible that what 
were intended to be the foul-air flues for the building will be found to 
be acting as inlets, as I have actually seen the case in a school building 
1 examined. 

It is necessary that the location and exposure should be distinctly 
noted, including the altitude of the site, the distance of surrounding 
buildings, the prevailing winds, &c. The vicinity of marshes, pools of 
stagnant water, and buildings in which trades and manufactures liable 
to give forth otl'ensive emanations are situated, should also be noted. 
The plan of the lot should be given, and upon it should be located the 
building, giving dimensions, so as to indicate distinctly the amount of 
ground not coveiml by the building and the location of drains, sewers, 
and cesspools outside the building but connected with it. The next 

40 



DEPARTMKN'T OF SirPEHINTENDEXCE. 

tbmg is to prepai-0 copies of the floor plana of tlie building, with a sec 
tion allowing the height of the several stories. It makes httle diffei 
Wiee bow rough these plans may be, i)rovi(led the (limensioiis are 
linctly indicated upon them, with the location of all doors, windowfB 
lieattog apparatus, fliii;s, and registers for both fresli and foul air. TIM 
dimensions of all wiudowa, d»w>rs, and fines should be noted; alsoth^ 
eiiatenc* of transoms over the doors. The amount of ulear opentDg 
iir the registers for each tine should be indicated, together with the 
mimher of desks and the number of cliildren actually in the room at 
die time nf making the observation. The length of time which these 
cliildreu have been in the room since the last recess should also be noted. 
Tlie temperature of the outer air and tiiat of the room near the floor and 
near the ceding, within two feet of the inner wall and in the same posi-J 
tioii relative to the outer wall, should be taken; also the temperatur^f 
n{ the incoming and outgoing air. This is necessary to enable oue tcU 
jndgp of the distribution of heat in a room, and to a certain extent is tfl 
verygflodindesof the distribution of the fresh air. It is also desirabl^f 
that the amount of moisture in the air as determined by the hygrometetfl 
glioald be observed and recorded, similar records being taken of thflfl 
amount of moisture in the esternal air. The next step is to ascertaiifl 
the amount of air which is actually entering and leaving the room b;« 
the special openings and flues provided for that pnrpoae. This is to be 
(tone by means of an instrument called an anemometer, one of which I 
have on the table before me. This is a delicate and fairly accurate in 
stmment, made by Casella, of London. It will indicate a current of ^ 
air having so low a velocity as oue foot per second, and registers by ^fl 
Beries of dials, similar to those on a gas meter, the number of feet of ai^ 
which have piisse<l through the wheel. The cost of this instrument ia 
about $2fi, and I would strongly recommend that in cities where there are 
several schools the general superintendent, or other inspecting officer, 
should be provided with one of these instruments and should accnstotia ■ 
himself to note the amount of work which the ventilating apparatus itim 
the several buildings are actually performing. In making such observa-B 
tiona it will lie found that there is a great difference in the amount of" 
air pas-sing through the .several flues, dependent on the direction and 
force of the wind, and also to a great extent as to whether the doors, 
and the transoms over the doors, of the school rooms be opened or 
closed. In a schonl linililing of several stories, where the doore open 
into a large centr,Tl hall <'iinraining a staircase, which is a common plan 
of constriu'tion, it will usuiilly be found that a large proportion of the 
change of the air in the scliool rooms is effected through the doors audj 
tmniioms, and outward and inwanl currents will be found in the dooiifl 
ways near the floors and at the top of the openings. I 

It would be a great error to suppose that only the amount of freslM 
air indicated by the anemometer in the flues provided for that purpos^| 
^^ctnally "entering the room. Were this the case, a great majority oS 



14 



CIBCI'LAKS OF ISFORMATION FOli \S61. 



rHuliDul looniH would GOUQ bevouie niiiiiliabitable. As a matter of fact, 

I IL very liirKO iiinmiut uf ii-esU air enters directly tlirouglt tlie walls, au- 
uMitir imrt arDittiil the wiudowa and through tracks at the juaction of 

I tht< tidor imd wull, and a third source of Bupply comes frou the central 

} IiilII, asJiiHt indicated. 

AlLhiMigh this aimiiiouiettir is a coinpiiratively simple iustrament, 

L tlioi'H (U'o, iicvd'tliiOi'ss, one or two precauliona necessary in its use, to 
wliloh it may 1)c wull to call atteutioii, In the first pla«e, the accuracy 
i){ tlifi lijuti'umoiit Hhould be carefully tested, not only when it is first 
iilvvd, but at intwvaU subsequently. The reasou for this ia that the 

I idaluH of tlio Utllo windmill are ™ry delicate aud easily bent from their 

I |iropiir iiimltliiri, and a very small displacemeut has a marked effect upou 
I hn runlwtratlon of the instrument. The usual mode of testing these in- 
iiiiiiutn If) to swing theai in a eirale at the extremity of a bar of a 
kiiuwn luiiKth and note the regifttratiou. A simpler method, however, 
and oiiit by wlilidi equal aceuraey may be obtained, is to walk rapidly 
ii iiittaHiniMl diHliiuee, siiy 200 feet, in a covered space, where there are 
lu> rui'ieiitx of itir, lioldiu^ the inatrumeut at arm's-length above the 
licml, iir, bistter, attached to a short rod, with the plane of the wheel per- 
|ti!nitlcular t<o tho dli'ection of the movement. This mode of carrying 
thtt iiiiiHiiiiiiiiiter for this test is necessary, siuee if the instrument be held 
in frniil. of tliM breast, aud a foot or two away from it, it will be found 
lliiit it will riitflKt^ir uiiich leas than it should do, owing to the obsti-no- 
linn of tho l^'un jiuHwage of the air through it and the creation of an 
uiliiy. It JM dllltiuilt to ascertain precisely the amount of air flowing 
thi'uilitl) a reylBti'r by the use of the anemometer, if the instrument be 
lliuruly hi:1d hi fliJiit of the register. The amount of air passing through 
lh» dimu'MUt parts uf tho register varies, and the irregular oniamental 
iron wiirii pi'iidiit)uH curreute and eddies which make it very difBcuIt to 
iililaiu H BUtiafiierjJi'y averaBO. The best way is to cover the eutire reg- 
utur n 1th a noi l of truimated cone, made of light board or pasteboard, 
ftnoiy opeu at liolli I'lidi", and having the large end fittiug close agamet 
I ho wall over I lie iitglnter, the smaller end having, for convenieuce of 
ituleiilallou, nil area of one H(iaan.' foot. This cone should be from oiie 
out lo IH iUiiliuN hiuh. 

I muat wani yitii uijuilMl Ihe error of supposing that all the air coiu- 
idU' iVoiu Ibe lup nf a hi>ul[iig apparatus placed in the room iti^elf aud 
tmiiuivled wllli lUe ouler nir it to be counted as fresh air supply. lu 
ull viMvn a very l^on'■llll'mble uuiouiiC of this air is derived froai the room 
4ltt|)U', aud rails ii|i along tlie side of the heating apparatus, be it veuti- 
Imilltl >'lt>vt>, Ht'tiuin roll, or >vliat not, and aids in forming the currant 
wlthih ilie aiiomoniotfr «how» to exist over the radiator. In all such 
wntos tin' line iittik'unl of air whii'Ii U entering from without can be found 
lij l>'«tiHu Iliet'uilenl willt llie line IVom the external air closed aud 
llii'U iipmi, and iiolinK the dillVronce. 

SSir ran lln^ amount ut air I'nti-ring at the inlet flues or found to be 



DEPARTMENT Of SUPER IN'TEXDliXCE. 



la 



pansliig out of the outlets be taken as an absolute iudiuatioii of tlH 
Hmonnt and cliaracter of the ventilation of a room, for it is possible tfl 
very large anionnt of air through a room without really veutilatj 
ing it, ami this will always be the case where the air is admitted at ^ 
Ui|!;h temp era tui-e and allowed to escape through openings at or uea] 
tUe lop of the room. It is iieuessary tliere/ore to obtain some inforf 
innlioii as t» the distribution of the fresh inooniiug air as well as itd| 
qnautity. This information ia lo be obtained partly by the use of visiblig 
rapors, or light substances which will indicate the direction and forc^ 
uf tlie air currents, and partly by chemical analysis. 

Uf the various means of showing the direction of air cnrrents o 
the siuiplest and easiest of application is by the fumes of freshly geul 
erated muriate of ammonia produced by bringing the vapor.sjof the com 
nioHliqnorammonio! of the shopsin contact with the vaporofhydrochlorid 
or muriatic acid. These fitnies can be inhaled without discomfort o 
injury; in fact, they are sometimes used for the treatment of chrouid 
iuflammatory troubles of the air passages. The cost of their productiom 
is very small and they can be generated in any amount desired, Evem 
ibese, howevei-, give but a very partial idea of the distribution of the ain 
iritliin a room. This can only be ascertained by taking samples of tlu 
air at difl'erent points in the room and subjecting them to cheudcafl 
pxamiQation. This examination ia usually coufiued to testing thef 
amount of carbonic acid pi-eseut, and tlie methods of doing this v 
demonstrated before you by Dr. Smart. I wish only to emphasize hei-a 
the fact that carbonic acid gas in the proportions in which it is foundM 
iu the worst-ventilated school rooms is uot in itself poisonous, offeusive^f 
or harmful. The really daugerons and oftensive impurities are the^ 
orgiiQic matters thrown nfl' iu respiration, and as these increase the car- 
bonic acid increases in a liive proportion. Now, the testing for these 
organic matters, iu a quantitative point of view, ia a very difficult and 
delicate process, whei-eas the examination for carbonic acid is, as yon 
will see, comparatively simple; hence, the chemical t«st of the quality 
of the air is made by tlie analysis lor carbonic acid, which is taken as 
an index for the really harmful impurities existing. Having obtainecl " 
these data with regard to air space and air supply, and what may bd 
called the necessary coulaminations with which the veutilation system 
has to deal, that is to say, the number of i)ersous who vitiate the airj 
the next point to be attended to is what may be termed the iinnecessarj 
con tarn iuations of the air, dne to defects in the house drainage, to ema-J 
nations from wet aud soiled outer wraps and clothing, to emauatioui 
from the soil, aud to noxious aud infectious gases from the heating^ 

If the water closets are placed in the basement of the school building,.^ 
in a room having a cemented fluor. for purposes of cleansing, it is very t 
cominiin to have this door shglitly sloped towards one point and at that 4 
point to place an opeuiiij; iiim tht' sower sn that the whole floor :iud j 



16 CIRCULARS OF INFORMATION FOR 1882. 

closets may be washed by means of a hose, and the resulting wate^x 
readily gotten rid of. This opening to the sewer is usually guarded hy 
means of what is called a bell trap, which is, however, in nine cases oa ^ 
of ten found to be totally ineffective. In two out of three cases in whicl* 
I have recently examined these arrangements in Washington schools. It 
found a strong current of air from the sewer passing up from this so- 
called trap into the basement, from which it passed freely up the stair- 
case into the main hall, and became a part of the source of supply for* 
the school rooms, as I have already explained. 

If the closets are placed within the building, it should be noted 
whether the soil pipe is proparly ventilated, that is to saj", whether the 
pipe into which the closets discharge is continued up through the roof 
and left freely open at the top, and has also a fresh air opening into 
it from the outside of the building. If the closets be outside of the 
building the point of discharge of their ventilation pipe should be noted, 
as to whether it is above or below the level of the windows of the upper 
rooms in the main school building. A very frequent source of unneces- 
sary contamination of the air supply of a school building is connected 
with the heating apparatus. This may occur in two ways: first, a« the 
heating apparatus is usually placed in the basement, which communi- 
cates freely by stairways with the upper hall, any checking of the draft 
in the fire causing escape of gases from the furnace into the basement 
will contaminate its central air supply. This is liable to occur, whatever 
may be the form of heating apparatus. The second mode of contami- 
nation is by the air of the basement, rendered impure in various ways, 
passing into the fresh air ducts through cracks, leaks, &c. This is espe- 
cially liable to occur in systems of heating by hot air furnaces, and the 
fittings of these should be carefully examined. 

Into the merits of the various systems of heating employed I do not 
propose to enter ; I merely wish to call attention here to the fact that 
the great deficiencies in them all are the ^ant of sufficient heating sur- 
face and the want of some means of control by which a free supply of 
air may be permitted to enter without having it all pass over the heat- 
ing surface. As a rule, in all school buildings warmed by the so-called 
methods of indirect radiation, that is, by hot-air furnaces or by steam 
coils placed in the basement, the air enters the room at a comparatively ' 
high temperature, too high, in fact, for either comfort or health. The 
only way of controlling the temperature of the room in the way of re- 
duction is to partially or entirely shut off the air supply by closing the 
register. No heating or ventilating apparatus which operates in this 
manner can be considered satisfactory'. In all cases it should be pos- 
sible by the operation of a valve to permit more or less cold air to 
mingle with the heated air. and this should be done in such a way that 
the temperature of the air admitted into the room can be regulated 
without at all diminishing its quantity. 

Thus far I have been speaking simply of those matters connected 

44 



DEHARTMKNT OF >;[.-pERIKTENDENCE. 

fith » building which cjiu be note'l by examination ujion n p;ii-ticular 
r, at tlie most, upon two or tLree aucuessive days. This, however, 
vill Dot give A complete itloa as to the merits of the system of heating 
ml rentilation of a bnihiiii};?. This can only be obtained by a series of 
rewinis of the effects produced by it under various ci renin stances of ex- 
ternal temperature, moisture, wind, &c., the amount of coal burned, 
and rhe effects npon the health of the pupils. tJnch records are very 
rarely liept. If they were made the rule, and superintendents and 
teacliers were expected to see that they were regularly and acouratfily 
fnntished, the effect would be to settle a great many controversies as 
to the merits of this or that system of heating and ventilation, which 
cou trover sies at present rest upon opinions merely; and 1 1 ley would 
also do much to induce the proper authorities to provide satisfactory 
means of ventilation in the numerous eases in which they are now want- 
ing. Take, for instance, the recoi'ds of temperature. These should be 
taken tnice in each school session, once just as the school assembles, 
and again just before it is dismissed. They should be taken in diflfei^ 
out parts of the room : at the entrance of the fresh air, at the point of 
discharge of the foul air, at the level of the children's heads, and on 
the 6oor. They should betaken, moreover, not from the ordinary cheap 
thermometers, as purchased in the shops, but from thermometers which 
liftre been tested and which arc accurate to within at least one degree. 
It would be stUI better if these thermometers included both the wet and 
dry bulb thermometers, so as to obtain the moisture of the air as well 
as the temperature. The most important record, however, ia that which 
relateJi to the health of the pupils. It seems at first sight somewhat 
curious that there should be so little scientific evidence obtainable aa 
to the effects of overcrowded, overheated rooms, and impure air of 
various kinds npon the health of school children. I have repeatedly 
found, in going into school rooms, where the air was so impure as to be 
decidedly offensive to the sense of smell to one entering from the outer 
air, and where the carbonic acid ranged from twenty to thirty parts in 
ten thousand, that upon inquiry the children, or at least a great ma. 
jority of them, made no special complaint of ill-health, nor was it pos- 
sible to show from their condition, as observed, that the foid air was 
having a bad effect upon them, This want of evidence is due in part 
to the great power which the childish organism has of accommodatinjf 
itself to circumstances, and in part to the fact that the evil effects of 
impure air are remote rather than immediate, and show themselves at 
periods trom one to perhaps twenty years after the exposure- 
It is so highly desirable that a systematic record should be kepi of 
the health of children and teachers and the results which would be ob- 
tained from a comparison of such records tor a number of school build- 
ings in different cities would be so valuable that it certainly seems 
worth while tJt make at least an attempt to obtain them. I am quite 
of the difficulties in the way of makuig such records complete 



n 



18 



CIRCULARS OF INFORMATION FOR 1882. 



and accurate in all respects. Neither the statements of the children 
nor in many cases of the parents or guardians can be relied upon as 
to absence on account of sickness, and more especially as to the kind 
of sickness; nevertheless it does seem possible that when a child is first 
admitted to a public school a record could be made of its physical con- 
dition, including powers of vision and hearing, height, weight, &c., and 
that thereafter all absence from school on account of alleged sickness 
should be so noted, as well as the character of the illness, so far as this 
can be ascertained. In this connection, I would invite your attention 
to the means used in some investigations undertaken by Prof, flenry 
P. Bowditch, of Harvard University, respecting the laws of growth in 
children as shown by investigations made upon school children yp^Boston. 
These data are collected upon cards, of which specimens can be ob- 
tained from Professor Bowditch, and of which the following is a copy : 

FOR SUCCK8SIVE SETS OF OBSERVATIONS — FEMALES. 

Record an linear measurements at nearest centi metre ; aU weights, at nearest kilogram. 
Name (or Initials), ; birthplace, . 



1882 



1883 



1884 



1885 



Age y. m.. 

Height, without shoes cm . . 

Sitting height cm.. 

Finger reach cm . . 

Chest girth, inspire cm . . 

Chest girth, expire cm . . 

Weight (in ordinary iu- 
door ch)the8) kilo.. 




1887 



Nationality of father, ; mother, ; paternal grandfather, ; paternal 

grandmother, ; maternal grandfather, ; maternal grandmother, . 

Color of eyes, ; color of hair, . 

Occupation (of husband if a married woman) (of parents if a minor), . 

Name (or initials) of observer, . 

Reverse aide. 

The height is to be taken in an upright position, without shoes, the feet being close 
to the measuring rod. If, in the case of infants, it is necessary to measure in a recum- 
bent position, the fact should be stated. 

The sitting height is the vertical distance between the top of the head and the sur- 
face upon which the individual is seated. 

The finger reach is the distance between the tips of the middle fingers when the 
arms are extended horizontally, the breast and arms being in contact with a wall. 
The chest girth should be taken after a forcible inspiration, and also after a forcible 
expiration, the measuring tape being passed horizontaUy round the chest on a level 
with the nipples, over only a single garment. This measurement is to be taken only 
on men and children. 

The weight is to be taken in ordinary indoor costume. In the case of children less 
than ten years of age, it is to be recorded at the nearest tenth of a kilogram. 

The color of the eyes is to be recorded as blue, gray, brown, or black. 
46 



DEPARTMENT OF SIPERINTENDENCE. 19 

The color of the hair is to be recorded as fair, golden, red, brown, black, or gray. 
If gray, record also, if possible, the original color. 

The nationality is determined by the place of birth. 

The occupation should be given so as to indicate as far as possible the degree of 
comfort in which the individual lives. ^ 

Separate colored cards are furnished for males and females, and also 
distinct colors for a single set of observations and for successive sets 
of observations. 

I think it greatly to be desired that, if possible, at this meeting a 
committee should be appointed to take into consideration this matter 
of systematically recording the health of children and to suggest forms 
of records. 

I have satisfied myself that such an account could bo kept by the 
teachers with comparatively little trouble and I feel assured that the 
results would be of great value. In fact, what we need above all things 
at present, a« regards our public school buildings, is a system of ac. 
counts which shall show, not only the cost of their construction and 
repairs, which is merely one side of the question, but jbheir effects upon 
the health of the children and teachers who are to spend no inconsid- 
erable time in them. That a comparison of such records would lead to 
changes and improvements in the plans and method of construction of 
school buildings which would be in the direction of true economy as 
distinguished from cheapness there can be little doubt.^ 

The second paper laid before the meeting was read by Dr. Charles 
Smart, United States Army, and was as follows: 

THE CHEMICAL EXAMINATION OF AIR AS APPLIED TO QUESTIONS OP 

VENTILATION. 

The atmosphere of the earth has been examined repeatedly by chem- 
ists during the past hundred years. Specimens have been submitted 
to analysis from the city and the country, from the surface of the ocean 
and from arid plains, from high and low latitudes, from mountain tops, 
and even from heights reached by ballooning, and the results have al- 
ways indicated a definite mixture of oxygen and nitrogen gases, with 
small quantities of accidental matters or so-called impurities which vary 
with the locality or the conditions aft'ecting it. The oxygen, the active 
or vivifying agent according to the chemist and physiologist, is simply 
diluted by its admixture with the nitrogen which has no appreciable ef- 
fect upon the animal economy. Twenty-one volumes of the former and 
seventy-nine of the latter form the aerial mixture; and the proportion 

'See also article on Anthropometrical Methods, Tenth Annual Report of Massachu- 
setts State Board of Health, 1879, p. 55. 

'^In the city of Oakland, Cal., regular reports of sickness in the puhlic schools are 
famished to the health department by the superintendent of schools. Those pupils 
who are absenit from school three or more days consecutively on account of alleged 
sickness are r/ported as sick, and some interesting results and warnings are thus ob- 
tained. There should, however, be a distinction of sex and age in the reports from 

the schools in order to permit of comparisons upon these points. 

47 



20 CIRCULARS OF INFORMATION FOR 1882. 

is everywhere preserved, notwithstaiiding differing specific gravities, by 
the constant motion j)roduced by cosmical forces, but especially by the 
power of diffusion or penetration into intermolecular areas which gas- 
eous molecules are known to possess. 

Among the so-called accidental matters or impurities, carbonic acid 
is notable, not only as existing in largest quantity and as being uni- 
versally present, but as bearing a tolerably constant proportion to the 
bulk of the main constituents, except in the immediate vicinity of local 
sources of its production. So constant is its relative figure that even 
chemists have ceased to regard it as accidental, and have accepted it as 
forming an essential in the constitution of the atmosphere, which is 
therefore represented in percentages by oxygen 20.96, carbonic acid .04, 
and nitrogen 79.00. 

The carbonic acid forms .04 per cent, of the volume of the atmosphere, 
or, in other words, 10,000 volumes of the air contain 4 volumes of the 
acid. Within limits, however, its quantity is subject to frequent vari- 
ations. During the air examinations made recently in connection with 
the report on the* condition of the public schools in this city, the exter- 
nal air collected on G street in front of the office of the National Board 
of Health yielded generally a little over or a little under 4 volumes in 
10,000, but on one occasion 4.9 volumes were obtained and on another 
2.2 volumes. Two years ago I found similar variations in the air of the 
Capitol grounds. Several years ago Wetherill, in his report on the ven- 
tilation of the House of Eepresentatives, records the external air as un- 
usually free ^rom carbonic acid, from 2 to 3 volumes per 10,000. I ex- 
amined the air on the Eocky Mountains in the spring of 1874 and found 
a steady and gradual decrease day by day from 4.5 to 2.6 volumes. 
Some points have been defined concerning these tides in the carbonic- 
acid volume, especially by the observations of De Saussure, but prac- 
tically no one can as yet predicate from one experiment the probabili- 
ties as to the next day's results. 

Ammonia is another of the accidental substances. It is evolved from 
nitrogenous organic matter during the putrefactive process, but proba- 
bly its main source is the inorganic nitrogen of the atmosphere itself, 
which is combined with ammonia and nitrous and nitric acids by electric 
agency. Its quantity is variable, but 1 milligram in a cubic metre is a 
not unusual amount. This is equivalent to a grain in about 23,000 cubic 
feet. Rain washes the ammonia from the air to the surface of the earth, 
and in the rainfall it can always be detected and measured. Its quan- 
tity is increased during thunder storms. A figure frequently found in 
analyses is 6 milligrams per litre, which is equivalent to 1 grain in about 
34 of our gallons. In dealing with a few cubic feet of air the ammonia 
is necessarily a very minute quantity, but when the annual rainfall 
over a tract of country is made the basis of the calculation, it becomes 
one of interest to the agriculturist. 

Watery vapor is constant in its presence in the air, but so varying in 
its quantity as to be considered by many an accidental constituent. 

48 



DEPARTMENT OF SUPERINTENDENCE. 21 

The laws which govern its presence are known. The dew point can 
readily be determined by experiment or obtained by calculation from 
the diflference between the dry and wet bulb thermometric readings, and 
the grains of aqueous vapor which the air contains per cubic foot, or 
which it would contain if saturated with moisture, can be estimated. 

The air is also permeated with organic matter, at least all air near 
the surface of the earth ; but while carbonic acid, water, and ammonia 
can be detected and measured with the utmost exactitude, little has 
been determined concerning the chemical constitution of the aerial or- 
ganic matter. Nevertheless it is certain that of the organic matter of 
the air a large proportion is not only solid and particulate, but living. 
Putrescence, which was formerly regarded as a ctfemical action in which 
the oxygen of the air was chiefly involved, is now recognized as an in- 
cident in the life history of a species of micro-organism. The spores of 
fungi are also universally diffused and developed wherever are found 
the favoring conditions as to soil, moisture, and temperature. The mi- 
croscope and what are known as culture experiments have demonstrated 
the existence of the aerial organisms and the conditions of their devel- 
opment and growth. 

The air constituents which have been mentioned must, fix)m a scien- 
tific point of view, be considered as individually essential to the consti- 
tution of the atmosphere : the oxygen as being \ital to animals, its 
quantity being preserved by the evolution during vegetable growth and 
the equilibrium between the two kingdoms of nature ; the nitrogen as 
being an inorganic supply, which is susceptible of advance to organiza- 
tion and life by the electric i)roduction of ammonia and the assimila- 
tion of that ammoniacal nitrogen by vegetable organisms ; the car- 
bonic acid as vital to vegetation, its quantity being preserved by the evo- 
lution from animal life and the retrogression of the carbon of dead or- 
ganic matter during putrefaction; the ammonia as needful to the 
building up of organic tissues by vegetable life, which organic tissues 
when overtaken by death are returned to the ammoniacal condition by 
the action of the atmospheric microorganisms ; lastly, the watery vapor, 
without which desiccation would bring to an end the whole of these 
life actions in which the atmosj)here participates. 

This is the normal constitution of the atmosphere, and the object of 
ventilation is to furnish our houses, school rooms, and other artificial 
Bhelters with an air for respiratory purposes which shall not differ ma- 
terially from th IS standard. Other gases and organic matters are some- 
times present in certain specimens of air, but they are truly acciden^^al, 
are circumscribed in their extent, and depend for their existence on 
local causes or conditions. The exhalations from the human lungs and 
skin which give the close, heavy odor to the air of an unventilated 
school room have been captured and put into the retort and test-tube, 
but the methods of dealing with them hitherto adopted have failed to 
give satisfactory information even as to their physical constitution. Are 

49 



22 CIRCULARS OF INFORMATION FOR 1882. 

they gases, liquids, or solids of ultra- microscopic size dissolved iu or 
borue upon the cloud of watery vapor f The field is here open for in- 
vestigation, but it is unlikely that much will be accomplished until the 
progress of science offers some new method, instrument, or reagent by 
which the subtle emanations may be examined. During dry seasons 
the air may be loaded with dust, which is a generic term including 
everything, organic or inorganic, light enough to be swept up by the air 
movements. From the imperfect combustion of coal the deleterious 
carbonic oxide may be evolv^ed. Ground air may be drawn into ven- 
tilating currents and impair their usefulness by its excess of carbonic 
acid, while, if the soil is polluted, miasmatic iulluences may accompany 
the gaseous acid and undermine the health of the consumers. The un- 
known constituents of the sewer emanations, the exhalations which 
are conuected with vegetable decomposition, and which are spoken of 
generically as malaria, and possibly the specific poisons of typhoid 
fever, cholera, and other diseases may sometimes infect the atmos- 
phere. But these, although their study is fraught with important 
issues to the public, do not enter into the question of ventilation except 
in so far as concerns their absence from the ventilating supply. 

When air of the normal constitution above described has been used 
for life purposes b^^ a number of individuals in a closed room, its car- 
bonic acid, aqueous vapor, organic matter, and ammonia are increased 
and its oxygen materially diminished. Any of these changes might be 
taken as the index of the change from normal quality in the air and 
hence as the index of ventilation. A tedious filtration is involved in 
the separation of the organic matter and an accurate method of esti- 
mating it has not as yet been developed. The aqueous vapor can be 
readily determined, but its quantity is liable to be increased by evapo- 
rating surfaces unconnected with deterioration of the air. Recently 
Dr. Angus S;nith has been studying the condensation of the ammonia 
on glass plates as a ready method of testing the quality of the air, but 
although the ammonia, when collected, can be estimated with the ut- 
most precision, the method of collection is faulty. Of late I have been 
filtering known volumes of air through Austrian glass wool, chiefly for 
the separation of organic matter, but incidentally for the condensation 
of the ammonia upon the fibres. The results are seemingly more 
affected by the hygrometric condition of the air than by the absolute 
amount of the ammonia present in it. The quantity of ammonia which 
adheres to the glass is neither the whole nor a definite fraction of the 
whole, but more or less, according to certain atmospheric conditions. 

Satisfactory results can be obtained by determining the percentage 
of oxygen in the air 5 but the simplest and best method of ascertaining 
its deterioration by the action of respiration consists of an estimation 
of the quantity of carbonic acid present in a given volume of the air. 
Not that the carbonic acid is the special poison thrown out from the 
lungs during respiration — the organic exhalations are probably the most 

50 



DEPARTMENT OF SUPERINTENDENCE. 23 

active of the deleterious prod acts — but the increase in the amount of 
the carbonic acid over that naturally present in the external air is a 
measure of the respiratory use to which the air has been applied and of 
it« fitness or unfitness for further use. Carbonic acid, when in consid- 
erable amount, is believed to produce evil effects upon the system, but 
the languor and oppression, the headache and flushings, which result 
from deficient ventilation, are consequent rather on the deficiency of 
oxygen in the air, together with its organic foulness. 

The carbonic acid is fixed and estimated by its affinitv for the caustic 
i?arth8 lime or baryta, with either of which it forms an insoluble carbon- 
ate. The alkalinity of the caustic solution is known ; the carbonic acid 
removes or neutralizes a portion of tliat alkalinity', and the loss is the 
measure of the carbonic acid which has effected the neutralization. The 
process originated with Pettenkofer. Its practical details are readily 
naderstood. 

A solution of pure oxalic acid is made containing 2.864 grams per litre 
of distilled water. This strength is such that 1 gram or 1 cubic centi- 
metre will neutralize as much caustic baryta as would combine with 1 
milUgram of carbonic acid. A baryta solution is then made which will 
correspond in strength to the acid solution, 1 cubic centimetre of the 
' one neutralizing 1 cubic centimetre of the other. Practically they may 
not be of exactly equivalent strength, but the relationship they bear to 
each other must be ascertained and borne in mind during the subse- 
quent calculations. The baryta solution is poured into a number of 
clean and dry two-ounce vials, which are corked securely and weighed. 
The total weight (bottle and contents) is marked upon the label of each 
bottle. 

When a carbonic acid determination is to be made, the air is collected 
in a large, clean, and dry bottle or narrow- mouthed jar, the capacity of 
which is accurately known. The bottles which were used in the recent 
examinations contained about ten litres each. If the jar, as is not unfre- 
quently the case, has a temperature different from that of the room from 
which the sample is to be taken, it must be permitted to stand for a 
few minutes until the difference has disappeared. A. rubber tube con- 
nected with the nozzle of a bellows is then dropped into the jar, which 
is filled with the air to be examined, taking care that the air entering 
by the valve of the bellows is not contaminated by any direct respira- 
tory streams from individuals around. The operator, of course, knows 
the capacity of the bellows and the number of strokes necessary to in- 
sure the change of air in the bottle. As soon as this is accomplished, 
one of the prepared baryta vials is carefully uncorked and its contents 
I>oured into the jar, which is then closed by an accurately ground stop- 
per or tightly fitting rubber cork. The baryta solution is then shaken 
in the jar and made to flow all over the interior to promote its contact 
with the contained air. Generally a whitish turbidity or milkiness is 

developed during the shaking, but, to insure the thorough absorption 

51 



24 CIRCULARS OF INFORMATION FOR 1882. 

of the carbonic acid, it is customary to let the jar stand until next day 
before proceeding further with the investigation. 

In the mean time the volume of. air operated on is calculated from 
observations taken at the time the air was secured. The levels of the 
barometer and dry and wet bulb thermometers must be known and 
the quantity of baryta solution introduced into the jar. The last is ob- 
tained by reweighing the now empty vial. Its loss in weight gives the 
quantity in grams of the baryta solution employed, and this number, a» 
cubic centimetres, has to be deducted from the known capacity of the 
jar. It is necessary, however, to express this air volume in the space 
which it would occupy when dry at zero Centigrade and under an attnos- 
pheric pressure of 760 millimetres of mercury, that the results of differ- 
ent experiments may be susceptible of comparison. Increased temper- 
ature expands the volume of a gas and increased pressure diminishes 
it, while the pressure of the watery vapor present must be taken into 
account. It is needless to particularize in these matters. The tempera- 
ture observations will give thedewpoint, through which can be obtained 
from the observations of Reguault and others the pressure or tension 
of the aqueous vapor. If P represent this pressure, T the observed 
temperature in Centigrade degrees, B the barometric height in millime- 
tres, and V the capacity of the jar minus the cubic centimetres of baryta 
solution introduced, the corrected volume will be equal to : 

V (B— P) 273 
(273+T) 760 

Next daj" the liquid contents of the jar are transferred to a small 
beaked flask, known as Schuster's alkalimeter, and the weight of the 
flask and its contents are noted, that the loss of weight may indicate the 
quantity used in the subsequent experiment. A small bei^ker has had 
weighed into it 10 grams of the oxalic acid solution — 1 gram or 1 cubic 
centimetre of which is equivalent to 1 milligram of carbonic acid — and 
the acid solution has been colored red by the addition of a tincture of lit- 
mus. Into this the deteriorated baryta solution is dropped from the 
alkalimeter rapidly, until a haziness pervades the liquid, and then 
slowly, until one drop changes the color to a dark i)urple. Th© acid^ha» 
been neutralized and the loss of weight suffered by the alkalimeter gi ve» 
the quantity of the baryta solution used in effecting the neutralization. 
Let it be supposed, for example, that 60 grams of the solution were in- 
troduced into the jar, and that 30 grams of it are now required to neu- 
tralize the 10 grams of oxalic liquid ; the total of 60 grams will be suffi- 
cient to neutralize only 20 grams of the test acid, while before exposure 
to the carbonic acid of the bottled air it was capableof combining with 
60 grams. There has therefore been removed from its solution by the 
carbonic acid as much baryta as would neutralize 40 grama of the oxalic 
solution, i. e., 40 milligrams of carbonic acid were contained in the air 
operated on. 

The experimental response to the question How much carbonic acid 

52 



DEPARTMENT OF SUPERINTENDENCE. 25 

in the corrected volume of air! is given in weight, but the relation of 

weight to volume is known. One milligram of carbonic acid occupies 

a little more than one-half of a cubic centimetre at zero Centigrade 

and under 760 millimetres of i)ressure. Multiplication by the factor 

.50685 will transform weight into volume, and a simple calculation will 

give the volumes of carbonic acid per 10,000 of the air examined. It 

must be remembered, however, that this volume of carbonic acid is not 

due to respiratory action, but includes that which is naturally present 

in the air. When the result of a contemporaneous experiment on the 

external air has been deducted, the remainder indicates the carbonic 

impurity of the air or that due wholly to the respiratory function. 

The chemistry of the investigation ends here and gives place to cal- 
calations; but, before concluding by a reference to these, it may be well 
to illustrate two simple methods of approximating to the amount of 
carbonic acid. They are known as the "household" and *'minimetric'^ 
methods. 

The foi-mer is based upon the fact that when lime water is shaken up 
with air a certain amount of the precipitated carbonate must be dif- 
fused in the water before the eye can recognize the presence of the tur- 
bidity. The larger the percentage of carbonic acid in the air the 
smaller will be the volpme of that air needful to cause a visible hazi- 
ness. A stock of lime water is prepared by shaking up slacked lime 
with distilled water, permitting it to settle, and siphoning off the clear 
liquid for use; and a series of bottles are procured, ranging in capacity 
from 2 to 20 ounces in which to make the experiments. The following 
table expresses the relation between the size of the bottle and the vol- 
umes of carbonic acid in the air according as a turbidity does or does not 
occur when half an ounce of the lime water is used. 

If the number of volumes of carbonic acid in the air is smaller than 
in the last column of the table, the effect of adding the lime water will 
be to leave the mixture clear; if larger, the mixture will be turbid. 

Size of bottle Carbonic acid Id 

in fluid ounces. volumes per lO.OOti air. 

5J0.6 :i 

15.6 4 

12.5 r> 

10.5 (; 

9.1 7 

8.0 8 

7.2 i> 

6.5 10 

6.0 11 

6.5 12 

5.1 l:t 

4.8 14 

4.5 15 

3.5 20- 

2.9 25 

2.5 30- 

2.0 4t> 

5:^ 



26 CIRCULARS OF INFORMATION FOR 1882. 

If an 8 ounce bottle shows turbidity, the presence of more than 8 
vohimes is indicated 5 how much more, must be determined by a sec- 
ond experiment. Taking a 6J ounce bottle, the air is known to con- 
tain less than 10 volumes if no precipitate is developed. The carbonic 
acid can therefore be stated as constituting from 8 to 10 volumes per 
10,000 of the air. But a third experiment with a bottle intermediate in 
«ize will correspondingly reduce the limits of uncertainty regarding the 
carbonic acid figure. 

In the minimetric process half an ounce of baryta solution is intro- 
duced into a bottle the capacity of which is known (70 ounces in the 
present instance) and which is charged with the external air. This, 
when shaken, becomes turbid, and its turbidity is used as a standard in 
subsequent experiments. For purposes of comparison this standard 
solution is transferred to a 2^ ounce bottle, similar in shape and color of 
glass to that in which the minimetric experiment is to be conducted, 
and the two ounces of external air which it contains are to be added to 
the capacity of the larger bottle, making in this case 72 ounces. 

Half an ounce of baryta water is poured into a 2 J ounce bottle which 
has been filled with the air to be examined. This is attached to an as- 
pirator, or to what answers the purpose as well and is readily extem- 
porized, a large bottle with a siphon and rubber connections. The 
baryta is shaken up with the air in the small bottle, and a second charge 
of two ounces introduced by withdrawing that volume of water by the 
siphon from the larger one. This is also shaken up, and, if no precip 
itate occurs, air is added as before by siphoning off water until a tur- 
bidity appears which matches the standard obtained from the external 
air. The same quantity of carbonic acid has been thrown down in both 
instances and the quantity of air employed in each case is known, so 
that the relation which the carbonic figure of the examined air bears to 
that of the atmosphere at large can easily be ascertained. If the ex- 
ternal air which contributed this precipitate measured 72 ounces and 
the air which was passed through the test bottle 36 ounces, the latter 
sample would be recorded as containing two volumes of carbonic acid 
for one existing in the former, or 8 volumes per 10,000, on the assump- 
tion that the external air contained its average of 4 volumes. 

Accuracy is not to be expected from these methods, but they are use- 
ful to indicate whether the air of a room is overcharged with respira- 
tory products. We have simply to shake up the charge of lime water 
in an 8 ounce vial to know by the turbidity that the air is not as it 
should be. 

Having found the carbonic impurity, or the total carbonic acid minus 
that existing in the external air, in the specimen under examination, 
we may inquire into the information which it furnishes regarding the 
ventilation of a school room or other apartment. What is the rate of 
inflow a minute which is indicated by the amount of carbonic impurity? 
To ascertain this it is needful to know the average rate at which carbonic 
54 



DEPARTMENT OF SUPERINTENDENCE. 27 

acid is eliiniiiated from the pervsoii. TUis evolution varies according to 
conditions of rest or activity. Professor Parkes states the yield at irom 
1 2 to 16 cubic feet in 24 hours, or from .5 to .66 cubic foot per hour. Hux- 
ley gives 360 cubic feet as the volume of air expired daily, and as the 
air of expiration is known to contain 4 per cent, of carbonic acid, this 
is equivalent to an hourly production of .6 cubic foot. Other experi- 
menters have arrived at similar results. I am not aware that any special 
investigation has been made into the evolution from children under 
school-room conditions, but in their absence .6 cubic foot may be ac* 
cepted as a close approximation to the truth. This is a convenient 
number, as it corresponds with .01 cubic foot a minute. The capacity 
of the room must be ascertained and in exact calculations deduction 
should be made for the body bulk of the occupants and for the furni- 
ture. The time during which the deterioration has been going on is 
another factor which enters into the calculation. 

The carbonic evolution .01 cubic foot per minute per person, multi- 
plied by the number of minutes, gives the amount of the carbonic im- 
purity generated. When this is divided by the carbonic impurity found 
I>y experiment in 10,000 volumes of air, the quotient multiplied by 
10,000 will express in cubic feet the volume of air with which the re- 
spiratory products have been diluted. But as the air volume in the 
room has contributed to the dilution, its capacity has to be deducted 
from the total to obtain the amount of the inflow. 

Thus, if the data consist of 50 persons, 50 minutes, 9,000 cubic feet, 
and a carbonic impurity exi)erim en tally found of 5 volumes: 
.01x50x50=25.00 cubic feet of carbonic acid expired. 

"L X 10,000=50,000 cubic feet of air required for the dilution, 
o 

50,000—9,000=41,000 cubic feet of inflow. 

41000 

=820 inflow per minute in cubic feet. 

50 * 

The inflow per minute being known, other questions which need only 
be suggested may be answered. An experiment has been made on the 
air of a room which contains only thirty pupils, but is seated for fifty; 
what would the result have been had all the seats been occupied? The 
session has lasted but 40 minutes at the time of the experiment; how 
would it have resulted if made at the end of two hours f — and so on. 

In practice it is often found that the inflow as determined by the ane- 
mometer is much greater than that obtained from the chemical results. 
That the air enters is certain, and that it fails to be utilized in diluting 
the expired air appears equally so. A want of diffusion must be inferred 
in explanation. A notable example of this was recently found in one 
of the rooms in the Franklin school, where 800 cubic feet per minute cer- 
tainly entered, while but 324 feet contributed to the ventilation. The 
cause in this instance was manifest. The temperature of the incom- 
ing air was so great that it rose immediately to the ceiling, whence 

55 



28 CIRCULARS OF INFORMATION FOR 1882, 

it was drawn off by the lowered windows and foul air flues. To deter- 
mine the existence of currents which interfere with a general diffusion, 
the room may be filled with vapor of chloride of ammonium. Liquid 
ammonia is poured over pieces of thick blotting paper lying upon a shal- 
low plate, and over them, by way of a flue, is placed a wide cylinder of 
the same absorbent paper moistened with hj drochloric acid. The fumes 
rise quickly, filling the room and indicating the course and character of 
its air movement. 

At the conclusion of this paper Mr. Wilson offered the following reso- 
lution, which was unanimously adopted: 

Resolved, That the Committee ou Appropriations of the House of Representatives' be 
requested to furnish this department, for publication with its proceedings, a copy of 
the report of Dr. J. S. Billings, vice president of the National Board of Health ; Edward 
Clar^, Architect of the Capitol ; and Hon. John Eaton, Commissioner of Education, 
recently appointed by the House of Representatives to examine and make a report 
npon the condition of the public school buildings of the District of Columbia, and to 
make suggestions in relation thereto. (See appendix, page 107.) 

The next paper was presented by Hon. H. S. Jones, ph. d., super- 
intendent of schools at Brie, Pa., and secretary of the department of 
superintendence : 

OBSTACLES IN THE WAY OF BETTER PRIMARY EDUCATION. 

Whoever would attempt to show that, during the majestic march of 
our country through the last half century, the education of the people 
had kept step with the other enterprises forming important factors iu 
the building up of a great nation, would find failure easy and success 
extremely diflftcult, while he who would venture to prove that education 
was hardly progressive, was indeeil a laggard twenty-five to fifty years 
behind the wants of the time, would find an abundance of material with 
which to make out his case. 

It is purposed to discuss, in unvarnished phrase, some of the commou 
obstacles in the way of better primary education. 

The term obstacles, as applied to educational hindrances, is used in 
its radical sense, representing difficulties that are serious and as firmly 
established as the malaria of the Pontine marshes or the large families 
of consonants in the Welsh language. 

The expression primary education in this paper has reference to the 
ordinary district school and the town school below the high school. 

Chief of the obstacles to which your attentiou is called is : 

I. — A WEAK EDUCATIONAL APPETITE. 

A strong appetite for education does not consist in mere capacity or 
desire for learning, but in an impelling, conquering force that enables 
one not only to acquire knowledge by the aid of what are called ad- 
vantages, but drives him to seek it and find it under discouragement 
and frequent defeat, and, more, to assimilate it, make it individuaK 
r>6 



DEPARTMENT OF SUPERINTENDENCE. 29 

It is found in every character of pro^iaeuce: Franklin, Clay, Greeley, 
Lincoln, Edison, Garfield. It exists Independent of the school, though 
the school may right nobly assist in its development, or, unha])pily, 
destrnctively enfeeble its possibilities. 

Let us try to form an estimate of the public educational appetite. 
Will the people endure as much, save as much, think as much for edu- 
cation as they did years ago! Is not the sentiment vigorous and grow- 
ing, that education should come rapidly, easily, and cost little! Is the 
demand for educational bequests and endowments growing less? Do 
not the leading, wealthy institutions of our country stand hat in hand 
like mendicants f 

Suppose those young people in our higher institutions of learning 
who have no financial worry about the morrow were called upon to 
pay the actual cost of their instruction, what, would be the result? 
The verdict would be that superior education is too expensive even for 
the wealthy, a luxury to be shunned. What sentiment does the lim- 
ited and irregular attendance of our free schools reflect t The thou, 
sands that attend them are very, very young, and like unripe finit they 
drop off the school tree before their time. While parents value a little 
assistance or a few pennies earned by their offspring more than they do 
the benefits of school, the children, looking through parental eyes, soon 
lose taste for study and willingly drop out and join the vast army of the 
andisciplined, which ranks scarcely above the illiterate. 

The tramp element is a social fungus marked "hard times" by labor 
reformers, but " no appetite for thought " would more surely hit the 
nail on the head. 

As intimated, the school may have a part in causing the natural, 
intellectual appetite to become dyspeptic. The schools have suffered 
considerably from mental dyspepsia, caused by the unpalatable, un- 
cooked, uncarved food of the old-time methods and the thin soup and 
pedagogical hash of the latter day saints. I would be the last to decry 
what are termed improved methods, but when they seek to be super- 
lative in complexity or follow unhesitatingly even a great mind through 
all its windings, vagaries, and hasty conclusions, I would cry "Hold! 
Let us take counsel together, lest we lose that which we have and gain 
nothing." 

The no-methods of the older days seem to be ingrained with stupid 
neglect, while those of the present, that attract aiul fascinate, are 
emphatic in coddling kindness and tend to keep the child childish. 

If a boy has an honest, upbuilding appetite, it matters little, as to his 
growth, whether he eats with fork, knife, spoon, or fingers. 

II. — ANY RteSPECTABLE ANYBODY CAN TEACH, AND HIKING THE CHEAPEST ANYBODY 

18 ECONOMY. 

This sentiment is as common and as tenacious of life as grass. It 
has been known to go into a decline and seem ready for burial, when, as 

57 



30 CIRCULARS OF INFORMATION FOR 1882. 

if by magic, its youth and strength are renewed and it takes an active 
part in forwarding civilization! Sometimes it is exceedingly timid, but 
a little persuasion of the right sort will coax it to the front, where it 
will lead and control public opinion. Following the last panic, it mani- 
fested the energy and vertebra of a General Jackson, sweeping broad 
sections of our fair land with the besom of ''educational reform.'' 

Kot many years ago, in a city of considerable size and promise, the 
president of the school board, who was called "Judge" and had served 
his constituents in their municipal chambers and in the State legisla- 
ture, said, in an address to the body over which he presided, that the 
salaries had risen far above the sentiment of the community, that the 
law of supply and demand should govern in hiring teachers, and he was 
convinced from the large number of applicants and the personal solici- 
tations of their friends that the schools could be filled by persons who 
would be satisfied with ten dollars a month ! 

Like an untimely frost, this crisp political economy maxim, coming 
from so respectable and honorable a source, ynipped in the bud a feeble 
effort to make poor schools bett»er. " Supply and demand" has forced 
into many a school the husks and chaff of the crowd that stand eager 
for any place at any salary. 

A prominent business man forcibly remarked that the school boards 
of the country were extravagant in salaries ; 25 to 50 per cent, could be 
saved by giving out the schools to the lowest bidders. That would be 
business, and if the schools lacked in anything, it was in business 
methods. 

The friends of improved education have founded normal schools — 
only a fraction of the number needed — and can we look for a proper 
increase of these institutions so long as the normal school has only a 
precarious hold on the public *? 

Their students and graduates have found that they must compet<^ 
with the army of anybodies, and that only here and there have they 
been shown favor on account of their professional training. A promi- 
nent normal school principal recently stated that his experience was 
that the better teachers were prepared the shorter would be their term 
of service, other callings offering a greater premium to the energetic and 
disciplined. 

Cities have crowned their systems with normal departments and left 
the teacher-graduate to take her chance with the non -professional ap- 
plicant. 

Is it surprising that the normal school has no professional breadth ? 
that it is a mere academy surrounded by a sort of pedagogic halo ? 

Mr. Bland says, **Give us the best teachers — professional teachers." 
But when importuned to use his influence in favor of Miss Goody Un- 
fortunate of tender years, or Widow Oldtime, or Embryo Blackstone, 
the horizon of his judgment widens and he obeys the call to be "influ- 

58 



DEPARTMENT OF SUPERINTENDENCE. 31 

entiaJ,'' The Bland family is large, active, and sympathetic, hence 
X>opular, for it serves the good people with alacrity ! 

Experience is but faintly recognized, and it is easy to find towns, like^ 
a wealthy city in the Empire State, that virtually say, "We pay just 
as much for blundering experiments as for solid, finished work!" This 
plan is a blessing to the experimenters, for through it the "good die 
early ^ and their places have to be filled ! 

Cities, villages, and rural districts take pride in showing the taxpay- 
ers how much less it costs them per scholar for teachers' wages than it 
does many other less economical communities. School authorities are 
never called to account by their constituents when the expense per 
capita for instruction shows that economy has been made equivalent to 
hiring the cheapest anybody. 

The terms used by Adams in speaking of superintendents, in his " New 
Departure" pamphlet, reflect this sentiment: " The ordinary superin- 
tendent is a grammar school teacher gone to seed," "some retired cler- 
gyman or local politician out of a job ! " " That this should be so is 
certainly most singular I " 

Not a few laws pertaining to the county superintendency have been 
80 framed as to make the highway to that of&ce as broad and as easily 
travelled as that which leads to the heights held by the town constable I 
This obstacle finds support in the orthodox method of examining 
teachers. Applicants are usually examined as if they were still mere 
school children, so that a bright boy or a bright girl of self possession 
and ready memory may go up to the examination and win a high grade 
certificate, while a person of mature judgment and skill as a teacher 
may fail to reach a fair standard. In looking over "model questions" 
published in books and educational journals, it will be found that but a 
few refer to the business of teaching. A set recently published con- 
tains but three that would cause one to suspect that they were for 
teachers : 

(1) " What is the best method of ventilation ! " 

(2) "What is the principal object of education ! " 

(3) "How do you regulate whispering !" 

III. — IGNORANT OFFICIAL INTERFERENCE. 

This may be beaming with enthusiastic good-nature and worthy in- 
tention supported by an amount of school information large enough to 
give edge to self confidence, or it may glow with that fierce destructive 
hatred which would destroy an institution rather than allow it to exist 
with apparent defects. 

The childlike confidence with which some school officials handle edu- 
cational affairs is equal to that shown by the pet of the family when 
he put« his tiny finger into the candle and succeeds in learning a lesson 
and in creating a disturbance. 

Mr. Spellbound (ex-champion speller) tells the new and ho])eful teacher 

» 59 



32 CIRCULARS OF INFORMATION FOR 

that the school caa't spell. ^'Spellin' is what they want! no new-fan- 
gled ways 5 have 'em stand up and spell. When I went to school I 
learned to spell; you may have heard of it.'' The campaign opens with 
a daily battle of words ; " spellin' " becomes a hobby and the best speller 
wears the crown. 

Spellbound is followed by 'Squire Root, who observes to the happy 

teacher that she is running spelling "into the ground." "'Rithmetic is 

what they want ; Shakespeare couldn't spell his own name. Suppose 

you ask 'em this simple question, and see 'em get stuck: What's the 

square root of sixty-four?" 

John Hancock would bring penmanship to the front, so that a page 
of a pupil's manuscript would be rich in shading and flourishing, but 
poor in legibility. 

Director Crabb in his *^ remarks" to the school lays down the test of 
discipline. "The scholars don't sit still. When I taught school you 
<50uld hear a pin drop. You must have order; a school without order 
is a failure." 

Patrick Henry urges upon the teacher the importance of speaking 
and exhibitions. "The future governor of the State may be under your 
instruction, or possibly the coming President of this great nation; see 
that they are trained to address their fellow citizens." 

The teacher labors on under an increasing pressure of direction and 
advice, following each voice in turn, until in a stat« of bewilderment 
she loses her individuality and wanders without purpose through the 
term and rejoices when "the last day comes" and all is over. 

A few years ago a director seeking a teacher called at my ofi&ce; he 
was referred to a normal school. The advice was not at all acceptable. 
^*We don't want any normal school nonsense. We tried one of 'em. 
Everything was new-fangled. Scholars didn't stand up and spell, and 
they were told to help themselves, and he actually refused to show some 
of 'em when they got stuclc. Didn't have such foolin' when I went to 
school. He wouldn't listen to my suggestions, so we put him out." 

Sometimes official interference is highly respectable, as is well illus- 
trated in the story of the "New Departure at Quincy," in the words of 
Mr. Adams: "During the examinations the schools were taken wholly 
out of the hands of the teachers. The result was deplorable ; the 
schools went to pieces. The committee were busy men, not specialists 
in education. Committees elected by popular vote are entirely unequal 
to any sustained effort." 

The "Queen City" of the' world in liberality in school aflairs, is al- 
most distracted over the primary school question. The hydra-commit- 
tee, well informed, proud spirited, but irresponsible, have in a great 
measure ignored the experience and wisdom of their best teachers, and 
made them and their pupils instruments for forced experimeuts. 

Surely this historic town spends money enough on her schools to 
place the methods of work in education in the hands of educators. 
60 



DEPARTMENT OF SUPERINTENDENCE. 33 

IV. — THE FREQUENT CHANGE IN EDUCATIONAL WORKERS. 

The average rural school experiences a change of administration each 
term, and in towns and cities the mobility of teachers is not a little sur- 
X>rising. A superintendent of a pleasant city employing about seventy 
t^eachers finds that the teacher's life averages less than three years, and 
tie urges the school board to organize a training department, in order 
tLat less of this brief service may be given up to experiment. 

Another city, remarkable for its respect for "tenure of office" in 
teacher and superintendent, has but thirty of the present force of over 
a hundred who were in the schools six years ago. 

A county superintendent was doing a noble work — elevating the 
standard of the schools — when a voice like one "crying in the wilder- 
ness" was heard: " He's getting too exacting in examinations !" "It's 
time for a change!" " N'o third term!" Election day came and went, 
and he was called to the common fate of his kind, to step down and 
enjoy the quiet of defeat. 

I have in mind an experienced schoolman, a sort of educational 
Luther in his county, but I fear that at the next election the guillotine 
of popular opinion in favor of rotation in office will be applied to this 
*' right man in the right place." 

The experience of school boards is usually limited and narrow. Ca- 
l>able men, willing to go on and serve the public, must step aside for 
the inexperienced and possibly the utterly incompetent. 

The picture grows no brighter when taken from the heights of State 
Supervision. The tenure of office is too short to possess even the qual- 
ity of sweetness. The chief officer can hardly do more than take a hasty 
Survey of matters, make out a report or two, draw his meagre salary, 
a,iid retire. 

v. — FORSAKING THE COUNTRY SCHOOL FOR THE TOWN SCHOOL. 

The statement openly and emphatically made, that the old time dis- 
trict school was better than its successor of to-day, is not so wild as it 
bounds. In many cases, the school of years ago, with its large number, 
its spelling matches, its debating society, the intellectual centre of a 
neighborhood, has dwindled to a state of feebleness unpleasant to con- 
template. The well-to-do boys and girls seek the town school, leaving 
the home school to the very young and the poorer children, to be pre- 
sided over by a youthful member of the large Micawber family. 

Few young men of force and ambition now make the district school 
a stepping-stone to a broader and more exacting life. They find better 
support in their struggle to rise in other directions. It is doubtful 
whether it will be said of the Garfields of the next generation that on 
their way upward they honored and blessed the common school as in- 
structors. 

The superintendent of a great and ambitious State laments the weak- 
ness of the district school, and recommends consolidation; and in com- 
3 E c 61 



34 CIRCULARS OF INFORMATION FOR 1882. 

plimentary terms infers that, as the people have accepted professional 
cheese and butter makers, they will soon be wise enough to call into 
their rural schools none but professional educators. > It is evident, i 
this case, that cheese has the start of the children. 

Vr. — SELF SATISFACTION. 

This assumes several forms, running from self glorification to stoli 
indifference. The majority voice too often says "Our schools are 
good as any" or " They are the best." 

Earely do school boards visit other schools than their own or sen 
their teachers to study the workings of other systems. Thie material 
affairs of municipalities suffer less. Fire departments, systems of sew- 
age, water supply, and paving are placed in comparison founded oil 
actual observations made by committees aided by experts. 

VII. — BRICK AND MORTAR. 

This is not widespread, but it is contagious. General Garfield, in 
his last address to this body, said that soon the "great case" in educa- 
tion would be Brains vs. Brick and Mortar. 

The tendency to estimate a school by a brick and mortar standard is 
certainly increasing. 

It is applied alike to the "university" and the school of the preten- 
tious village. In many instances, the people are so loaded with debt 
caused by showy and expensive school architecture that when their 
children cry for mental food they get in response cut stone instead of 
educational bread. A child in a palace in charge of a brainless teacher 
is poor indeed! 

With a simple introduction, I present the following as "big children" 
of the obstacles discussed: 

(1) That mechanical drill is education, information swallowing, learn- 
ing; (2) that a mental quart cup can hold a gallon; (3) sensitiveness of 
teachers to criticism (thin-skinned'? why, some wear their nerves as an 
outer garment!); (4) lack of educational ideas among the people; (5) 
social lines, "blood and bullion;" (6) that the masses know what they 
want (vox populi, &c.); (7) that the school is to cure all weakness, rem- 
edy defects, and insure a money-making life. 

These obstacles are of the people. Educators are not the people. 
Only a small fraction have enlisted for the war; the rank and file are 
"home guards." It has been often said that educators are fighting the 
great army of the king of ignorance; but it is seldom noticed that the 
supplies are mostly in the hands of the enemy! What would the world 
say had England attacked the Zulus with this battle-cry, "Feed us and 
we will conquer you"? 

The educator who has turned his back upon the money-making world, 
whose pluck, patience, faith, and force increase with his years, is the 
missionary of missionaries. The missionary when called is assured of 

62 



DEPARTMENT OF SUPERINTENDENCE. 35 

a decent support while active and the tender care of the sheltering arms 
of the church when retired, and in addition the prayers^of the faithful 
and the promise of "exceeding great reward" in the world to come. 
Bat the educator is offered a precarious living when "up and doing," 
and nothing when time or cruel fortune shall cry "Halt!" no half-pay, 
no pension, nothing but a fund of fond memories, his own feeble prayers, 
and only that hope of a heavenly reward held out to ordinary mortals! 

The paper on "City systems," read by Dr. John D. Philbbick, has 
not been furnished for publication. 

Mr. Wilson, from the executive committee, announced the committee 
to "bring the subject of national aid to education before Congress as fol- 
lows : J. W. Dickinson, secretary State board of education, Massachu- 
setts, chairman ; H. Clay Armstrong, State superintendent of education, 
Alabama; Aaron Gove, superintendent of schools, Denver, Colo.; 
B. Gr. Xorthrop, secretary of the State board of education, Connecticut ; 
Gustavus J. Orr, State school commissioner, Georgia; George How- 
land, superintendent of schools, Chicago, 111. ; James H. Smart, Indiana ; 
J. W. Akers, State superintendent of public instruction, Iowa; G. T. 
Fletcher, superintendent of schools, Augusta, Me.; M. A. iNewell, 
State superintendent of public instruction, Maryland ; Y. B. Cochran, 
State superintendent of public instruction, Michigan ; William H. Gar- 
diner, New Hampshire ; J. A. Dix, superintendent of schools, Elizabeth, 
N. J. ; Dexter A. Hawkins, New York ; John C. Scarborough, State 
superintendent of public instruction, North Carolina; Daniel F. De 
Wolf, State commissioner of common schools, Ohio ; H. S. Jones, su- 
perintendent of schools, Erie, Pa. ; Thomas B. Stockwell, State 
commissioner of common schools, Ehode Island ; Hugh S. Thompson, 
State superintendent of education, South Carolina ; C. C. Painter, Fisk 
University, Nashville, Tenn. ; Lyndon A. Smith, Vermont; J. L. 
M. Curry, general agent of the Peabody Fund, Kichmond, Va. ; B. 
L. Butcher, State superintendent of free schools, West Virginia ; B. 
G. Lovejoy, member school board, Washington, District of Columbia ; 
Allen Wright, superintendent of schools, Choctaw Nation, Indian Ter- 
ritory ; J. W. Hoyt, governor of Wyoming Territory. 

The morning session was concluded by the presentation of the follow- 
ing paper by G. Stanley Hall, ph. d., lecturer on pedagogy at Har- 
vard University : 

CHAIRS OF PEDAaOGY IN OUR HiaHER INSTITUTIONS OF LEARNING. 

Ladies and GENTLE:y[EN : You have all heard of the notable chap- 
ter in a modern work entitled Snakes in Ireland, which reads simply 
^^ There are no snakes in Ireland." If the author of that chapter had 
frankly added that he had never been in Ireland and was not even a 
naturalist, his case would have been still more like my own ; for I regret 
that I must begin the discussion of the subject which has been assigned 

63 



36 CIRCULARS OF INFORMATION FOR 1882 

me ill a hardly less inauspicious way, as, first, there are no chairs of 
pedagogy in oAr higher institutions of learning, or but two, I think ; 
and, secondly, the present speaker's studies have been so centred on the 
practical psychology of teaching and learning that he can only plead 
the pressing importance of the subject for presenting a few considera- 
tions, some of which have not had time to become quite matured. 

Perhaps the first thing urged by those who advocate such chairs 
is the German precedent. During the semester which has just ended 
between 40 and 50 courses of lectures on pedagogy have been given 
in the various German universities. A few of these are but two hours 
a week ; a few are confined to the pedagogy of special sciences and de- 
signed for future professors in these departments. Sometimes a disciple 
of Hegel, like the late Professor Koseiikrauz, of Konigsberg, or of Her- 
bart, like Striimpel, in Leipzig, or a positivist, like Laas, of Strasburg, 
loves to vary the attractions of his philosophy by lecturing from once 
to four times a week on some pedagogic theme. A high church, 
low church, or a Catholic theological professor chooses this subject 
sometimes to indoctrinate future teachers and through them the rising 
generation in what he considers sound theories of education. Thus 
it comes to pass that many of the voluminous treatises on pedagogy 
which emanate from professorial chairs in Germany, while having much 
in common, differ often in detail and often still more radically in first 
principles respecting the ultimate ends, objects, and spirit of education. 
Thus it comes that most of the religious, philosophic, and scientific ten- 
dencies have not only found their expression, but have their disciples 
among teachers of the public schools. This not only tends to prevent 
stagnation, a great and constant danger in education, but (neglecting 
the polemics, rarely tedious or bitter) each standpoint has contributed 
something new and valuable ; and vast as is the body of pedagogic lit- 
erature in that country, the human mind is still vaster. Very few 
professors who have lectured on pedagogy there have made it their 
central interest from first to last, and it is often an incidental if not a 
second class course. Of the three or so who have made pedagogy their 
their exclusive specialty, perhaps the most active is a disciple of Herbart, 
who edits a year book, visits schools with his pupils, studies children and 
methods, especially of primary grades, has published two valuable 
books, lectures constantly in the university, and has treated with great 
detail and authority several of the elementary branches. Most of the 
pedagogical literature of that country is written by teachers of various 
grades, and is of every degree of merit and interest. Perhaps a score 
of the more comprehensive treatises are very valuable, full of sug- 
gestion and stimulus, while over much of these writings, it must be 
confessed, the very spirit invoked in the Dunciad has woven a resistless 
spell ; to read it is like sifting a bushel of chaffy, philosophic words 
for two grains of wheat. 

In several of the universities of Great Britain, individuals able and 

64 



DEPARTMENT OF SUPERINTENDENCE. 37 

interested in the subject have been invited to give single courses of lect- 
ures on some special aspect of pedagogy for which they were best 
qualified, and one or two permanent professorships have been estab- 
lished. In France and Italy university lectures have also been given, 
but I know of no department yet established on a permanent basis. 

In matters of education, however, we. must not be guided too much 
by foreign precedent, although we have very much to learn from Ger- 
many. We have our own peculiar problems, which we must solve in our 
own peculiar and independent way. There is a pregnant sense in which 
the American school from bottom to top, from Kindergarten to univer- 
sity, is and must be unique. Here every one who does not send his child 
to school (which he should do for the same reason as he pays his taxes 
or fights in time of war) must be regarded in a peculiarly insidious 
sense an enemy of the state. A republic like ours, should be especial- 
ly an educational state. The life of a republic, it has been well said, 
is a struggle for existence against ignorance and the evils which troop 
in its train, and the question whether such a form of government as ours 
can be permanent is at bottom a question of education, because a self 
government demands a so much higher degree of knowledge and virtue 
among its people than any other form of government. Because our great 
outstanding problems can be solved only gradually, and by no other 
means than general education, school laws should be a most important 
branch of legislation by the state. And the matter of popular education 
should be one important care and interest close to the heart of all higher 
institutions of learning aided by the state, if not also of all those whose 
property is exempted from taxation by it. The former should have a pe- 
culiarly public function and interest in education. If there be any help 
in chairs of pedagogy, or even any reasonable prospect of help in them, 
the need of it is great and increasing enough to warrant the experiment. 
Moreover, a university is historically and preeminently a teacher of teach- 
ers in the broadest sense, as indeed the very degree ^'doctor" implies, 
and not in any sense a finishing or industrial school of any sort. This 
function is one which I am sure the American college cannot afford to 
lose sight of behind the narrower question, so liable to eclipse it in 
these days of hot college competition and rivalry, ^^Will it be of imme- 
diate and material help to us?" School boards, it is said, have great and 
too often almost sole initiative power, but a very rapidly increasing number 
of the members of these board are graduates. And if (which, so far as I 
could judge from nearly five years' university experience there, is quite 
the custom in Germany) most students, not scientific, were to hear One 
course of pedagogy, they would be much better fitted for the duties of 
that positi on. 

Again, original investigation has a rapidly increasing value in college 
economics, and, as I believe, the prospects for new advances in this di- 
rection are now more pressing than ever before. Many colleges, again? 

are now surrounding the central work of their courses with a more or less 

6r> 



38 CIRCULARS OF INFORMATION ^OR 1882. 

broad and defined penumbra of electiv^s both hard and soft, of lectures 
and incidental courses of various kinds, somewhere among which a mild 
experimentof pedagogy might be attempted by the most cautious trustees 
without committing the institution irrevocably to it. If we had the 
admirable docent system of Germany, by which any young man wha 
could pass the required examinations, which are special, hard, and 
long, could try his luck at lecturing in any university where he could 
attract students, provided only that he could live without salary, being 
paid by student fees alone, there is reason to think that this question 
like many others would settle itself by a slow and sure process of nat- 
ural selection. 

Perhaps the strongest- objection to the establishment of such chairs,^ 
if not that most often heard or made by teachers, is that teaching can- 
not be taught, thafr it is not a science, that there is no philosophy of 
teaching. Sometimes it is said that, at least in the higher branches, 
knowledge of the subject is all that is needed ; or again that every teacher 
must have his own method, peculiar to himself, if not learned by his 
own experience; or, again, that pedagogy is like agriculture, dentistry^ 
or business, each of which may be taught in colleges by itself, but the 
matter of which is only a new combination of what is already taught 
in chemistry, botany, physiology, political economy, &c., but that there 
is no domain or body of fact and truth peculiarly and exclusively 
appertaining to it alone, as there must be to a true science. Its material,^ 
it is said, is partly drawn from general knowledge of human nature^ 
and partly, like acoustics tor the musician, from an extraneous science^ 
and of questionable practical applicability, or perhaps the adverse in- 
ference is based on the well-known disagreement of the best writers on 
education. This line of argument, though far less emphasized now than 
formerly, still requires our serious attention. There is a strong press- 
ure upon the universities to found new chairs, just as there is upon the 
schools to introduce new studies, and it must be borne in mind that 
lectures and text books cannot be equally valuable upon all subjects^ 
but that deep channels of experience and fruitful mines of wisdom have 
opened only in a very few directions. Is there then breadth, depths 
and richness enough of scientific soil for our most useful plant to strike 
its own deep root, and not flourish with a parasitic life? 

It will be perhaps a convenient way of answering this important 
question if we hastily sketch the qualifications of and inventory the 
matter to be treated by an ideal teacher of pedagogy — an ideal^ observe, 
which is perhaps nowhere fully realized, perhaps is not yet realizable^ 
but respecting the nature of which there is now, I think, no great 
diversity of opinion. 

First, then, he should be a more or less experienced teacher. He 
must be schooled even in the petty difficulties constantly encountered 
in the school room and have d^veloped tact to overcome them. He 
must have felt how prone we are in teaching, where it is hard to evolve 

66 



DEPARTMENT OF SUPERINTENDENCE. • 39. 

wisdom and right temper at call, to be baudicapped by carkiiig cares 
which make us welcome and trust too much in petty expedients. He 
must be profoundly and constantly sensible of the wide and ruinous 
chasm so liable to yawn between theory and practice, and never allow 
himself, as not a few pedagogues have done, to get out of sympathy 
with practical teachers nor allow them to get out of sympathy with 
him ; for until teachers all have a systematic course of pedagogy be- 
hind them before entering their profession, all the best of them will be 
his hearers if he lectures accessibly to them, his readers if he writes, or 
perhaps his pupils for a term in his regular academic work. He must 
no doubt sometimes criticise and trouble them, and they him; must, 
perhaps, sometimes be more feared than favored ; must resist the 
clamor for only what is immediately practical next day in school ; must 
know just how far to go toward miunte details and how much to leave 
to individuality, tact, and circumstauces. When teachers become me- 
chanical or cliquish, and countenance each other's errors, neglects, or 
deficiencies by a too intense esprit de corps, his position and his dis- 
position should be so independent that he may see and point out plainly 
the evils sure to result, but all in a spirit so fraternal as to avoid all species 
of friction so far as in 1dm lies, which as a rule is just so much force lost 
from the proper work of instruction. 

Secondly, he should have seen and studied with great care and de- 
tail many schools of different grades and of many kinds, if possible in 
many lands, critically comparing methods and results, and have seen 
that in teaching there is not generally one single and only w^ay of sal- 
vation, but that there are often several equally good methods of com- 
passing the same thing. To get in a rut — a tendency in teaching as 
constant and strong as the law of gravity or organic decay — is bad, but 
to believe it the great and only highway of the world is worse yet, while 
It is often a great advantage to modulate from one method over into 
another no better. But, furthermore, a knowledge of the best results 
of othfers' experience is sure to be choicely culled in this comparative 
way, which will make it less needful for the young teacher to waste the 
precious energies and time of the children in getting his trade in the 
dearest of all the dear schools of experience. This observation should 
extend, it is needless to say, to all the items of light, ventilation, seats, 
plan of school-house, educational laws, appropriations, supervision, as 
well as books and teaching apparatus of all sorts, culminating, however, 
in the detailed methods of teaching the particular branches and explor- 
ing all the lines of least resistance into the pupils' minds. 

Thirdly, and more specifically, there is the history of education, a vast 
mine of information and ready made and thoroughly distilled experi- 
ence, the most immediate use of which is, perhaps, after all, negative, 
viz, to prevent us from trying again educational experiments already 
made over and over again. The history of education, especially in Ger- 
many, is an old and well- worked laboratory of such experiments, almost 

67 



40 CIRCULARS OF INFORMATION FOR 1882. 

no record of wLicli exists as yet in our language. Almost every con- 
ceivable device in teaching, almost every relation to state and church, all 
species of legislative enactments, every trick and device of illustration, 
have been tried and recorded in the large letters of actual experience. 
Furthermore, we know how the historic sense, once well developed in a 
department, finds precious knowledge hived away in the strangest places 
and how everything reveals educational aspects. Historic interest here 
is a new sense, revealing a new order of things almost unsuspected be- 
fore. Indeed it is scarcely too much to say that the pedagogic stand- 
point is perhaps in the broadest sense the very best, highest, and most 
prospective for reading history in general. 

Now the three matters already specified are surely in the main pecu- 
liar to the field of pedagogy^ of great interest and importance to teach- 
ers, and might perhaps occupy half the course or less, treated either sep- 
arately or all together. N^o one of these, however, is exactly central, 
but the prime and indispensable requisite and core of a science of edu- 
cation is a knowledge of the human mind deeper and more scientific 
than that furnished by ordinary intercourse with men, individual ex- 
perience, or self knowledge, and not capricious and accidental like 
that. This has been so often reiterated by almost every authority 
in education since Pestalozzi's Book for Mothers, or indeed since Co- 
menius' Orbis, that it is only stating our question in different terms 
to ask if there is any real and true philosophy of mind solid and cer- 
tain enough to be made the basis of the most important of modern in- 
stitutions, except at least the church. Two or three decades ago, or 
even less, this would have seemed to the impartial and competent ob- 
server a preposterous claim and does eveii yet in many quarters. Com- 
pare, as I have tried to do, the methods, ends, and order of education as 
indicated by the pietist Palmer, the Hegelian Eosenkranz, the Her- 
bartian Ziller, the Schellingian Frobel, or compare the common Hamil- 
tonian, or Scotch, notion of the mind and its activities with that of Spen- 
cer, Whately, Strieker, Wundt, and the rest, or the latter among them- 
selves, and it is disheartening to observe the often fundamental disa- 
greement. So far and so long as philosophy was divided into sects or 
schools, teachers were quite right in their dread of being entangled in 
systems which were sure to make them, as Schopenhauer declares all are 
who think in systems, blind to all that opposes and lynx-eyed to all that 
favors them. But with the gradual decay of the system of absolute ideal- 
ism in Germany, from whict all English and American philosophy except 
the theories of association and evolution sprung, a new state of things 
slowly supervened. A broader sanity caused thinkers to cease to be 
ashamed or afraid or unable to be intelligible; and, to make a long story 
short, a feeling of solidarity and consensus has arisen among students of 
mind, each considering the other as an ally, cordially recognizing what he 
has done, and each content to contribute his item to a vast whole and not 
yearning with the ambition of construing the universe from his own in- 

68 



DEPARTMENT OF SUPERINTENDENCE. 41 

dividual vantage ground, the fruitful source of error and conflict. It 
is this movement which, in the language of Waitz, has saved philoso- 
phy. It is this which, as Lotze says, is so fast destroying the preju- 
dices and false presuppositions which have so long preoccupied the field 
of both mental and educational science; and it is this which has made 
the present a day of philosophical renaissance in wliich more general 
interest and hopefulness centre about this field than ever before in 
this country. The Baconian method has just begun last of all to trans- 
form the methods of mental study, and the old systems of the heroic age 
of German speculation already seem like the pale landscape back- 
grounds of some of Eaphael's canvases; not valueless nor all unlike 
landscapes in nature, but as conventionalized in their methods of 
representing the human mind as is the twining ivy as represented 
in the scroll-work upon an illuminated missal. T^ow this direction of 
philosophic study, none the less philosophical because sometimes re- 
sented by scientific men, culminates in education. The senses, memory, 
attention, the will, the psychic development of children, &c., much of 
which is of immediate practical utility, are ma le the subjects of a more 
careful and fruitful study than ever before. These mines are, to be sure, 
newly opened. Much of the material is widely scattered and must be 
laboriously gathered from sources as diverse as metaphysical journals, 
physiological, neurological, pathological archives, and there is much 
dross, but the new red gold is there and can be had for the sifting. Here 
lies the heart of pedagogy, as in the centre of a great but only periph- 
erally explored continent. In this exploration the ideal professor of 
pedagogy should and easily could do original work by studying the 
faculties of children, active, passive, and at rest, and the various phases 
of their growth by inductive methods already suggested and fruitful, a 
more detailed exposition of which the writer hopes shortly to present* 
A cross section, as it were, of the adult mind is not what is wanted, yet 
such are most of the current treatises on mental philosophy. It is the 
fundamental law of mental development, as well of action and assimila- 
tion, that must be made the basis of methods of teaching, topics chosen, 
and their order. Almost no truth may not be as disastrous as a lie, if 
taught too early or late or wrongly, and almost no error may not be 
made salutary if all these are in its favor. 

In this most central position, then, a firm corner-stone is now laid for 
scientific pedagog^^ It is true that psychology begins in tact and sym- 
p^hy, but it ends in anthropology, one of the richest and broadest fields 
of research known. It is true that genius is born, not made, in peda- 
gogy a« elsewhere; but it is also true that anxious study of the material 
upon which they work is needed, as well as a whole repertory of instru- 
ments and methods, for those who would work upon mind or upon the 
bram, the most complex of all the tissues woven in the loom of time. 
It is often true that a little pedagogy is a dangerous thing, but so is a 
little knowledge of every art or profession, while deep down below our 

69 



42 CIRCULARS OF INFORMATION FOR 1882. 

successes or failures as teachers lie certain causative psychological 
principles, to know which would be to control them. As the great 
educational problems, most of which have been only prov^isionally set- 
tled, open broader and deeper one after another, as they do in times 
of educational awakening, what shall be included in our curricula and 
what time shall be given to each; what is the educational and practical 
value of each; how shall school woi^k be unified, so that mere con- 
tiguity shall not be mistaken for real logical aflinity, so that we may 
secure, at least to a degree, harmonious development in these days of 
accident and casually competing specialties — these and many such 
wider problems can ripen to full maturity only in an atmosphere charged 
with philosophic insight and the accumulated experience of the cen- 
turies. The effects of these studies upon the teacher are not often 
remarked by the casual observ^er, but they increase his inner life; he 
loves to grow mentally as well as to foster growth; slowly and silently 
they increase his potency and his earnestness, lift him above petty expe- 
dients and reliance on short cuts and patent methods, and perhaps best 
of all, secure a professional spirit. 

Fifthly, and in a sense more fundamental, are the bearings of ethics 
on education. There has been much freshened activity in this field, of 
which I have left myself no time to speak here. The notions of duty 
and freedom have been deepened and cleared up m a way at least pro- 
phetic of new advances. This is likel}" to have a very practical bearing 
iu the new movement (one of the most interesting at present in the 
whole field of education) to introduce moral training of some sort into 
the schools as a public need. As all the practical questions of intellect- 
ual education centre in psychology, so most of the wider and deeper 
problems of character, the relation between morality and mental culture, 
the relation of the school to state, church, home, and all the ethical goods 
or values which make life fit to be lived — these centre in ethics, which 
is fast becoming a necessity for the practical teacher. 

Each of these five tendencies, especially the last three, is at present 
far more cultivated and further developed in Germany than in this 
country. This needs to be boldly and distinctly said, despite the sus- 
picion of want of patriotism, Teutonic affectation, &c., so liable to arise. 
There is in that country a great body of comparatively recent educational 
literature of a very high order, only a very small part of which is to be 
found in the alcoves of any library in this country. Indeed, I am almost 
readj'^ to say that for one I see no greater and more imperative need in our 
educational field at present, except southern aid, than one or more ex- 
haustive educational libraries, and perhaps museums, and a few men who 
have the will and the ability and are secured the leisure to work it up and 
over, slowly and carefully, critically adapting it to the needs and bring- 
ing it to the knowledge of our best teachers and those who intend to 
teach, as a few professors of pedagogy could do if thoir chairs stood upon 
a proper basis. Their function should be in part a public one. Great 

70 



DEPARTMENT OF SUPERINTENDENCE. 43 

as is now the mechanical, material, organic perfection of our schools^ 
greater probably, averaging large sections, than in any other part of the 
world, we still need a better study of methods than our normal schools 
are yet prepared to giv^e or their pupils to receive, while graduates 
firom colleges who wish to fit for superior teachers have no training suited 
to them. The great danger of superintendents, supervisors, &c., is that 
they will be absorbed by the business, managerial functions, and neglect 
giving their chief attention to the central and most essential studies 
which alone can make their work professional. 

Chairs of pedagogy ought to help the institutions which establish 
them, especially in the department of mental philosophy, now often so 
poorly taught in colleges that it must be justly held in part responsible 
for our backwardness in applying mental laws to education. It is not 
improbable that the establishment of such chairs might be felt in other 
departments of college teaching, in stimulating increased interest in 
methods of instruction. 

But we have dwelt too long upon snakes in Ireland, upon our ideal 
pedagogist, who does not yet exist. It is time to remember that there 
are practical difficulties to be overcome of a somewhat serious nature. 
First, where are the men to fill these chairs'? Some of our college presi- 
dents arid trustees, it is to be hoped and believed, have already taken 
up the lantern of Diogenes, and are sincerely searching for men, but 
are of course not unmindful of the fact that unwise, incompetent men 
might do harm, while only fairly good men might distil mediocrity and 
dignify commonplaces. But there is the same trouble in other depart- 
ments, and especially in every new one, while youug men are appointed 
every day more for their promises than their performances. The col- 
leges could give opportunity and stimulus, while youth and enthusiasm 
could be safely trusted to soon do the rest. Appointment to a college 
chair is, ought to be, only the beginning of a life of research and growth^ 
and so far as our colleges are serious in encouraging original work might 
they not, for the same academic reason, encourage fresh studies in such 
new and promising fields if 

The objections that such chairs would interfere in any way with the 
work of normal schools and that there is no demand for higher train- 
ing than they are giving and the lack of funds for new professorships 
80 commonly pleaded were briefly considered and the speaker concluded 
as follows: If teaching is to become a profession it is superintendents and 
supervisors, &c., who must first make it so, by becoming, as their high 
position demands, strictly professional themselves in their work. It is 
they who have most interest in making education a science and teach- 
ing a profession. It is movement in this direction th at is to establish 
thesystem of superintendency in those many communities where the ques- 
tion respecting its utility has now been opened. It is they whose urgency 
and perhaps petition and agitation might perhaps be instrumental in 

establishing such chairs in some needed places. The very existence of 

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44 CIRCULARS OF INFORMATION FOR 1882. 

a large body of superintendents like this, upon whose shoulders rests 
a vast and increasing though all too often unrecognized power — not so 
far less than that of yonder august legislative bodies, to the far historic 
ken, in shaping the America of a generation hence — this body, its need- 
ful dignity and power, its practical needs, constitute the strongest and 
most urgent argument in favor of professional pedagogy. 
The Department then adjourned to meet in the same hall at 8 P. M. 

SECOND SESSION— WEDNESDAY EVENING. 

Washington. March 22, 1882. 

The second session of the Department was held at 8 p. M. After call- 
ing the meeting to order, Mr. Stockwell, the president pro tempore, 
stated that the evening would be devoted solely to a discussion of the 
subject of national aid to education, and introduced Eev. A. D. Mayo, 
who spoke without notes as follows : 

Mr. President and Gentlemen of the Convention : It is a great 
comfort when speaking upon any such matter as we have in hand to 
feel that you are talking to people who need no preliminary, who 
understand all the fundamental arguments for education, and who are 
thoroughly competent to supply themselves with all the rhetoric and 
eloquence which it may be necessary to display on such an occasion. 

I suppose you have asked me to speak to you to-night, not because I 
am a teacher, for I am not a teacher, but because during the past two 
years, engaged in what I may be permitted to call a ministry of educa- 
tion through the Southern States, I have had some rather unusual op- 
portunities for observation in that part of the country. I shall return 
your compliment by speaking to you in the plainest manner, giving a 
plain, unvarnished tale, indicating to j-ou some conclusions which have 
been forcing themselves upon my mind in connection with this most 
important subject. 

The first impression which has been made upon me in this matter- is 
that the great need of the Southern States today is a system of element- 
ary education; and when I speak of a system of elementary education 
I do not refer to the old-fashioned district or city school, a clumsy 
machine for teaching the three E's, but I mean our modern idea of ele- 
mentary education, the new elementary education, the school that takes 
the child from the age of five or six to twelve or fourteen and carries 
him through a proper elementary education which fits him to go forth 
at that time armed with the powers of citizenship ; and this new element- 
ary education, as we see it now all over our country, bears about the 
same relation to the old-fashioned elementary education that the limited 
express train on which our brother Hawkins came to-day from New 
York bears to the old family chariot in which George Washington jolted 
to New York to take his oath as President of the United States. 

It is this new elementary education, with the training of teachers com- 

72 



DEPARTMENT OF SUPERINTENDENCE. 45 

petent to enforce it, which is the great and crying want of our Southern 
States to-day. 

I^ow, as I look over the South, I see that there are three classes of 
people, and each of them in a special way is to be- benefited by this kind 
of education. First comes the great mass of the children of the freed- 
men, and elementary education in their case ilieaus to them a great deal 
more than it can mean for an average white child in this country, be- 
cause the negro is the latest comer into society. Every white man has 
a thousand years of race culture behind him ; the negro has at best but 
two hundred and fifty, and therefore elementary education for the chil- 
dren of the freedmen means, first, the formation of the educational mind^ 
the building of the foundations on which instruction can be reared in the 
average colored child. It means education in a thousand things which 
in a well regulated community the teacher is hardly supposed to med- 
dle with: education in manners, morals,. and everything that goes to 
make up the fundamentals of our ordinary American life 5 and this work 
I consider the most difficult, the most arduous to be done of any work 
of teaching that is now going on. 

Then we come to another class, the children of the ignorant white 
people in the South ; and yet we shall make a great mistake if we think 
these unlettered people are a stupid people. They are chiefly of English- 
IScotch or Scotch-Irish extraction. Out of that class have come many 
of the ablest men in southern life. They have been educated by an ex- 
perience in life which is remarkable and which has done great things 
for them, and these children are perhaps as well prepared for taking 
the elementary education in its beautiful new methods as any children 
that ever walked on the face of the earth. 

Then comes the class of children which must awaken the compassion 
of every one who knows of them, the great multitude of children of 
those who twenty years ago were among the most wealthy people in 
the South, now reduced to utter poverty, so that unless some aid were 
extended to them multitudes would grow up in absolute ignorance. 

Now there are those three classes, the freedmen, the children of the 
ignorant whites, and the destitute children of the old cultured class ; and 
they all need this foundation of elementary education 5 and the people 
who have charge of the academic education and the collegiate educa- 
tion are coming fast to see that this education is their only safety* 
There are as many of these institutions now as the South ought to have 
for the next fifty years, and for lack of this elementary education these 
academies are compelled to do mere primary school work, mere gram- 
mar school work, by taking children at fourteen or fifteen who are in 
about the condition that children should be at ten or twelve. Eight 
along with this comes the training of a body of teachers competent to 
do this work, and the material is all at hand through the southern 
country. The girl that was born the year that the war closed is to-day 
a young lady of seventeen. Since the close of the war a whole generation 

73 



46 CIRCULARS OF INFORMATION FOR 1882. 

of tliefie boys and girls has come up in the South; and especially is it 
true that the South is full of the daughters of powerful families who are 
longing for the education which shall enable them to go forth and be- 
come the teachers, not only of the white but of the colored people. 

Now I need not say that there are peculiar obstacles to doing this 
good work. One great ot)stacle is the amount of ignorance; another 
obHtacle is one we do not appreciate; it is that nine-tenths of the peo- 
ple of the South never saw what we call a good public elementary school, 
eucli aH can be seen to-day in Charleston, and it is owing largely to this 
fact that there is so much holding back among the people when you 
speak of public graded schools. 

TImui come other obstacles. One is the indisposition to taxation. 

Th(»Ji we must remember that the war in the South left society cut 
U]*. It has left a great heritage of bitterness between this people, 
so that it is very difficult for the people to get together and work 
t()gi*>t/her, forgetting each his own crotchets and his own notions. 

Thiifi there are physical obstacles and the sparse population of the 
gre.at (country. Then there is the race obstacle ; and then there is this, 
the crowning difficulty: the difficulty of getting hold of enough money 
to do anything in any part of our southern country. 

'Hie school public, the free public school public, that I meet in all 
tlie Southern States, composed of superintendents, of teachers — this 
Hcho(»l public is one of the most forcible, most enlightened, and most 
<|el tiiiriifMid l)ofly of people that ever got on foot in the United States of 
Aini^rii'a. It may not be the majority of the people, but it is composed 
of that material that makes a majority if you only give it a good chance. 
Now, this Hcjhool public, in such a spirit of self sacrifice as I never wit- 
licHHiMl any whi».re else, is trying to plant this system all over the South, 
and I VA)\\U\ spend the whole evening in telling you the most affecting 
Ht(»ritiH of labor performed, of the noblest people giving their time and 
their lifti like water to do this thing. Now, this public is trying to do 
this thing, and the great difficulty just now is the lack of money to da 
it. The great majority of the people believe in this elementary educa- 
tion by the State. The school public is a very enlightened and deter- 
uuned (Uie, and they take all they can get from the people and do the 
liest t hey can. Unt tliese school authorities have just enough money to 
u\ake a school that is satisfactory to nobody in the town. The roof is 
uu Uve with the blaze of ignorance, and this people have a ladder that 
voiu^hes wWwxt up to the second story window, and they are expected to 
^{i and put out the ttre ; and there is the trouble : just money enough to 
iuau^A'Uvate a p\ibU(i sehool system, break down the old system of aca- 
vlemioul iustriu^tion, and not enough to give anything that is a sub- 
stitute sAUoh as the leading class, on whom the schools must depend for 
HuvHHV!4!4^ will support. 

X^KW, UU5i is the great thing: we need, we want national aid in order 
U^ s^Ui^Ulo the si^IumjI authorities all through the South at once to put the 

7^ 



DEPARTMENT OF SUPERINTENDENCE. 47 

thing before the people, to show it to the people who never saw a first 
class public school, to show it in a way that will conquer opposition, 
that will persuade the people themselves to take up the work and never 
let it die. I have seen some of the most interesting cases in which the 
^establishment of a school of this kind has completely satisfied a public 
that lias been fighting against it for years. « 

If you can only give those friends the money to put before the people 
s, real public school as an object lesson, the battle is won, and if you 
can do thdt for five or ten years, as this national aid proposes to do, the 
work will be done, so that at the end of that time every Southern State 
can be left to have its own system of education as thoroughly as any 
State in the East or the West. 

Now, friends, how do we want that aid? In the first place, we want 
it now. This matter is urgent. Don't you see that if you let a gener- 
ation of these children grow up, it is going to be all the harder to deal 
with this question; and don't you see that every child that you catch 
now you not only send that child out a better citizen, man or woman, 
but you send that child out determined that his child shall be better 
educated than himself? 

Another thing is that we want money enough at once. What you 
want is something decisive which will enable the school authorities to 
plant a good school and let the people see it one year. 

There is no more miserable economy than to be stinting your appro- 
priation for a good work. 

It seems to me that if for ten years a generous appropriation could be 
given to our Southern States the work could be done. You only aggra- 
vate the evil if you fail to do this. So let us have the work done now, 
and let us have enough to do it in a generous and effective way. 

Let us give this money to the southern children and youth through 
the regular channels. 

Any such thing as putting into these States a supplementary super- 
visor of schools, with a salary of $3,000 or $5,000 a year, I believe would 
defeat about all the good effects of the distribution through these 
States, for this man would be a bigger man than the Stat6 official. I 
don't care if two brothers were appointed, they would inevitably get into 
quarrels in trying to do this work. Two good men are too many to do 
ally one good thing. Then, again, the expense would be from one to 
two hundred thousand dollars a year, as much as the Peabody fund has 
today, to put into every State of this Union a new Government officer. 
Then, too, we must remember that anybody that desires money from 
Uncle Sam must work for it. The Congress of the United States only 
does what it is compelled to do by the voice of the people. Let us go 
home and wake up the people in every State to demand that our ser- 
vants at the Capitol shall give out of the present abundance of the na- 
tion's treasure house money enough, and at once, under fit safeguard and 



48 CIRCULARS OF INFORMATION FOR 188-1 

sapervisiou, to stem this flowing tide of ignorance and help our breth- 
ren in the South in their present heroic effort to help themselves. 

A presentation of the subject of national aid from a northern stand- 
point was then given in the following address by Dexter A. Hawkins, 
A. M., of Newark, N. J. : 

NATIONAL AID TO STATE COMMON SCHOOL EDUCATION. 

I am requested to present the views upon this point generally held 
in the Northern or old free school States. 

It might be supposed that the States that have from the beginning 
established and supported chieflj^ by public taxation a system of free 
public schools suflftcient for all the children within their borders would 
be opposed to national aid to common school education. But this is not 
the fact. They look upon the people of each and all the States as fellow- 
citizens and brethren. They consider them all individually as mem- 
bers of one family. They look upon the whole country as one body of 
which the respective States and the citizens of each State are members. 

In the natural body, whenever any one member is weakened, dis- 
eased, or disabled, the whole body suffers. Every other member neces- 
sarily loses some of its force and vitality and vigor. If one leg is gone, 
the other leg has double duty to perform, and it cannot enable the body 
to accomplish as much as though both legs were sound. If one foot or 
even one toe is diseased, it has a similar effect, and the whole body is 
either wholly or partially unfit for service. The same is true in the 
political body. If one State is weakened and its vigor and powers 
emasculated through the illiteracy of a great body of its inhabitants, 
that affects not only the nation as a whole, but every other State in the 
CTnion, and the people of every other State. 

The underproduction of an illiterate State, the inability of its people 
to meet their individual debts, and of the State to meet its State debt 
(resulting from this underproduction of its citizens), cause annually 
loss to the citizens of every other State and injury to the credit of 
every other State and to the good name of the community. 

The old free public school States are careful students of history. 
They look to the past for guides in the future. They find that in all 
ages and in all civilized countries the governing class has been, is, and 
must of necessity be an educated class ; else the government cannot 
be either good or permanent. The very inherent nature of man and of 
government makes this principle constant and universal. 

In this country the governing class is the entire body of the people; 
hence the education of the entire body of the people is an essential 
means of securing good and permanent government. 

EducJation to be universal must be secured and enforced by laws 
that reach every individual. It cannot be left to minor authorities or 
organizations. 

76 




DEPARTMENT OF SUPERINTENDENCE. 

In the E«i»iiblic of Sparta, twenty-eiglit huudred years ago, tliea 
priuciples were understood by Lycurgus, and the child of every citizei 
was educated at public expense and required to be so educated- 
Athens, under the laws uf Solon, five huudred years before the ChristS 
iau era, the children of all the citizens were educated aud required t 
be educated. 

These two little free states ruled and controlled the whole of Greece ; 
and Greece for five huudred years ruled and controlled the sliores of . 
the whole Mediterranean. It was not her phyKicai force that did this, 
but the power of her intelligence. At the siege of Syracuse the Greek 
luatheuiatic'ian brought down to his aid the fires of heaven, aud by con- 
centrating the rays of the sun upon the enemies' machines of war burned 
Uieiu. The old Grecian rejjublics to-day, through their literature, are 
one of the great powers in civilization and free government, though 
they ceased to exist as independent nations nearly two thousand years 
ago. Their philosophers, their poets, their historians, and their oratory 
still instruct aud delight us. 

lu the eighth century the great Christian Enipeior Charlemagne re- ] 
quired the children of all persons participating in the government to 
lie educated, in order that intelligeuce might rule his empire. The 
]iower of intelligence thus developed, held and controlled by him, en- 
ublefl him to unite and consolidate the whole of Western Europe. 

In 1530 Martin Luther, at Geneva, made education obligatory upoq 1 
all, and to-day the twenty-two cantons of the Swiss Republic, by more 
ttiau a two-thirds vote, enjoy the beneficent influence of that law of 
Lather. In I.IUO the Duchy of Orleans, by act of assembly, made edu- 
cation compulsory, and parents were bound under heavy penalties to 
send their children to school. In 1571 the states of Navarre made edu- 
cation obligatory upon all. In Kii'J Wiirttemberg made attendance at 
school compulsory, aud punished iiou compliance with flue and im- 
priso&uieut. 

The chief claim that the gi'eat Austrian Empress Maria Theresa | 
has to immortality in history is that, more than a huudred years ago, J 
«lie established public schools tor the education of the children of herd 
empire and required them to atteud. 

In 1773 Saxony made education compulsory upon all to the extent o 
ten yeai-s' schooling. In 1S04 the attendance was secured by heavy] 
fines and penalties, and to-day, we are iufoiined, there is nut a child o 
the school age iu the whole of Saxony that has not attended school. 

In 1795, as soon as the first French Eepublic was organized, educa- ' 
tiou was made secular, universal, and compulsory. On the return of 
that country to monai-chy, this was abolished, The present French 
Bepubtic has established universal education and made it compulsory j 
heuce the great prosperity of France, after losing, teu years ago, a ■ 
thousand million dollars in gold and two provinces, with nearly two j 
miliious of her jwople. If they stick to nniversal education, their reJ 
4 E O 



50 



CIRCULARS OF INFORNLATIOS FOR 1 



public will endure; if tliey give it up, tlie republic will go auder, as a 
Hiooarcby of some kind is the only tit government for an igiiorant peo. 
. pie, and tbe more ignorant-, the more despotic it must be. 

In 1807, when Napoleon the Oreat had stripped Prussia of her terri- 
tory, her wealth, and her power, and rednceil her to a mere impover- 
ished pravince, William von Hnmboldt, the brother of Alexander von 
Humboldt and minister of public instruction, presented to the King a 
- scheme for the establiahnient of universal compulsory education, and 
assured him that thi-ougli the education of its people Prussia would 
recover from her misfortunes and obtain and maintain a leading and 
controlling position in Europe. The King adopted the scheme, and 
Proasia ten years ago vindicated the wisdom and foresight of Hum- 
boldt. 

As a race, the Hebrews especially excel in the educattoo of their 
children. An illiterate Hebrew it is difficult to find anywhere. Henoe 
the wealth, prosperity, and influence of that small people ; aod Iience 
their oppression and expulsion from the country by the ignorant semi- 
biirbaric Slavic races of Southern Bussia. 

Between two and three thousand years ago Confucius and Mencius 
established schools throughout China, and education in the Flowery 
Kingdom became universal. For centuries, under rigorous civil service 
regulations, none but the educated have been permitted to hold office 
under government or participate in it, until to-day an illiterate China- 
man is scarcely ever to be met. As a conseQuencc, they have main- 
tained a regular, orderly government fur several thousand years, they 
support more people to the square mile than any other nation, and 
maintain a population equal to more than one-third of that of the en- 
tire globe. They seldom engage in tbreigu wars or interfere in the 
afiairs of other nations. On this point Washington might have learned 
the wisdom of his fai-ewell address from them. 

When the early settlers came from England to this continent, two 
linndred and sixty years ago, they intended to establish here a &ee 
government, "a government of the people, for tbe people, and by the 
people," to use the perfect words of the immortal Lincoln, and as an 
essential condition precedent to the continuance of such a government 
they immediately established the jmblic school. 

In New Kngland and the rest of the Northern States the school kept 
pace with the children, the intention being that no child should be al- 
lowed to grow uji without ample opportunity to obtain a good common 
English education. Common school education is tbe key to the so- 
briety, industry, tenacity of purpose, and prosperity of the inhabitants 
of the Northern States. In 1642 the Colony of Massachusetts Bay 
not only established free common schools, but made education compul- 
sory upon all children. Five years after, IGiT, severe penalties were 
provided in case parents did not send their children to school. 

In 1650 the Colony of Connecticut followed the example of her elder 



DEPARTMENT OF SUPERINTENDENCK. 



sister, and not only established tlie schools, but made educatiou coi 
pidsoiy upon all, autil now it ia extremely difficult for a iiative-boi 
child to grow up iu those two States without an educatiou. The school 
iiffiuer ferrets him out and compels him to attt'ud school iiulesH 
being edacatetl at home. What is the crnisequcuee K The people of 
Massachusetts and Gonuectient eitcel iu intelligence, in accumulated 
«*ealth, and in annual production, notwithstanding their barren soil 
and cold climate, those of any other States. Their few illiterates are 
mostly Ibreigoers. The first six hundred immigrants that landed iu 
Massachusetts contained thirty graduates of Cambridge University, 
England ; and the intelligence of those thirty gentlemen, from the day 
they landed on the bleak shores of Massachusetts Bay until the pres- 
ent time, lias continued to sited blessings upon the inhabitanta of the 
Old Bay State. The people in the North believe in education ; they be- 
lieve iu it everywhere, and on all occasions, and for all people. They 
are not only ready to educate themselves, but they are ready to he! 
educate every child in the country who cannot obtain an educatii 
without their aid. 

We in the old common school States believe in free government aui 
universal suffrage. We believe the ballot is essential to the proteetii 
of individual rights. 

When the tour millions of negro slaves were delivered from bondage, 
the JTorth insisted on giving them the ballot, in order that they might 
peaceably protect themselves. It was either the ballot or the bullet; 
and so low is the standard of political morals in this country that what- 
ever class is not endowed with the ballot will have to submit to impo- 
sition, brutality, or expatriation unless it protects itself with the bullet. 
The free school States, having endowed the four millions of ex-slaves 
witJi the ballot for self protection, are now, for the safety of the ]tei)ub- 
lic, under the necessity of securing in some way to these ignorant votera, 
and to the half million of illiterate white voters in the South, an education 
soScient to enable them intelligently to particijjate iu and maintain in 
the Southern St-ates a republican government. With ignorant voters, 
there or anywhere else, a free democratic republic is simply an impos8»-j 
bility- The illiterate vote mnst and will in some way be neutralized. 
Napoleon's theory was that democracy with ignorant voters, in ord( 
to escape The ruiu to society resulting from the rule of ignorance, m 
essarily and inevitably ended in some sort of despotism, usually mill 
tapy despotism; and all history shows that he was correct. 

The Sortlieru States being fully and firmly committed to free goveri 
ment, are hence fully and firmly committed to universal educatiou 
tlie only means of sustaining and perpetuating the blessings of frets; 
government. A few years ago the illiteracy of nearly one-half of the 
voters in one part of the country almost prBei|>itated upon us a secoad 
civil war. It was avoided only by the patriotism and foriiearance of 
the leaders of the two great political parties of the country. The free 



I 



I 52 CIRCULARS OF INFflRllATIOS FOR 189i, 

school States do iiot wish to biive free goverQiiient run Btich a risk 
again. Unless we educate tLe voter, a similar crisis may recnr every 
four years. The South came out of the war thorouglily impiiverislied; 
yet it today taxes itself uioi'e heavily, according to its property, for 
public education than does the North. But the money thus generously 
raised is wholly inadequate. If left to their own private resources it 
will take them a century to reach the safe point for free government; 
hence the old tree school States are thoroughly alive and iu earnest in 
favor of national aid to public education and its distributioo according 
to illiteracy until the several States shall be able to get along without 
We precipitated four millions of ignorant citizens upou the cotton 
States; we feel that we owe it to ourselves and to them to help them 
iu educating this mass of iguorauco and fitting those four millions of 
people for the ratiouul enjoyment of the legal rights with which we 
have insisted upon endowing them. 

Slavery impoverished the South; it helped to enrich the North} for 
' we eiijoyed the advantages, if there .were any, flowing from it, without 
the curses. The South now expbriences the curses of its former condi- 
tion, to wit, an illitwate and improrideut population, without any of 
the advantages. Hence, common honesty, common safety, as well as 
common humanity and patriotism, call upon the North to advocate 
temporary national aid to public education, and the distribution of the 
money according to the number of illiterates in each Stale. 

ince the year 18(t5 the xjeople of the free school States have, by in- 
dividual coutributiouB, sent over a milliou dollars a year to their breth- 
ren at the South to aid education. It took years to stimulate the 
desii-e for knowledge among the ignorant and inert masses, and to get 
theui, as a body, in condition to receive educational aid on a large scale 
to advantage. They are uow hungering and thirsting for schools, and 
ask u« Ibnn tUe national abiindauce to aid them. 
They have over five millions of children of the school age, and i^ise 

1 1 ten millions of dollars annually to etiucate them. The rest of the Union 

' has ten millions of children of the school age, and raises sixty milliona a 
lyear to educate them. We can pay sixty millions as easily as they can 
the ten, because our labor is now and always has been educated and 
productive. They have, according to the census of 1880, 4,804,171 

. .children above the age of ten who are illiterate, while we have only 
1,435,787. Hence, to save free government from sinking under this 
weight of ignorance, a weight which rfe aided in throwing upon them, 
they need a larger amonutof money (and need it now) for education than 
' they at present are able to pay. When ouce they are helped over this 
present difficulty they can take care of themselves. The annual Idsa 
now to these States thi-ough the illiteracy of their laborers is more than 
double the whole cost of their present public schools. 
A few years ago the (Jommissioner of Education made an investiga- 

I tiou into the character, condittou, aud productiveness of the labc 



DEPAKTMKNT OF StTERINTESUENCE. 

ID all the great centres of toil in tlin United States, inclnding every! 
kiud of labor, from the rndeat and simplest to the most skilleii. A series'* 
of questions propoanded to rlie employers brought out tlie inftirmation 
required on all points. This information, genernlized and rertnced to 
It scale (assnming the illiterate laborer as the unit), gives the following 
instractive resnlts: Cousiilered as a mere machine of production, the 
laborer with a common school education will, on the average, prodnoe 
ananally 2.5 per cent, more than the illiterate ; if he has an academic edu- 
cation he will i)rotluce 50 per cent, more; and if a collegiate education, 
100 per cent. more. 

Now, according to the census of 1S70, there were in the southern part 
of onr country about one niilliou one hundred and forty-seven thousand 
(1,446,667) illiterate male adults. Putting the annual product of an illit- 
emto laborer at the minimum snm of $1110, which is far below the Liver- 
age, the annual product of a laborer with a common school education 
would be $135. Then these one million one hundred aud forty-seven 
thousand illiterate male adidta in the South, hail they received a common 
school training, would produce annually $25 apiece (or $28,075,000) more 
than they now do. This is more than double the whole amount spent 
there on public education, which in 187!) was $12,181,602. The loss to 
the country through the inefficiency of illiterate labor is but a small part 
of the actual loss from illiteracy, for au examination of the statistics of 
the whole country, as given in the census of 1870, shows that the illiter- 
ates produce thirty times their proportionate share of paupers aud ten 
times their proportionate share of criminals. 

The annual expense in the city of New York alone entailed by tlfi 
pauper and ciiininal classes, in supporting the one and protecting soc 
ety against the other, is five millions a year. 

I have not been able to ascertain the annual expense of supijortin^ 
the paupers and protecting society against the criminals iu the SoutherC^I 
States ; but if it is one-half as great, according to the population, as in V 
the city of Ne>F York, it would be over $25,000,000 a year. Now, it i^ 
calculated by experts in socialscience that 96 per cent, of pauperism caa 
be eradicated by education, and that at least one-half of the crime in tb6V 
tOmmanity can be prevented by education. 

In the Grand Duchy of Baden, with a population of a million and a 
half, theyreducedthenumberof paupers 25 per cent, and the number <» 
crimes 51 per cent, by enforcing a thorough system of universal eduoe 
tion for the space of seven years, 1854 to 1861. 

If pauperism and crime in the Southern States were reduced tog 
minimnm by a vigorous enforoement of the education of all the childre 
to the extent of the course of study in our ctimmon schools, it would 
lirodnce, then, an annual saving to the commnnity in the pauper and 
Griniinal expenses of flftoeu millions of dollars. This, with the gain of 
over twenty-eight millions a ycariu the increased production of the 1; 
borers through educating them to the exteut of the curriculum of the free 



54 



CIRCfLARS OV ISFORMATION FOR ISSi 



commou scliool, would give au auiiiial iucrease of proihiction and sanng 
of fspL>iise equal to forty-three millioii dollars. 

TLia ia tlie fluancial gain in that part of <nir country alone to lie made 
through imiversal education in the elementary brauches. If this were 
done, the Sonth would be amply able to support as w>mplete a system 
of free couiinon schools lis tliere is now iu the Stale of Massachusetts: 
aud with an enforced attendance, by a compulsory law, of every child 
that is of the school age, so as to eliminate from society in the future 
the illiterate adult, it would no longer bo afflicted with the evils and 
threatened with the dangers arising from ignorant sufirago. It would 
be able, without diflBculty, through the increased productiveness of ita 
labor, to pay, in a very few years, not only the iuterest, but the princi- 
pal, of all its 8tat« debts ; and individual solvency would be so universal 
that every merchant who traded with their people would be able to 
collpct promptly the pay for his gootla. 

The South now, through the illiteracy of its people, aud the consequent 
deficiency iu production and in accumulated wealth, pays but a smalt 
portion of the national taxes. 

If by giving them out of the national treasury, for ten years, a few 
millions of dollars a year to aid in public education we can eradicate 
illiteracy, and as a consequence reduce the pauper and criminal expenses 
as well as make their labor efficient, they will in a few years be able 
to return the money to the national treasury in the increased amount 
of national tuxes they will pay by reason of the increased annual jiro- 
duction and eonsumptiou and accumulated wealth of their people; so 
that, looked upon as a financial investment merely, the peojile of the old 
free school States think that national aid to public eomuiou school ed- 
ucation, for a limited period, is the wisest and best use that Congress 
can make of a portjou of the public money. 

Many millions are appropriated for internal improvementa ; the power 
to do this iu the Constitution is no clearer aud the necessity much less 
than the power aud necessity to appropriate money from the national 
treasury in aid of common school education. The internal imprave- 
ment resulting from ridding ourselves of four million eight hundred 
tiiousand ilbterate youth by educating them is infinitely greater than 
ever did or ever can result from the building of Government roads, 
canals, or railroads, or from improving rivers and harbors. 

If the bill in aid of public education now before Congress (appropri- 
ating fifteen million dollars tor the first year aud decreasing the amount 
by a million every year until at the end of ten years the whole appro- 
priation ceases, and distributing the money to the States according to 
the number of illiterates in each by the census of 1880) becomes a law, 
the old free school States will receive a reasonable share of the money, 
for the immigrants that have been pouring into the country for the last 
twenty years — last year to the extent of three-quarters of a million — 
have nearly all settled in those States; and among those immigrants is a 



W largelwdy 

I eign borD i 

iiparlr SI. mi 



DEPARTMENT OF SLTERISTENDENCE. 



•■ Iwdy of illitei-ates. Tlie whole number in these States {eliiefly fOW 
above the age of teu years) awordiiig to the census of !■ 
ueai'lj- a million and a half, aud the uumber of illiterate adults is half s 
inillioD. The proportion of this money that we shall receive will be 
snlScient to go far toward eradicating this illiteracy, and hence every 
dollar given to the North will return in the end many times to the pub- 
lic treasury through the improved condition and capacity to pay taxt 
in the fnture of the million and a half illiterates, 

Therefore, i a whatever light we look at the question, whether aaa 
msre matter of dollars and cents, a matter of humanity, of civilization, 
of free government, or of mere duty to our brethren, it seems to ns at 
the North to be a wise, a patriotic, and a practical measure of relief, 
not only to the Southern States, bnt to the whole conntry, to appropri- 
ate this moiiey at once, and <listribute it under the supervision of the 
Bureauof Education from year to year, while the treasury is overflowing) 
so as to bring tho whole country. North and South, East and West, uft 
to tlie very front rank of public education, intelligence, industry, am 
thrift. 

The whole southern part of the educational map of the country pre- 
sented in the first volume of the census of 1S80 is covered with black, 
threatening clouds. Let us clear up our sontheni sky, and illumiuate 
it with the bright sunshine of universal intelligence, before the store 
that mutters at every election bursts upon us. 

At the conclusion of this paper Hon. J, L, M. CuKEY, ll. d., agei 
of the Peabody education fund, was auiioanced as the next speaker^ 
He thought it best to Hay nothing. Calls for remarks from him beinj 
repeated, however, he consented to address the meeting, and after 
verting to the difBcultiea of his sitnation caused by the lateness of tl 
hour, he proceeded to speak estemporaneohsly as follows: 

There are two postulates which must necessarily be assumed in thi 
discnssion, which, of coiirse, I shall not in the slightest degree elaborate] 
and the first is that intelligence and integritj- are the basis of free repretij 
sentative republican institutions. Such was tho opinion of the father! 
as could be easily substantiated by most numerons citations. As wj 
expressed in that admirable paper (Professor Hall's) this morning, ed'r 
motion is fundamental to the right discharge of the duties and func- 
tions of American citizenship. We should regard it as the greatest 
dereliction of duty if the scions of nobility, those who are to be kings 
and emperors and to wear crowns, were not trained and disciplined ill 
early life for their civil and political duties; and it is but little short ofj 
treason, in my humble judgment, for those who are charged withreapoi 
sibility in this country — a government, as Mr. Lincoln epigram maticall; 
and forcibly expressed it, "of the people, for the people, and by the 
people" — to neglect the education of American citizens. Universal edu 
(nation, to my ndnd, is a sine qua nou for the security and the prosperity 
s Republic. 



MMiisT 



irity i 



L56 



ClHrrLARS OF INFORMATION" fOR IBS'!. 



My next postulate is that tliis universal education ia the work of gov- 
ernment, and must be furoished in large measure b.v gnverninent action 
and government revenues. Universal education, in the first place, is 
tbe riglit of the citizeu; but in the second place, and more imniediatel.v 
connected with the discussion of our subject to-night, it is an imj>erative 
duty. I ani only stating a truism when I say that there is not'a single 
instance in all educational history where there has been anything ap- 
proximating universal education unless that education has been ftjp- 
nished by government. These are the postulates on whicli I bnild this 
brief argunient. 

Now, if universal education is a right and an imperative duty, my 
next pTOpijaition is that this primarily is the work of State governments. 
In oui' comi)lex and fe«ierative system, States lie nearer to the people 
than does the Na-tioiial Government. All the interesting relations of 
life, husband and wife, parent and child, master and apprentice, guard- 
ian and ward, teacher and pupil, are relations with which the General 
Government has nothing to do in the first instance, bnt are peculiarly 
and sjiecially, as every lawyer knows, within the province of the State 
govertimeuts ; ami, therefore, I hold that primarily and chiefly it is the 
duty of the States to furnish this education. The Northern States 
boldly and courageously have undertaken the work, and grandly and 
nobly have they performed it. The aonth now is following the exam- 
ple set. In every Southern State there is upon coustitution or statute 
book a system of public schools modelled after tbe best examples of the 
Northern States and of European countries. Schools have been estab- 
lished under this system. Those schools are alike open to the white niau 
and to the black man. to the late slave and to the late master, I do 
not mean that these are mixed schools; I mean, however, to assert with 
emphasis and positiveuess tJjat from Virginia to Texas, inclusive, pre- 
cisely the same educational rights anil the same educational privileges 
are granted to the black man as are iiirnishiid to the white man. What 
I have said, that the schools are open and the school money distributed 
upon a basis of absolute equality so far as white and black children are 
concerned, marks a moat marvellous revolution in the history of this 
country. I wish I could get you to realize it. I can hardly eouceive of 
any revolntion in public sentiment, in manners, in customs, in habite, 
in laws, in institutions, so profound as the revolution which has takea 
place iu the new South in the last eighteen years in reference to the 
public schools. 

Much remains to be done. The laws are upon the statute books. A 
vast deal has been accomplished; but in school-houses, apparatnsr 
school attendance, school enrolment, proper teaching, school revennes, 
there is a great deficiency, a very great deficiency. I need not tire you 
with statements after the elaborate and conclusive paper which has just 
been read iu your hearing. What I wish to impress is that to make 
these schools at the South adequate to the need is a stupendous enter- 



DEPARTMENT OF SUPERISTESDENCE. 



(irise, not to lie dealt witli aitinmarily or by temporary expedients, bi 
hy wise and liberal lefrislation. To the patriot, tbe Christian, tLe hi 
manitariau, the illiteracy is absolutely appalling, and if I had a strongei^ 
word to ase I sliotild be glad to uae it now in order to express the ma^ 
□itiide of the danger. What is vital to the subject that we ai-e now 
considering is thatit is impossible for the Sontbem States unaided, how- 
ever willing rhey may be, to grapple with this gigantic problem. The 
(li aim I ties have been suffgested in jiart by Professor Hall — ditfienlties 
which are not realised by those imfHmiliiir with the habits and the peo- 
ple of that country. At the North population is dense; I believe about 
uoe-fiith IB in cities and towns. In the South, in the rural districts, set- 
tlements are remote, commuuications are infrequent and imiiei-fect, and^ 
The people very diflerpnt from those in other sections of the country. 
Slavery sparsiBi-d ])opulat)on. Slavery concentrated wealth in a ft 
hands. Slavery prevented the division of wealth among the jieopl 
Slavery created an aristocracy. Slavery made a public school aysti 
witii free and universal education impossible. Thank God! slavery 
goDe and the negroes are irrevocably free ! I never made an expres-i 
tuon of gratitude with more sincerity than I made that declaration Just 
now ; antl I beg you tf> remember that while I am accounting for tbe 
absence at the South of free public schools, and while I am pointing oat 
some of the difficulties with which this question is environed and tryii 
to deduce an argument of national obligation in consequence of thi 
condition of affairs — I bog you to remember that the South did not 
trodnce slavery into this country. It does not lie at her door. 

Again, the South Las been impoverished. It was not a poorconnti 
before the war as to aggregate wealtli, but the wealth was in thehant 
of comparatively few ; and as the result of the war the South has beeo 
inipoverished. Will you just think of it for a moment, that yon may 
tabe in that fact f I am not speaking of the loss of four billions of prop- 
er^ on account of emancipation, but I wish you to consider that at the close 
of the war tbe negro himself jnissessed nothing but physical health and 
ftoedora, while among the white men banks were gone, insurance com- 
panies gone, all investments swept away, personal securities and nego- 
tiable notes valueless, labor disorganized, a new eivibzation inti'oduced, 
and what had been regarded as the basis of wealth of the population of 
ihii future was all buried in one profound Serbouian bog. Eeconstrnc- 
tion has not been easy ; and I will whisper into your ears a secret which 
you may not have beard, that many of those who were there to recon- 
struct were not angels or saints made perfect. To reconstruct the goV' 
erument, to put back the cars which had been thrown oft' tbe track, wi 
not by any means an easy work, but has required great courage, hero-: 
ism, and patience. 

I said a moment ago that the States of the South have put upon 
their statute books school systems. I think you would delude your- 
selves if you concluded that school systems because upon the statute 



I 



r 68 CIRCULARS OP INFORMATION FCta 19.15. 

books are Used or self opurative. Please recall what ray friend has 80 ' 
Willi Hpokeit of, that those of ns who have been fi-iendly to the estab- 
lishment of iiublie schools have not been numerically the majority of 
lilt; ))Oj)ulatioii of the Sonth ; that we have been waging a war against 
IiubllM and traditions and the convictions of years, and, what is worse 
Htill, atjiainat thiii inas» of unappreciative illiteracy which does iiotknow 
its wants, and against what Lord Casttereagh .styled the " ignorant im- 
patience of taxation." 

An increase of scliool revenues at the Sonth cannot reasonably be 
expected. Much as has been done, it is not prudent or safe to risk pnb- 
lic ofdiools npon heavier taxation. To establish and to snstain are two 
different things. Ton may introdnce and proclaim a constitution with- 
out j;lvin}{ it life. Probably there is no influence more potential on a 
people than the influence of the past. It is no easy matter to eradicate 
jiabitH, trailitions, and prejudices, the slow growth of centnries. It is 
ttiipromest foU.v not to take account of the past. The ideal is uot al- 
ways the practicable. France in 1793 adopted a democratic constitu- 
tion, but she foolishly forgot the centnries of monarchical and ecclesias- 
tical dospotiHui that lay behind. Our school systems are in antagonism 
to habitN and tra<litions, and to save them and to save the Bepublio the 
(}<>neriil (lovM'nniont should give immediate and adequate aid. The 
diHclinrge of an obligation belonging primarily to the States being im- 
podalblc, if universal education is to be secured at all it must be l)y 
nuLioiral aid, 

If I wisre Hpnaking before Congress or to congressmen, T believe I 
nmlil diMiion strata the constitutional potency of Congress to meet this 
<t»'ll iinil provide a remedy for this jieril. My distinguished and able 
fl'leiid at the lieivi of the Bureau of Education, among his other valuable 
laborti, hiiH ilomonstratcd in a conclusive argument the power of this 
tJiiVurnniont to render the national aid. The lawyers have a maxim 
that 'Hlie hal'ety of the republic is the supreme law." Things are done 
In a tlliu< of war which the Constitution does not in terms authorize. 
1 u extreiuit iind Imminent peril, powers unusual are assumed. The ques- 
Uiin is whnthur IIiIm Ucpublie is not in more peril to-day than it ever 
wnn IVuin annieM ami tiavtes arrayed in antagonism to it. 

The Nnw Vnrk Herald the other day had an outline map of the 
|Ti)lt(Ml states with the rivers all stained and blackened to represent 
the liiiiiidalion of the great PatUer of Waters. A map to represent 
thv luniidiitiitu of Ignorance would be more fearful and terrible than 
that uukp wiva i ami if (Congress can legislate and make an appropria- 
KMi fur the relii'f III* Iho ilrrtlllittoandthe sufi'ering, how much more can 
(.'onifi'i^iM luiikti an ii]i]ii'iiprliitlon to preserve this Kepublic and transmit 
U iuilm|uilit^d til lliiiM< who are io come after us f I said I would uot 
'itop to artiuti that iiuuntitutional ipiostion, and I shall not. I place it | 
Hiui|d,v ^lu thitt iild inn\im which no one can dispute, that ''the safety 
of tbii I'upiiblitt b tlu« Mnprenu- law." 




DEPARTMF.KT Of SUPEKIXTESDENCE. 59 ' 

Hopefnlly, saugniiiely. Joyously, I look forwiircl tn ami autioipatu the 
fature, and yet that man in a bold »i>oculiitor and a daring prophet who 
says that a repnblioaii government has been i-stablishert beyond the 
[H)8Sibilit;v~ ot failure or deatpiietioii. la tlie Republic in peril? I bop- ■ 
row the Incid and terse language oftbe paper to which I have referred I 
when I say that the life of this RepiiVilic is one ])ersistent, iucessanfcj 
«tniggle against iguoranue. This illiteracy is due in large measure, noH 
<;ntirely, to the uowroes, tiie colored peophs They are not culpable ioM 
it. of course; and I hold that the Government which hiwl power to liber^ 
ate them,taciti2enize tbem (if I may make a word), to enfranchise them,! 
has the power to ijnalify them for freedom anil citizenship. I quote the I 
language, and I rejoice to qaote the language, terse and truthful, of onei 
of the most distinguished men of this land, that "slavery is but hoi's 
abolished, emancipation is but half completed, while millions of freemei 
with votes in their hands are left without education." 

Illiteritcy ou the part of the black man is no worse than on the xiart 
of the whit« man. Illiteracy is illltoraey; an ignorant voter is a peril 
to the perpetuity and the prosperity of out free institutions, whether that 
ignorant voter be a white man or a black man. Forty-five per cent, of 
tbe voting population of the South is illiterate. Tliree- fourths of the 
power in Congress to make laws may be in the hands of this illiteracy; 
I mean, of course, three-tburths of a majority. Illiteracy of such a junl- 
titnde of white and black voters is a sUinding menace to free iiistltu- 
tious; is a present, pervasive, potential peril. Elections by such men 
are a faree, if not a tragedy. Men vote as machines, and not as intelU- 
^ot Americans. The voter is the pliant tool of the demagogue, whQ I 
bids lower at each succeeding election, appeals to biwer passions, au4.l 
att'empt^ more revolutionary, agrarian, communistic schemes. Whiskey 
and money are more inftneutial than patriotism and reason. Justice 
plighted faith, vested rights, immutable principles of truth and honoiu 
go down before the fiery breath of the passionate and eouscieneeles 
multitude. 

Universal suffrage necessitates universal education. Universal siU^:! 
frage is not a panacea of all national ills ; it is not always good goverii^ f 
ment. lu France it comported with Cesarean absolutism. Coupled \ 
vith a plebiscitum it was tbe williug ally of ofticial candidature and.4 
Napoleonic jierlifly. It is a degradation of the franchise to give iU 
wholesale into the hands of ignorance, superstition, and pauperisni,V 
Lord Sherburne calls such lowering "thti apotheosis of brute force,'!^ 
"the substitution of numbers for the decisions of intelligence audespaJ 
rience." 

Mp. Hawkins says this is a Republic. True, ami it was intended b 
be a representative Republic. A. representative is not a mere deputy,il 
a weather-cock, a blind automaton, to record the will and the passions 
of the multitude. He is to think for his constituents, to give them the 
benefit of intelligent patriotism, profound study of political economy. 



60 CIRCULARS OF INFORMATION FOR 1882. 

the Constitution, and statecraft. He is to enrich his min^l by observation, 
travel, study of history, and to train himself for his responsible duties. 
Ignorant suffrage reverses all this, and puts in public councils the weak, 
the vacillating, the corrupt. Fidelity to principle, courageous adher- 
ence to convictions, broad culture, ripe judgment, sage experience, will 
be of little worth, and the voice of the rabble becomes the interpreter 
of laws and contracts and the moulder of policy. 

I have before me, but will not read — commending, however, to your 
attention — what General Grant has said on this subject, what Presi- 
dent Hayes has said on this subject, what President Arthur has said on 
this subject; and I will read to you the words of President Garfield's 
inaugural address: 

All the constitutional power of the nation and of the States and all the volunteer 
forces of the people should be sammoued to meet this danger by the saving influence- 
of universal education. 

This aid should be given. It ought to be adequate aid. The peril is 
imininent; the necessity is present; the need of the people is urgent. 
The cancer grows worse and worse with the lapse of ea3h day. State 
systems should not be superseded. The General Government should 
act in cooperation with State authorities, and not adopt any plan or 
practice or method which will subordinate them. The aid furnished 
ought to be given for primary education, for public schools, except in 
so far as may be required to train teachers, and in my judgment the 
aid should be cooperative and stimulating. The principle of the Pea- 
body fund, by means of which the fund has multiplied its benefits four- 
fold, is to help those who help themselves. While the Government has. 
the right and is in duty bound to follow the appropriation, to see that 
the money is properly applied, it ought to stipulate that so much will 
be done provided that the State will do more, so that the States in a 
few years will execute unaided this imperative obligation of providing^ 
an education for all their citizens. 

Allow me to thank you for your patient attention and for the kind- 
ness with which you insisted at this late hour on my making these re- 
marks, necessarily incoherent because unprepared. 

The Department then adjourned, to meet in the same place at 10 
o'clock on the following morning. 

THIED SESSION— THUESDAY MOENIXG. 

Washington, March 23, 1882. 

The meeting was called to order at 10 A. M.,Mr. Stockwell in the chair,, 
and was opened by prayer by Eev. Sheldon Jackson, d. d. 

General Eaton rea4 telegrams regretting inability to attend the meet> 
ings from Hon. J. D. Pickett, State superintendent of public instruc- 
tion, Frankfort, Ky. ; W. T. Harris, LL. D., Concord, Mass.; and Hon. 

A. D. White, LL. D., president of Cornell University, Ithaca, i!^. Y.; to- 

b8 



DEPARTMENT OF SL'PERINTENDfiNCE. 

getlier with letters from Hon. L, S. Cornell, State suiierinteudent 
pablio iustrnction, Deuver, Colo. ; Hon. Jumes P. Slade, State superia- 
tendent of public iDBtructiou, SjmiigBBld, 111.; Hou. H. C. Bpeer, Stal 
saperiuteudeut of public iiiatrnutioii, Topeka, Kans. ; Hon. D. L, Kiehl 
Statu superintendent of public iuatrnctiou, St, Pan), Minn.; Hon, J; 
I A. Sniitli, State Buporiutoudunt of public education, Jackson, Miss.; 
Hou. J, W- Patterson, State superintendent of public iustruction, Cou- 
«ord, N. H. ; Hon, \eil (iilniour, State superintendent of public instruc- 
tion, Albany, Jf, T. ; Hou. E, H. Howuy, territorial superintendent of 
8 public instruction, Helena, Mont,; George B, Lane, superintendent of 
Mcbools, Omaba, Sebr. ; John E, Kimball, superintendent of schools, 
Newton, Mass.; Jobn Hancock, superintendent of schools, Dayton^ 
Ohio; William Simons, Huijerinteudeut of soliools.Cliarlestiia, S. C; J, 
W. linlkley, assistant 8U|ierintendent of schools, Bi-ooklyn, N. T.; B, 
M. Zetter, auperinteudeut of schools, Bibb County Ga. ; H. M, Pai*er,j 
BUperint«ndeiit of schools, Elyria, Ohio ; George W. Twitmyei-, snperii 
tendent of schools, Wntsontown, Pa.; .T, Fairbanks, school commii 
sinner of Greene County, Mo. ; J. M. Fish, superintendent of school) 
Little Kock, Ark.; John W. Taylor, superintendent of schools, Si 
Prancisco, Cal.; N. A, Calkins, vice president of the department of 8| 
perintendence. New York; President E, E, White, Purdue Univeraityi 
Lafayette, lud.; J, P. Wickershara, LL, D., ex-State superintendent of 
pnblioinstructiou, Lancaster, Pa. ; Prof.W. fl. Payne, Ann Arbor, Mich.: 
T. W. Bickuell, LL. D,, Boston, Mass,; and E, J, James, ph. d., Nor- 
mal, 111. 

Mr. Sheldon read a menioriiil in rcyard to tlie hitc Bernant Malloi 
of Geort^n, 

Kev. Sheldon Jackson, d. d., was then introduced, who spoke 



THE NEGLECT OP EDUCATION I 



Of ] 

li.: 
or-^^^J 

I 



Mr. Premident and Friends op Education i So little is known 
concerniu;r Alaska, the latest acquired and least known section of our 
conntry, that 1 am sure you will welcome a few general remarks cou- J 
coming the country as a prelude to the subject of the education of itE^J 
people. 



To say thiit Alaska contains 530,107 square miles gives no adequate j 
OODoeptiou of its great size. That impression is better secured by a j 
series of lelative comparisons. 

For instance, from extreme north to south is 1,400 miles in an aic J 
line, or as far as from Maine to Florida; and from its eastern bouudaij) 
to the end of the Aleutian Islands, 2,200 miles in an air line, or as fa^] 
as from Washington to California. 

The island of Attn, at the end of the Aleutian chain, is as far west'1 



62 CIUCDLAKS OF INFORMATION FOR 198-:. 

of Snu FraiiciacD as Maine is east ; bo ttiat betireeu tlie estreme eastern 
and western sectioua Sau Praiictsco is the great oontral city. 

Or tako another basis of comparison : Alaska is as large as all tbe 
New England and Middle States, together with Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, 
Wisconsin, Michigan, Keiitixcliy. anil Tennessee combined, or as large 
as all the United States east of the Mississippi River and north of 
Georgia and the (3aroliDaa, or nearly one-sixth of the entire area of the 
United States. It has a coast line of 25,000 miles, or two and a half 
times more than the Atlantic aud Pacific coast lines of the romainiug 
portion of the United States. The coast of Alaska if extended in a 
straight line wonld belt the globe. Commencing at the north shore of 
Dixon Inlet, in latitude 54° 40', the coast sweeps in a long regolar carve 
north and west to the entrance of Prince William's Sonnd, a distance of 
550 miles; thence 725 miles sonth iind west to Uuimak Pass, at the end 
of the Aliaska Peninsula. From this pass the Aleutian chain of islands 
sweep 1,075 miles in a long curve almost to Asia, the dividing line be- 
tween Kuasia and the United States being the meridian of 193° west 
longitude. N'orth of Unimak Pass the coast forms a zigzag line to 
Point Barrow, on the Arctic Ocean, and thence south of east to tJie 
boundary. 

Alalska is the great island region of the United States, having off its 
southeastern coast a large archipelago. The 732 miles of latitude from 
Pnget Sonnd to the head of Lynn Channel contain a remarkable stretch 
of inland ocean navigation, noted for its bold shores, deep water, nu- 
merous channels, innumerable bays and harbors, abundance of fuel and 
fresh water, aud shelter from the swells of the ocean. 

The southern portionof this great archipelago is in Washington Terri- 
tory, the central portion iu British Columbia, and the ui.irtheru portion in 
Alaska. The portion iu Aiaski has been naraed the Alexander Archi- 
i pelago. It is about 300 miles north and south and 7 J rniies wide, and is 
variously estimated to contain from 1,000 to 10,000 sB|)arat« islands. 
The aggregate area of these islands is 14,li2 square miles. 

Sis hundred miles to the westward is the Kadiak group, aggregating 
0,676 miles; then the Shumagin group, containing 1,031 square miles; 
and the Aleutian chain, with au area of 0,391 square miles. Tothenorth- 
ward is the Pribyloff gi-oup (seal islands), containing, with the other 
islands iu Bering Sea, 3,903 square miles. 

The total area of the islands of Alaska is 31,205 square miles, which 
I would make a State as large as the great State of Maine. 

It is the region of the highest mountain peaks in tlie United States. 
The Coast Range of California and the Rocky Mountain Kange of Colo- 
rado and Montana unite in Alaska to form the Aliaskan Mountains, 
This range, instead of continuing northward to the Arctic Ocean, aa 
the old atlases represent, turns to the south westward, extends through 
and forms the Aliaska Peninsula, and then gradually sinks into the 
Pacific Ocean, leaving only the highest peaks visible above the water- 



DEPARTMENT OF SFPERINTENDENCE. 

Tiiese i^eaks foriu the Aleutian chain of islauds. Tlie islands decrea 
in aize, heiglit, aud ii-equency as the mountain range sinks lower int^ 
IJniinak, the moat eastern of the chain, has Ihatmagnif 
icent volcano Shishaldin, 9,000 feet high ; then Unalashka, 5,091 feetfl 
m-xt Atka, 4,852 feet; then Kyska, 3,700 feet; aud Attn, the most m 
ern of the group, only 3,084 ftiet high. 

In the Atiaskau Bange are the highest peaks in the United States; 
Mount St. Ellas, 19,500 feet high ; Monut dook, 16,000 feet; Mount CrU- 
Ion, 15,900; Mount Fairweather, 15,500, and numerous others. In ad- 
dition to the Aliaskan Range, are the Shaktolik and Ulukuk Hills, near 
Norton Sound; the Yukon and Bomanzoff Hills, north of the Yukon 
Kiver; the Kaiyuh and Nowikakat Mountains, east and aonth of the 
river, and a low range of hills bordering the Arctic coast. 

Alaska contains the great volcanic system of the United State^jl 
Grewiugk enumerates 61 volcanoes, mainly on the Aliaska Peniusul J 
and Aleutian Islands, that have been active since the settlement bjj 
Enropeans. 

It is the great glacier region. From Bute Inlet to Unimak Pa^ 
nearly every deep gulch has its glacier, some of which are vastly greate 
and grander than any glacier of the Alps. 

On Lynn Channel is a glacier computed to be 1,300 feet thick at thfl 
-'snout" or lower projection. In one of the gulches of Mount Faii^ 
weather is a glacier that extends fifty miles to the sea, where it endsJ 
abruptly in a perpendicular ice wall 300 tfeet high and eight miles broad. 1 
Thirty -five miles above Wrangell, on the Stikine Biver, between two 
monntfiius 3,000 feet high, is an immense glacier forty miles long aud at 
the base four to five miles across, and \'ariously estimated from 500 to 
1,000 feet high or deep. 

Alaska abounds iu hot and mineral springs. According to DalU 
there are large ones south of Sitka ; also ou Perenosua Bay, on Amagf 
Island, and Port MoUer. On Unimak Island is a lake of suli)lmr. 'Seal 
the volcano Pogrumuoi are hot marshes. Boiliug springs are Ibund a 
the islands Akhnn, Atka, Unimak, Adakh, Sitignak, and Kanagtl^ 
These latter have for ages been used by the natives for cooking food. * 
In the crater of Goreloi is a vast boiling, steaming mineral spring eigh t- 
een miles in circumference. A lake strongly imiiregnated with nitre 
is fonnil on Beaver Island. The thermal springs on the island of Una- g 
laslika hold sulphur iu solution. 

The northern portion of the Territory, within the Arctic Circle, 
famous for its beautiful auroral displays. 

Alaska contains one of the largest rivers of the United States. TheJ 
river Taken is 70 miles wide across its five mouths and intervening'! 
deltas. At some points along its lower course one bank cannot I 
seen from the other. For the first thousand miles it is from one to fir^ 
miles wide, and iu some places, including islands, it is 20 miles fro 



91 



64 



ClItCL'LAKS OF INFOKMATION FOR 



main bank to main bauk. Navigable for 1,20U mileB, it is uompateil to bu 

2,000 uiiles long.' 

Tbe other principal rivwrs of the Territory are the Stiokine, 250 miles 
1 loug; theChilkat; the Copper; the Fire; thelf^uabergak, alargei^hallow 
I etream 150 mileet loug ; the KooBkovime, next to the Yukon iu size, und 
I between 500 and 600 miles long: the Tananah, 250 miles (this river 

is half a mile wide at its mouth, with a very sti-oiig current) ; theJTowi- 
' kakat, 112 miles; and the Porcupine. The last three are trlbataries 

of the Yukon. The only river of any size flowing into the Arctic € 

is the Colville, for a loug time supposed to be the outlet of the 1 






Alaska is rich in material resonreea. 
The chief value of Alaska to Bnssia was its woiiderfnl fur supplies ; 
Iftnd wLen the Territory was sold to the United States the most prOiu- 
fiuent attraction was the seal fur flsbcries on tlie PribylofE group of isl- 
ff Unds, in Bering Sea. To protect these valuable interests the Govern- 
I meat leased these islands for twenty years tu an incorporated company 
tkuowu OB the "Alaska Commercial Company." They pay the Govern- i 

ment an annual rental of $55,000 for the islands and a roj'alty of 

(#262,500 a year ou the 100,000 seal skins allowed by law to be taken. 

Thus these two little islands — St. Paul, 13 miles loug and 6 wide, 

and St. George, 10 miles long and Owide — furnish nearly all the steal 

skins used in the markets of the world, and have paid a revenue into 

r the United States Treasury fi'om 1871 to 1832 of over three milliou dol- 

■lars ; and yet it is thought by some that Alaska was a worthless pur- 

t^hase. 

R The Alaska Company lias a number of trailing stations iu additlou tu 
I its seal fii^eries. 

[ The nest most valuable fur is that of the sea otter, Iu 1880 these 
I «kins were i|aoIed at from $20 to $200 each. 

I The principal land fur bearing animals are the several varieties of the 
\fox, the mink, beaver, marten, lynx, otter, bear, aud wolverine. Thei* 
r lire also the skins of tijc whistler, reindeer, mountain goat and sheep, 

' ermiue, marmot, muskrat, aud wolf. 
V. The waters and coast of Alaska abound in lish. Kvery naval or scieu- 

' Siuce making tllia luldreaa 1 have recuivuit a copy of a lettor wriCteli by Robwlr 
Cumpliell, of tlie Uudaon's Bay Fur Cooijiau;, toHoji.M. C. Butler, Unitpd SC(tt«a8«a- 
L ate, iu which Mr. Campbell repreaeots the Yukun uud its triliatary PkIIj as oavign- 
L Ijle at certaiu seasons nearly J.OOO miles. .Mr. Campbuli says: "Iu the spring of 19|0 , 
■ ■ -t • I cTnesedtheuiouutaiDaauil uarueon the heLulwaterauf umiigiiJIIuc-iit BtnwiUi 
IwhicUluameU the 'P«lly River.' * * * la 1860 I reoeivisd ponnissicm to pxpjow , 
I the Felly down to it« mouth, ' * ' Id dne time reathhig Fort Yukon, • • • 
r setting the quetttlon at rest that the Felly and Yukuu wui'o oiiu and the aatue rfvor. 
f ' • " Tlu«e kinds of salmon ascend the river us far as Pelly Bauks, which is abonl 
■fhrite Ihouaand miles from aea-coaat. " • • tfliea in fall frethel Jioa< in tiimmer gUaut- 
[ era could tuamd to wilhin'iO miliki of Pelly Sankn." S^S^^i 



M B^m^^^S^^^BSKr 


^y 


I HHHIUB 
r m W^m 


m 


lilB 


Wt^§ 


I , 


1 



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■ I 



■i: !•'.• 



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. 1 

I 



DKPARTME\T OF SUPERINTENDENCE. ^ 65 

tificexpedition, from the time that Captain Cook in circumnavigating the 
globe visited those waters to the present time, has not failed to report 
the great quantities of salmon, cod, herring, halibut, mullet, ulikon, 
and other fish of commerce. 

Cod are found from the Seal Islands southward, but are most abun- 
dant on the banks in the Kadiak and Aleutian Archipelagoes. Three 
San Francisco firms engaged in the business caught 3,000 tons during 
1879 on the banks off the Shumagin Islands. 

Alaska can also supply the world with salmon, herring, and halibut 
of the best quality. Salmon canneries have been established near Sitka, 
at Klawak, and at Kasa-an Bay. 

Alaska is the great reserve lumber region of the United States. It 
is only a question of a few years when the forests of Maine, Michigan, 
Wisconsin, Minnesota, and even Puget Sound will be denuded of their 
best timber. Then the country will appreciate those thousands of 
square miles of yellow cedar, white spruce, hemlock, and balsam fir that 
densely cover the southeastern section of Alaska. 

The indications are that Alaska is very rich in minerals. Coal is 
found all along the coast. The most valuable of the known deposits 
are found in Cook's Inlet. Coal has also been taken and used by the 
United States revenue marine steamer Corwin from the Arctic coast. 

Petroleum is found fioating on a lake near the Bay of Katmai. It is 
quite odorless, and in its crude state has been used by the Eussians for 
lubricating machinery. Large deposits have also been found on Copper 
River. \ 

Specimens of pure copper have been found in many places. It is so 
abundant on Copper River as to give its name to that stream. At Kasa- 
an Bay a valuable mine of bronze copper is being worked by an English 
company. Lead in small quantities is found on Whale Bay, south of 
Sitka, and also in Kadiak Island. 

Iron is common to many sections of the territory. Graphite is found 
at several places. A fine quality of marble exists in inexhaustible 
quantities. A fine quality of bismuth is found on Vostovia Mountain. 
Kaoline, fire clay, and gypsum are also found. Sulphur exists in large 
quantities. Amethysts, zeolites, garnets, agates, caruelians, and fos- 
sil ivory are found. Indeed, the people of the United States have no 
conception of the mineral wealth of Alaska. 

Gold is found in a number of places and supposed to exist in many 
others. Up the Stikine River, through Alaska, over on the headwaters 
of Deese River, are the Cassiar mines of British Columbia, where from 
2,000 to 3,000 miners have spent several summers in placer mining. The 
annual product of these mines has been from $800,000 to $1,000,000. 

During 1881 gold mines, both placer and quartz, were opened on Gas- 
tineaux Channel, opposite Douglass Island, Alaska, where the American 
town of Juneau was built The yield for the first summer was over 
$30,000. 

93 
5 E 



66 CIRCULARS OF INFORMATION FOR 1882. 



CLIMATE. 



Id a country as extended as Alaska, with its large rolling plains, wide 
valleys, and high mountains, there is necessarily a wide diversity of 
climate. In a general way it may be said that inland Alaska has an 
arctic winter and a tropical summer. At Fort Yukoi^ the thermometer 
often rises above lOO^ in summer and indicates from 50° to 70^ below 
zero in winter. At Nulato, on the Yukon Eiver, the fall of snow during 
the winter averages 8 feet and frequently reaches 12 feet. Along the 
immense southern coast and islands the climate is moist and warm. 

The greatest cold recorded on the island of Unalashka, by a Greek 
priest, during a period of five years, was zero of Fahrenheit; extremest 
heat for the same time was 77o. The average for five years at 7 A. m. 
was 37^; 1 P. m., 400; and 9 p. M., 36^. The average of weather for 
seven years was 53 all clear days, 1,263 half clear, and 1^235 all cloudy. 
It is very much the climate of Northwestern Scotland. 

At St. Paul Harbor, Kadiak Island, the mean annual summer tem- 
perature is 54<^ 'and winter 29^; the coldest month, February, with the 
thermometer at 27^; and the warmest, July and August, with a mean 
t mperature of 57°, the extremes being from (>o to 75°. The climate is 
that of Southern Sweden and Norway. The annual rainfall is about 73 
inches. 

At Sitka, where, with the exception of a few short gaps, a record of 
the thermometer has been kept for 45 years, it has been found that the 
mean spring temperature was 41.2°; summer, 54.6°^ autumn, 44.9°; 
winter, 32.50; and for the entire year, 43.3o. The greatest degree of 
heat recorded in these 45 years was 87.8°, and of cold 4° below zero. 
The thermometer has recorded below zero during only four of the 45 
years, and above 80° during only seven of those years. The mean an- 
nual temperature for 45 years has ranged from 41.3° to 46.8°, a dif- 
ference of but 5.50. The annual rainfall was 81 inches. 

During a period of 43 years there has been an average of 200 rainy 
or snowy days a year, the most favorable year being 1833, with 82 rainy 
and 32 snowy days, and the most unfavorable 1856, with 258 rainy and 
27 snowy days. 

From these facts, taken from the Alaska Coast Pilot, Appendix 1, Me- 
teorology, A. D. 1880, the surprising fact is brought to light that the 
winter climate of Southeastern Alaska for 45 years past has been the 
average winter climate of Kentucky and West Virginia and the aver- 
age summer climate of Minnesota. 

This mild climate of Southern Alaska is due to the warm Japan cur- 
rent of the Pacific, the Kuro-Siwo, which first strikes the American 
continent at the Queen Charlotte Islands, in latitude 60^ north. Here 
the stream divides, one portion going northward and westward along 
the coast of Alaska and the other southward along the coast of British 
Columbia, Washington, Oregon, and California, giving them their mild 

winter climate. 
94 



DEPARTMENT Oi' SUPERINTENDENCE. 

Tlie former stream, flowing northward, has been named "the Aliisk^ 
enrrenti," and gives the gi-eat soiithera coast of Alaska a winter cliuiat( 

mild aH that of one-third uf the United Stat>(!s. 

The physical coniiguration of Alaska uaturally divides it into thre 
diBtricts : the Yukon, extending from the. Alaskan range of mountains U 
tiie Arctic Ocean; the Aleutian, embracing the Aliaaka Peninsula a 
islands west of the one hundred and ftfiy-fifth degree of longitude ; an^ 
the Sitkau, including S(>ntheast«rn Alaska. 

Concerning the Ynkon di.'^trict but little is known, escept of the coaefl 
and along the Ynkon River. 

The Coast Pilot, a publication of the ITuited States Coast Survey^ 
npresents the country between Korton Sound and the Arctiu Ocean tl 
^avMt moorland, whose level is only interrupted by iiromontories an4 
UoIaCed mountains, with numenjus lakes, bogs, and peat-betls. Whur4 
ever drainage existo, the ground is covered with a laxuriant herbage 
uid produces the rarest as well as moat beautifiil plants. The aspect 
of Bome of these spots is very gay. Many flowers are large, their colors 
bright, and thongh whit« and yellow predominate, other tints are not 
uncommon. Summer sets in most rapidly in May, and the landscape is 
qniekly overspreail with a lively green," The extreme heat and constant 
Buushine cause it to produce rank vegetation. The commercial valni 
of this scutiun is maitdy in iti^ fnrs. 

The Aleutian district is largely monntainous and of volcanic form* 
tioii. Between the mountains and the sea are, however, many natural 
prairies, with a rich sod of vegetable mould and clay, covered with pew 
uinial wild grasses. 

This district, except at the eastera end, is without timber larger thai 
s shmb. The pruicipal resource at present is in the wonderful flsheriefti 
off its coast. 

The Sitkan district is mountainous in the extreme, and the larger^ 
portion covered with dense forests. The great wealth of this district Uo^ 
in its lumber, tish, and minerals. Many garden vegetables m 
with success. 

With regard to Alaska, Mr. William H. Dall, of the Smithsonian In- 
stitution, writes, after a trip to Europe : " I come back convinced, from 

trsonal inspection, that Alaska is a far better country than much of 
lat Britain and Noiway, or even part of Prussia." 



■JOT* 

t 



The routes of travel to Alaska are not very numerous. A steamer 
carrying the United States mail between Port Townsend, Washington 
Territory, and Fort WrangeU and Sitka, Alaska, makes a monthly trip. 

Two small steamers run at irregular intervals during the summed 
from Victoria, B. C, to Fort Wrangell, calling en route at the severs 
trading posts on the coast of British Columbia. 

The country west of Sitka, including the AJentian Islands and t 



68 CIRCULARS OF INFORMATION FOR 18S2. 

great interior and main section of the territory, is reached from San 
Francisco; so that a citizen of Oregon, in order to reach Kadiak, Una- 
lashka, the seal islands, St. Michael, or the numerous villages on the 
Yukon River, is under the necessity of going by the way of San Fran- 
cisco. From this latter place there is frequent communication with 
Western Alaska, and once a year with the central and northern sec- 
tions. 

POPULATION. 

The census of 1880' gives the following enumeration : Yukon division, 
7,000; interior division, 2,226 ; Kuskokwim, 3,654; Bristol Bay, 4,340; 
Kadiak, 2,606; Kenai,984; Belko vsky, 669 ; Unalashka, 1,392; islands 
in Bering Sea, 1,290 ; Prince William Sound, 500, and Southeastern 
Alaska, 6,725; making 31,386, of whom about 18,000 are supposed to 
be Eskimo or Innuit. In addition to the above are about 1,500 whites 
in Southeastern Alaska, mainly traders and miners. 

The Aleutian population and a portion of the Innuits were so far 
brought under the influence of the Russians that they became civilized, 
and are living after European methods. Among these the Greek 
Church of Eussia claims from 8,000 to 9,000 members. 

The remaining Innuit and Indian population ar^ largely in their orig- 
inal condition. 

EDUCATION UNDER THE RUSSIAN GOVERNMENT. 

Information concerning Eussian schools in Alaska is very meagre, 
the available source to the English reader being the admirable work 
of William H. Dall, Alaska and its Eesources, pages 351 and 352. 
The first European settlers were Eussians, attracted by the valuable 
furs and skins. Many of these married Indian women and raised fam- 
ilies of mixed blood or Creoles. As these children increased and grew 
up there began to be, on the part of some of the fathers, a felt need for 
schools. Accordingly, Gregory Sh61ikoff, governor of the colony and 
founder of the Eussian- American Fur Company, established a school 
at Kadiak, about the year 1792, which was ta ught by the trader. In 
1803 it reported 30 pupils, who were studying arithmetic, navigation, 
and four mechanical trades. In 1805 the imperial chamberlain and 
commissioner, Count Nikolai Eesdnoff, organized a school at Kadiak, 
under the name of the ^' House of Benevolence of the Empress Maria,'' 
in which were taught the Eussian language, arithmetic, and the Greek 
religion. This school was reorganized in 1820. 

About the same time a school was opened at Sitka, with a very pre- 
carious existence until 1820, when it came under the charge of a naval 
officer, who kept a good school for thirteen years. In 1833 this schopl 
came under the direction of Etolin, who still further increased its effi- 
ciency. Etolin was a Creole who, by the force of ability and merit, 
raised himself to the highest position in the country, that of chief di- 
rector of the Fur Company and governor of the colony. He was a Lu- 
96 



DEPARTMENT OF SUI^EKINTENDENCE. 

tiieraD, the patron of schools auii churches. While governor he erecl 
a Protestant church at Sitka, and presented it with a small pipe-orgi 
Fiiich 16 still in nse. 

[n 1825, Veniaminoff, who afterwards became the metropolite of Mos- 
cow, established a, school for natives and Creoles at Uualashka. In 1860 
it reported 50 boys and 43 girls. This school is still in existence, but 
with a small and irregnlar attendance. It is supported at the expense 
of tJia Alaska Commercial Company. For the nse of the schools, Venia- 
minoff prepared an alphabet and grammar in the Aleutian language. 
Ill 1837 a school was established for girls, children of the employes 
the Fur Company, and orphans. In 1842 it had 42 pupils, and 22 
1862 when it disbanded. 

In 1840 there were in the colonies 8 schools, 4 for boys and 4 for girls. 
Besides the colonial school at Sitka was one for orphan boys and sons 
of workmen and subaltern employes of the Far Company, in which were 
taught reading, writing, arithmetic, grammar, mechanical trades, and 
religion. The most proficient of the pupils at the age of 17 were ad- 
vanced to the colonial school and prepared for the navy or priesthood. 
The number of boarders was limited to 60. The school was in charge 
of Lieutenant Commander Prince MaxutofT, assistant governor of the 
colony. In 1847 the attendance was 62; iu 1849, 39; and in 1861, 27. 

In 1839 a girls' school of a similar character was established and num- 
ber of boarders limited to 40. The course of study comprised Russian 
language, reading, writing, arithmetic, household work, sewing, and 
religion. In 1818 the school numbered 32; in 1849,39; and in 1861,26. 
Id 1S4I a theological school was established at Sitka, which in 1845 
was advanced to the grade of a seminary. In 1848 it reported 30 board- 
ers, 12 day pupils and 12 Creoles being educated in Russia. Of those 
in Bussia, 2 were in training for pilots, 1 as merchant, I gunsmith, 1 
fur dealer, 1 tailor, and 1 cobbler. In 1849 the attendance was reported 
28, with 11 others in liussia. 

In 1859 and 1860 the common schools at Sitka were remodelled 
order to secure greater efflciency. The course of study consisted oJ 
Russian, Slavonian, an{i English languages, arithmetic, hibtory, geog. 
r»phy, book-keeping, geometry, trigonometry, navigation, astronomy, 
and religion. A knowledge of Hussiau, reading, writing, and the four 
rules of arithmetic was required for admission. A pupil failing to pass 
examination two years in succession was dropped. The course est<-nded 
over five years. Extra compensation was allowed teachers who secured 
the best results. The faculty consisted of a principal, who was a grad- 
nate of the School of Commercial Navigation ; a free i)iIot, who t aughi 
navigation ; an employ^ of the company, who taught bookkeeping ; 
commercial branches ; one priest and two licentiates, graduates of 
Uuivereity of St. Pi-tersburg. 
The corresponding school for girls was in charge of a lady gnidui 
? highi'st ffiimlc schools in Russia, with two male teacht 



m 

<ut i 

Lse I 

ia- J 



70 CIRCULARS OF IXFORMATIOX FOR 1SS2. 

This made five schools at Sitka: two for the children of the lower 
class, two for the higher class, and one seminary. 

On Spruce Island a Russian monk kept a school for thirty consecutive 
years for giving instruction in the rudimentary arts and agricultural 
industries. 

In 1860 a school was reported on Amlia Island, with 30 in attendance. 
All these schools have been discontinued. A school-house was erected 
on the Lower Yukon, but never used. The result of these schools, es- 
pecially among the Aleuts, is thus summed up by Hon. W. S. Dodge, 
of Sitka : 

Nearly all of them read and write. Arouud their hojies, in their .churches and 
schools, are seen many if not all the concomitants of ordinary American homes. Many 
among them are highly educated, even in the classics. The administration of the 
Fur Company often reposed great confidence in them. One of their best physicians 
was an Aleutian ; one of their best navigators was an Aleutian ; their best traders and 
accountants were Aleutians. 

EDUCATION SINCE THE PURCHASE. 

In 1867 Alaska, with its inhabitants, became a part of the United 
States. The schools sustained by the Fur Company, representing the 
Eussiau government, were disbanded. It was reasonable, however, to 
suppose that 30,000 people would be much better off and have better 
schools under American than under Russian rule. It was but reasonable 
to expect that the United States, that bases its continued existence upon 
the intelligence of its citizens and glories in its common school system, 
would replace the disbanded Russian schools with those of a higher 
grade and improved methods; that a people who, through their State 
systems, practically furnish a free education to all, and through their 
General Government appropriate thousands of dollars annually for In- 
dian education and civilization, would not neglect to extend school privi- 
leges to the natives of their latest acquired territory; for whatever may 
have been the views held as to the expediency of the purchase, all will 
admit that, having acquired it, the Government is bound to care for it. 

But these reasonable and just expectations have not been realized. 
The Government, with two exceptions that will hereafter be mentioned, 
has done nothing. The schools once taught by the Russian priests have 
one after another died, until only two remain — those of Unalashka and 
Belkovsky — and, according to the census of 1880, the average attend- 
ance at these is less than ten of both sexes. They are also irregularly 
kept. If only one or two appear at school time, the session is adjourned 
until more arrive, or even to the next day. ]So English is taught and 
only the rudiments of Russian. The children of those who learned to 
i(*ad and write in the Russian schools, deprived of schools by the neg- 
lect of the Government,, are left to grow up in ignorance, until, among 
the 7,000 or 8,000 members of the Graeco-Russian Church, the census re- 
ports less than 400 able to read or write in the Aleutian, Kadiak, or Rus- 
sian languages. Outside of the Aleuts and a few at Sitka, among the 

98 



DEPARTMENT OF SL'PKRINTENDENCE, 

Mimoa aud IndiaD popniation none can read or write except tliose thad 

ilitring tile past four years have attended tLe schools established by thf 

Presbyterian Church in Southeastern Alaska. 

For ten years after the pnrchaae the entire population, with the ex- 
ception of the two Bmall Russian scliools previously mentioned and two 
^iiiall onea on the Seal Islands, were left without any educational oppor- 
timilies whatever. 

Id 1S77 my attention was earnestly called to this state of things, aai 
since that time T have made three visits t« Southeastern Alaska, and! 
secured for tlie Board 'of Home Missions of the Presbyterian Church 
tlie establishment of fivi- schools in Southeastern Alaska. The move- 
ment, however, commenced from without, and was the result of missiou 
scIjooIs among the neighboring tribes in British Columbia. 

Fort Wrangell schools. — In the spring of 1S76 nine Tsimpsbeau lo^ 
ilians came up the coast from Fort Simpson, British Columbia, aucl^ 
tiiok a contract for cutting wood for the military post then at Port 
Wraiigell, Alaska. On the Sabbath, as was their custom, they gathered 
fur worship. They found a warm friend in Capt. S. P. Jocelyn, of the 
Twenty-flrst United States Infantry, who was then in command at that 
station. He assisted them in procuring a room for Sabbath worship 
and proteoted them from interruptions. He also supplied them with 
*orae small hymn-booka sent to the fort by the American Tract Society. 
At the close of tht^ir contract, in the fall, as they were about returning 
to Fort Simpson, Olab, who had been the leader aiiiong these Indians, 
was persuaded to remain and open a school. Such was the anxiety of) 
tlie people to learn that his school was attended by CI) to TO adults be; 
aides children. " These peo|>le,'' said a sailor, " are crazy to leani 
Going up the beach last night, I overheard an Indian girl spelling* 
words of one and two syllables. Upon looking into the house, I foundEi 
that, unable to procure a school book, she was learning from a scrap o 
newspaper that she had picked up." 

Touched by the eagerness of this people to learn, a soldier at the post 
wrote to Major-Geueral Howard, then in command of that military dis- 
trict, asking if some society could not be interested to send tbem a com- 
jietent teacher. The letter was placed in my Lands iu May, 1877, and 
immediately published in the Chicago Tribune, Soon after it was pub- 
liehetl in the leiuling Presbyterian newspapers of the country, with a . 
call for a teacher. 

To gain a better nnderstanding of this movement of the natives for a 
Hchmd, I luatle them a visit in August, 1877. In passing through Port- ^ 
land I found a teacher who had had large experience in mission work and 
Iiidian schools — Mrs. A. R. McFarland — whom I took with me. Going 
ashore upon our arrival, August 10, I heai-d the ringing of the bell for 
the afternoon school, and went directly to the school-house. 

About twenty ])U[>ils were in attendance, mostly young Indian womoDi 
8 were present ; also, a mother and her three litl 



I 



^72 CISCULARS OF INFOKMATION FOR IS82. 

dren. Ah the women took their seats on the rough plaiik benches eacb one 
bowed her head in silent prayer, seeking divine help in her studies. 
Soon a thoughtful Indian man of about twenty-five years of age canie 
in and took his seat behind the rnde desk. The familiar bymn " What 
a friend we have in Jesus" was sung in English ; a prayer followed in 
the Chinook jargon, which is the common language of the various trlbesi 
on this coast, closing with the repetition, in concert, of the Lord's Prayer 
ID English. After lessons were studied and recited, the sohuol arose, 
Bung the long-metre doxology, aud recited in concert the benediction. 
Then the teacher said, "Good afternoon, my pupils," to which eamethe 
kindly response, "Good afternoon, teacher." 

The school was in full operation, but under great difficulties. They 
greatly needed maps and charts ; they were also in great need of a 
school-house. At the time of my visit they were renting a dance-ball 
for a school-room. Upon the return of the miners for tbe winter, the 
hall had to be given up, and tbe school was held in a dilapidated log 
house. I found that their stock of b<K>k8 inventoried as follows : tbur 
small Bibles, four hymn books, three primers, thirteen first readers, and 
one wall chart. 

Mrs. McFarland was at once placed in charge of the school, with Glal> 
as an assistant and Mrs. Sarah Dickinson, a Christian Tongass Indian, 
as interjireter. Early in tbe history of her school, Mrs. McFarland found 
a difficulty in holding her girl pupils. According to the customs of their 
people, they were frequently hired or sold by their own mothers to white 
traders, miners, and others for base purposes. And the brighter the 
girl the greater her danger; fur, as she improved in the school, she began 
to dress more neatly, comb her hair, and keep her person more cleanly ; 
the dull, stolid cast of countenance gave way to tbe light of intelligence, 
and she began to be more al tractive, and consequently in greater demand. 
To save these girls necessitated the establishment of a "home "into 
which tbey could be gathered, and thus taken out from under the con 
trol of their mothers. Consequently a home was added t« the school 
in October, 1878, and kept in what was formerly tbe hospital building 
of the military post. 

In July, 1879, I made my second tiip to Alaska, iu company with 
Hev. Dr. Henry Kendall, senior secretary of the PresViyterian Board of 
Home Missions. We took out with us Miss Maggie J. Dunbar, to tAke 
charge of the school, while Mrs. McFarland gave her whole time Ui the 
"home," which has since been named the McFarland Home, and has 
now 30 iumat«8, representing thirteen different tribes. 

The average attendance of day pupils during the season of 1880-'81 
was 00. This is now so largely increased that two additional teachers 
have been appointed. During tbe season of 1879 I provided for the 
erection of a large two-story builtling, with basement and attic, iO by 
60 feet, for the use of the lioine and school, which has since been cem- 
p'rti'd ivt an expense of $7,(J(K). In August, 1878, Bev. 8. Hall Young 




e 



( 






will lilllil 


II 
1 



DEPARTMENT OF' SUPERINTENDENCE. 



was sent out to take charge of the mission church at Fort Wraugell 
hi Jaoe, 1879, Rev. W. H. B. Corliea and family reached Wrangell 
Folunteer teachers. Mra. Corlies at once opened a school ou the beai 
tor the childreD of the visiting Indians, of whom there are soi 
many a^ a thonsand. These come from alt parts of the coast for the 
pnTjioses of trade. They see what is being done by the teachers and 
carry away the leaven with them. This school on the beach has eserted 
a very wide influence ami created a demand for schools among several 
of the tribes. During the long winter evenings a night school has beeu 
carried on for the adnlts by Messrs. Young and Corlies. 

Sitka aehooU.—la the winter of 1877-78 I secored the appointmei 
of B«v. Johu<T. Brady for Sitka, and iu April, 1878, a school was opened 
by Mr. Brady and Miss Fannie E, Kellogg, In December, through a 
oombination of circumstances, it was discontinued. In the spring of 
1880 Miss OlindaAustin was sent out from New York City, ami reopened 
the school April 5 iu one of the rooms of the guard-house, with I0;f 
children present. This number increased to 130. Then some of the 
parents applied for admission, but could not be received, as the room 
would not hold any more. Miss Austin received the support and sub- 
stantial assistance of Captain Beardslee, then in command of the United 
States ship Jamestown, who proved himself a warm friend of the enter- 
prise. In July the school was moved to the old hospital building. Iu 
November some of the boys applied to the teacher for permission to live 
at the school-house. At home there was so much drinking, talking, and 
carousing that they could not study. The teacher said she bad no 
accommodations, bedding, or foo<l for them. But they were so much iu 
earnest that they said they would provide tor themselves. Upon 
leceiviug permission, seven Indian boys, thirteen and fourteen years of 
age, bringing a blanket each and a piece of tin for a looking-glass, 
T(dnntsrily left their homes and took up their abode in a vacant roijm 
of one of the Government buildings. Thus commenced the boai-diag 
department of the Sitka school. Soon other boys joined them. Oner 
was a boy who had been taken out and shot as a witch, but was res- : 
cued by the officers of the Jamestown and placed in the school. Cajit. 
Henry C41ass, who succeeded Captain Beardslee in command of the 
Jamestown, from the first, with his otHeers, took a deep interest in the 
school. As ho has bad opportunity he secured boys from <Ii3tant tribes 
and plaeed them in the school, until there are 21 boys in the boarding . 
department. 

In February, 1881, Captain (ilass established a rule compelling the 
attendance of the Indian children upon the day school, which was a 
move in the right direction and has worked admirably. He first caused 
the Indian village to be cleanwi up, ditches dug around each house for 
drainage, and the houses whitewashed. These sanitary regulations have 
a]rea4ly greatly lessened the sickness and death rate among them. He 
i^^u.smI thcliiiusi'K tobe nninbei'ed, and an iiccnrate census taken of 






ral 



■74 



CIKCUI,AES OF INFORMATION' FOR IM'i. 



i 

^^^r the inmates, adults, aud cbildreu. Ho tlien cuufind a lubel to be made at 
^^H tin for each child, i^hicli was tied around the neck of the child, with his 
^^B ^^^^^ or her nunilier and the uiimber of 

^^B ^^" ""N,^ the house on it, so that if ii child 

^^H ^^ ^V was found on the street (luring 

WM ^ \^ school hours the Indian policeman 

" X i ■ _ — \ was under orders to take the nmn- 

bcrs on the labels and report them, 
or the teacher each day would re- 
port that such aumbers from such 
houses were absent that day. The 
following morning the head Indian 
of the honse to which the absentee 
belouged was .siiiuiuoned to ap- 
pear and au.swer for the absence 
of the child. If the child was wil- 
fully absent, the bead man was 
fined or imprisoned. A few casea 
of fine were sufficient. As soon 
as they found the captain in ear- 
all in school. This ran the average attendance 
up to 230 and 250, one day reaching, with iidults, 271'. In April Mr. 
Alonao E. Austin was associated with his daughter in the school and 
Mrs. Austin was appointed matron. A ftiller account of these schools 
at Port Wraiigell and at Sitka, together with the Indian schools in 
British Oolnmbia, is to be found in a book published by Dodd, Mead 
& Co., 755 Broadway, New York City : Alaska, and Missions on the 
North Pacific Coast. 

RiMsinn sehool at Sitka. — In the fall of 1879, through a private efiort 
made by Captain Beardslee, the officers of the United States ship 
Jamestown, and the citizens of Sitka, a school was opened by Alonzo 
E. Austin for the white and Eussian children, with an average attend- 
ance of 45 to 55. When, in the spring of 1880, Mr. Austin went into 
the Indian school, he was succeeded by hie second daughter, who left 
in August to teach an Indian school among the Hoonyahs. Miss Aus- 
tin was sncceeded by Mrs. Zechard, wiio is now in charge. 

rfflfcoo.— During the summer of 1880, Rev. and Mrs. W. H. R. Corliea 
carried on a temporary school among the Takoos. 

Haines. — In the summer of 1880, Mrs. Sarah Dickinson, a Christian 
Tongass Indian, was sent to open a school at the store of the North- 
west Trading Company, among the Chilkats, at the head of Lynn Chan- 
nel. During the past summer I erected at that point a residence for 
the teachers and provided a school building, leaving Rev. E. S. Wil- 
lard, of Illinois, in charge, with a flourishing school of 65 pupils. 

Boyrf. — During the past summer 1 erected a school-house and real- 
dence for the teachers in the priucipal village of the Hoonya^ 




I 
I 

I 



raljii^I 



DKI-ARIMKNT OK M'l'KRINTENnKXCK. 

Cross Stmnd, and left Mr. and Mrs. V\'ult«r B, Styles, of New Torig 
t'ity, in charge of the school. TIib attendance is from 70 to 80. 

Hgdah Tribe. — At Jackson, uear thesoatberu end of Prince of Walesl 
Island, the chiet ju'eBeuted nie with a good native house, which I al- 
lered over and repaired so that it will auswer very well for a school 
rliis winter. Next season I hope to build there also. The teacher is _ 
Mr. James E, Ghuiunau, of Ohio. 

In all these schools the English language is taught. The, above flvM^ 
si'b«o)s in the Alexaudria Archipelago, with the small Russian schoolti^ 
:il: Tnalashka and Belkovsky, and the two scbools of the Alaska Com- 
mercial f 'ompaoy, on the Seal Islauds, comprise all the schools in Alaska, 
Iwiviug a population of fully 20,000 without any educational advantages 
wliatevcr. 

As Alaska is the only section of the United States where goveraj 
menial or local aid has not been furnished for schools, it is but justioi 
That the friends of education should press Congress for aid. 

Theu, as American citizens and educators, feeling ashamed that anjrfl 
Miction of onr land should be worse off educationally than when niidei 
tliu control of Russia, having fkiled to continue the schools that for 
many yeai-s were sustained by the Russian government, we should 
jiiiu in judoising the request of the National Bureau of Education, 
irhich was approved by the honorable Secretary of tlie Interior and on 
Ilie 15th of February transmitted to Congress in a special message by 
the President, asking for an appropriation of $50,000 for education is 
Alaska. 

At the r-onclusion of these remarks, Mr, Sheldon ofiered the follow- 
ing preamble and resolution ; which were adopted unanimously : 

WberaoH rlie uatlvi^ population of Alaskii have aliiiie ot all af ctioiis of our co 
'•luutry biJi^D ovurloiikcd in educnlioual pniviBiuns; aDd 

Wlierena the Pntsiilent taoa sent to Coiigruas a, apcoial nieaaa){e aslfiug for au t 
priatioii of ^,DDO for education in Aluska. to be tliaburHeil througli the NnlJoua) 
Biipr:an of KdnoatioD ; Therefoi'e, 

ifM0fi>ed, TbaltbiH AeituviHtioii eanii^Htly reqiieBta from the Committees of Eduoi 
tioii anil Lal'or of the SeiiuTu ami House of E("iireHonlativKfl a favorable oocHidorfitioi 
"f ilie abovr reqiient. 

The text of the second ]»aper presented, by W. W. Clodding, : 
Suiierintcndent of the Government Flospitalfor the Insane, is as follows t^ 



A WORD Willi TKAfrHlC 



MY STANDPOINT. 



Oenti.emen : You take the mind young and fresh in life's morning ^ 
and send it, aspiring to become godlike, on its upward flight; I receive 
it torn and bleeding as it comes fluttering down; is there anything i» 
common between onr studies that 1 should ask you to pause for fifterai..- 
minuter in the import^ant labors of your session to listen to met 
donbt it, unless you consider it in the light of a fifteen -minutes recese 
How shall I teach Ihe teachers! The germ of insanity lies hackof tlu 



I 



I 



76 CIRCULARS 01' INFORMATION FOR 1882. 

education, and 1 question if tlie inesorable law in iiAtui-e which we know 
as that of "the survival of the titttist" will not, io spite of auy or all 
educatioQ, send a eoiisiderable par cent, uf weak brains to moulder and 
become moss-grown within asylum walls. This seeuis but a reasonable 
deduction from the facta within my own observation; but then I re 
fleet that the sources of life iind reason arc not in our bands; I know 
how a little more or a little less of that subtle something,' we call com 
moil sense makes the difference between the wise man and the fool ; 
remembering, too, how a sage physician, by a sudden flash of sunlight 
thrown from a mirror upon an idiot boy in a darkened room, awakened 
a gleam of intelligence, disclosing a mind where it had hitherto been 
supposed to have do existence, I realize what teaching in the hands of 
a master may accomplish; then, standing among the melancholy ruins 
where my studies bring me, I think that perhaps a different education 
would hare spared a father's anguish for his only son, could have saved 
this demented girl 

To bave lieeu annie nian'H delight, 

might have still kept eloquent that drivelling tongue; and so I am 
here. 

From my standpoint the tirst mistake that we make in the education 
of the young is that we do not pay sufficient attention to the tempera 
ment of the child ; we are not all cast in the same mould, even if we do 
bear the same image. This lethargic youth, whose meutiil integuments 
are like the wrappings of a rhinoceros, needs all our goading — a brain 
fever is hardly possible to such an organization; but this girl, with clear 
ekiD, spare neck, intellectual forehead, and speaking eyes, whose les- 
Bons are always perfect, whose answer anticipates almost your very 
thought, whose nervous susceptibility quivers through every fibre if 
she fancies your reproof of the above mentioned blockhead is meant 
for her — it is not study out of school that she requires, but the gym- 
nasium, the rest of long vacations in the summer fields, with nights of 
reiwse unbroken by auy dreams of school prizes, I know ofttimes your 
bright scholar is such an oasis in a desert of abounding dulness that 
there is a strong temptation t^i the teacher to give him fi-ee rein; hence 
it often occurs that your valedictorian is never heard of afterwards. 
It is staying power that you want mure than brilliancy of mnid. 

Are we not asking too much of our children 1 Lay tlie foundations 
broad — the broader the better — in physical health, and let the mental 
growth be natural without forcing. I like the open-air summer 
schools; even in our climate we should be gainers with more of the oat- 
door life of the old Greeks ; I wish we had agaiu tlie forum and the 
grove of Academia; in such schools our cliildren would gain in vigor to 
more thaii counterbalance their loss in the exact methods of Inxik 
teaching. Yes; the advance in all kinds of knowledge is something 
wonili'ri'iil. They tell nie it is necessary that my sun mIhhiIiI liegin at 
104 



llEfAItTMENT Of .SrPKRlXTKNDENCE. 

the age of seven to fit for college, if he is to enter Harvard ; it is trm 
lie begins to shed his milk teeth at that time, but be will only see 
Harvard the outside of the buildings, for, college or no college, I do m 
mtend to make him the last of my race, You say, and probably truly, 
Ihat the stndeut now nuiet know more when he enters college than I 
did when I graduated, and, I may add, than I ever have since. 
ffbat do yoQ acc^miplish by crowdiug all this accumulation of wisdoi 
into one little braiul! Why, you have increased the cerebration, yi 
have intensifled the nervous action, but you have not enlarged tl 
craniam, or, if you have, the chances are you have done so at the ex- 
pense of the physical vigor. 

But you Bay by our education we have moved forward the limit of the 
individual life. For thirty centuries, and I kuow not for how i 
longer, the Psalmist's three score years and ten have been the ine 
ble horizon of earthly existence; we cannot change tliis, but we do 
practically extend it by enlarging its vista; our life keeps quick step to 
the wonderful march of science ; we ride with the storm, we write with 
the lightning, we imint with the sunbeam; everything is by the instan- 
taneous process. As Poe said of the singer Matibran, "She crowded 
ages into hours; she left the world at twenty-nine, having existed her 
thousands of years." I grant yon, if this were the final age, nothing 
could be more desirable; if this was the closing scene and no cominj 
time, no children tfl inherit our exhausted vitality and to call us an; 
thing but blessed. 

In a bookstore, the other day, the first volume that met my eye was 
entitled A New Form of Nervous Disease. New form? Why their 
name is legion. A treatise on the neurotic disorders now makes one 
of the largest works in a physician's library. It is an age spendthrift 
alike in brain and in material. Of the heat and power that have been 
slowly accumulated in the coal measures through the eons of geologic 
time, which would last with careful consumption for myriad generations, 
we take 2 per cent, for our purpose, sending the remaining 98 per cent. 
to be dissipated in wainung iutorstellar space. To the charge of 
VHStefol expenditure, modem science answers that future geueratione 
V8Q make available the energy of the tides and keep warm by electri- 
city stored up in reservoirs whose feasibility is even now being demon- 
strated. They will need it, for our ruthless destruction of the forests 
will not even leave them the luxury of a wood fire. Yes, power is 
convertible into everything short of mind, but that 1 doubt. The 
"Promethean heat" once exhausted, the vital energy of a race da- 
stroyed, science, that tells us so much, knows of no way to restore it, am 
history points us only to the Huns and the Goths. 

The danger to onr civilization to-day lies in the direction of nervous 
exhaustion. I know that those who believe that we are just on the dawn 
of an intellectual and a material millenium will smile at this, and they 
will tell yon that never in the history of the world was there a highei 



ler 

Pg ■ 

as I 



'4 

n 
I 



78 CIRCULARS OF INt'OKMATION I'OR 1882. 

tnanliond, or a time wheD the individual inAii was so grandly cared for and 
ba<l siieh possibilities as at praaeut. Ttie world, iu its successive epoulii^ 
of civilization, lia.s always ehowu a (jiilminalioii of priisperity aad an in- 
tellecttiulbloHi^iimln^ just before its decline. Witness tbe Aii^stine em 
and tbat age of gold of Spanisli conijuest and renown. This is the age 
of brain ; the iiiarvellons discoveries of science ai-e utilized to inteusify 
our struggle for wealth, for vantage ground, to make all the univcrsf. 
tribntary to the little spau of rmr human life. The luxuries of the last 
generation have become the necessities of this ; wealth is only relativ**, 
and power never britiii;8 content ; tliere is a cthistant inurement of strain, 
and woe to the brain that goes halt or maimed into that battle. 

Do yoa Sity this is the mere vagary of an alarmist, the Oassandra-likc 
cry that finds no believers ! Ah, but while it was in the infinite decrees 
that Cassandra should not be believed in that fated <;ity, none the luss 
did the divine afflatus eompel her to prophesy, none the less were hex 
forebodings true. Do not understand me to mean that our school edu. 
cation is responsible for all this ; no, not even for any considerable part 
of wliat we ai-e jileased to call the spirit of the times ; but what I do say 
is that it is the duty of the teiniher, instead of drifting with the tide 
and accepting the tendencies of the !igeii« something inevitable and not 
to be overcome, to stand up iu the dignity of his great office, and of his 
manhood, and call a halt to this on-ruahiug madness, and to so instruct 
the coming generation, the youths who shall takeour places, tliosewho 
" shall be kings hereafter," as to leiwl them into a " more excellent way.** 
In truth, we are sponsors for the future as well as possessors of the 
present, and are morally bound to transmit this earth, which ia ours to- 
day, and the vigor of this human life, which for a span we hold, anim- 
paired to those who in the endless procession shall come after us, as the 
miller may use the wat«r in the river to turn his wheel and pass it on 
to another, but has no right to divert the channel or poisi>n thestreaiu. 

This brings me to what I have to say on heredity, a subject which eon- 
oerns yon as e4lucator8 in the broadest sense, uot of children alone but 
of communities. .lust now, for the purposes of a certain trial, the news- 
papers, thosii blind Samsons in the cau.se of popular education, have 
given out that there is no such thing as hereditary disease, that the 
most eminent exports have so stated. Well, what my brethren, who 
stand away up at the head of the class did say, trying to be very exact 
in the use of language, feeling that they were under oath, was, that the 
ti^indenoy to insanity was hereditary, not the disease itself. " The ro80 
by any other name," — but in commou parlance we say, and proiMirly ^y, 
hereditary disease; and where a great truth is involved we cannot af- 
fortl to be misled by any subtleties of exact definition. And here I take 
ocuasion tn say, iu answer to this newspaper dictum, that the hereditary 
character of insanity is aperfectly well established fact in medical science, 
and is recogniaed as snoli by the profession, and that; acting as the re- 
mote cause, hereditary predisposition has prohably more to do with the 



DEPARTMENT OF SUPERINTENDENCE. 79 

development of insanity to-day than all the assigned immediate causes 
put together. "Visiting the iniquities of the fathers upon the children 
unto the third and fourth generation'' is not a mere metaphor of ori- 
ental language, it is a fact ; it was true three thousand years ago, it i& 
true now. We say this child does not learn because he has no head,, 
but the real trouble is the father was acephalous before him; what a 
thousand pities such a father ever had a sou; the fool-killer was an im- 
portant agent in the twilight dawn of civilization which we miss at its^ 
noonday. From Lycurgus to Christianity is an immense advance ; he 
cared for the race and forgot the individual; but may we not be in dan- 
ger of forgetting the race entirely in our care for the individual ? Christ- 
ianity came down from Heaven with its divine mission to the poor and 
the outcast, and its promise is that " the meek shall inherit the earth,'^ 
but should we not draw the line at defectives, and stop the intermar- 
riage of the insane f 

Impress upon those who look to you for instruction and guidance that^ 
while in their tender care and sympathy for these unfortunates they will 
do well to imitate the divine compassion, they shall, as they value the 
integrity of the race, in their pity stop short of marriage. It is time that 
the laws which govern heredity were taught in schools other than medi- 
cal. Sins against the physical no less than those involving the moral 
nature are far reaching in their eflfects. Ah, what a moral teacher vice 
becomes when we see its last stages in a hospital ! Sometimes I think 
I will open a school, for though I am but little of a preacher and less of 
a teacher, my hospital could furnish a Kindergarten with some striking 
object lessons. Contemplating the misery resulting from hereditary dis- 
ease alone, looking on these pitiable wrecks where vice and degeneracy ^ 
insanity and scrofula, have left their blight on faces more eloquent of the 
truth of the inheritance of sin and the wages that it brings than any poor 
words of mine can be, I wish I could take the young men just breaking 
ground for the planting of their wild oats, and let these silent teachers 
speak to them! We sow the wind; "ah, what shall the harvest heV^ 

No, you do not need to remind me how easily, when its passions are 
involved, the world forgets the lessons of its philosophy, and as a physi- 
cian I do not expect to recover Love from his blindness, but all the more 
I recognize how far up in "the glorious procession of saints and mar- 
tyrs'' some souls will hereafter stand whose lives like their devotions 
have been single, whose silent purpose has been that the inherited taint 
of their blood should die out from the world with them. And we have 
seen in them only single men and women, who being so much occupied 
in doing good had found no time " to marry or be given in marriage," and 
80 left no children to inherit their many virtues. But perhaps the Great 
Teacher saw those lives otherwise, and had such in mind when he said 
for our instruction the words that we are inclined to hurry over as we 
read, "And some have made themselves eunuchs for the kingdom of 



1n*^ 



80 CIRCULARS OF INFORMATION FOR 18S2. 

heaven's sake.'' Too much already the race is poisoned with hereditary 
taint^ yes, as we use language, there is suoh a thing as inherited dis- 
ease; it is a sin to conceal it; to deny it is a crime. 

The lifteen miuates, for which I thank you, are over. This is indeed a 
weird paper for teachers, as much out of place with its detention as 
that of the Ancient Mariner to the wedding guest; but if you censure 
it from the educational standpoint my apology must be that I have 
erred with the old Athenian teacher who exhibited a drunken man to 
his children as a temperance lecture. 

Dr. John M. Gregory was next introduced, and read the following 
paper: 

SOME FUNDAMENTAL INQUIRIES OONOBRNINa THE COMMON SCHOOL 

STUDIES. 

Are the studies of our common schools wisely chosen t Are the seven 
branches universally taught in our common schools, and which consti- 
tute the sole work of many thousands of these, such as an intelligent 
parent or teacher would select out of the wide range of knowledge for 
the whole school learning of many millions of our peoplef In other 
words, are spelling, reading, writing, arithmetic, geography, and gram- 
mar, and occasionally the history of the United States, worthy to fill 
the entire time of tens of thousands of schools and to absorb the whole 
school life of a large majority of our children? Questions of greater 
apparent dignity may come before us, but none of wider practical im- 
port. They may seem to some to have a hint of radicalism, or even of 
revolution in them, but that is not to alarm us. Human civilization 
has advanced by the abandonment of old errors and superstitions as 
well as by the discovery of new truths. 

It is time to question our educational theories and processes to the 
bottom. If they are true and right, we want the proofs; it they are 
false and wrong in any respect or degree, we ought to know it. While 
the National Congress, oppressed with a new sense of the immense dif- 
ficulties and dangers which hang over some portions of the Eepublic, 
are discussing with a breadth of view never before exhibited projects 
of national aid to education, the professional educators of the country, 
the men whose lifelong familiarity with educational affairs has made 
them experts, may well be asked to reexamine every question which 
may concern the work to be done or can practically affect results. And, 
certainly, no question more nearly concerns that work than the work 
itself, the education to be given. Why ought these seven studies to 
be taught, these more than others, and especially these in place of all 
others? Who selected these studies at the outset? And, if wisely 
chosen then, do they remain the best to-day? 

Many and serious complaints have been made, and sometimes inhigl^ 
quarters, against the meagre products of our common school system, and 

108 



DEPARTMENT OK Sri'ERINTENDENCE, 8tJ 

though much of this complaint is prejndiced and nnreasouahle, lie jsfl 
a bold man who darea say that the school system ia accoinplishiitg aU( 
it ought aud all we may riglitftilly expect. What if a mistake lies a 
the threshold, aud the work undertaken is not precisely the work waj 
need to have doneT If itur li70,000 teachers have been set at the wrongs 
work or the right work in a wrong way, is not a partial failure uertaii^ 
and anavoidable? 

No one will claim that it is a matter of indifference what studies shal^ 
be taught aud learned in the people's schools ; and it is as little to h 
cltiiined that the extent to which each study shall be carried is a ina&j 
t6r of no importance, since any one study may be expaude<l into tlu 
labor of a lifetime. 

THK GHAttOKS AGAlKar THB COMMON SCHOOL STtlUlES. 

It is of the seven studies as they are taught in the common schoolal 
of the country tlistrict that I wish to speak. In the gradetl schools oq 
the more populous districts and iu the villages and cities, much chang«J 
lias been made for the better ; and to these much of my criticism wiUV 
not apply. 

There are three distinct counts in the indictment which may bol 
brought against these studies ; 

First. They foand their way into the schools by accident, and with-fl 
ont the intelligent choice of a person competent to select them. 

Second. Having gained their admissiou tp the school, they have, fromfl 
tbe undue multiplication of text books, monopolized the school life ort 
our children, to the exclusion of other equally important studies. 

Third. They give no adequate return for the time spent upon them, J 



The proof of our first proposition can be furnished by many of oaf J 
older citizens, who recollect the school of their childhoo<l. Indeed, butT^ 
little proof is ne 1 i f 11 ave never heard it claimed that these stnd-l 
ies were duly s 1 t 1 t of the wide range of human knowledge aHM 
embracing th ng th mo t impoitant for children to know or as fur- " 
nishing the m t 1 x s most suitable for childhood. The most 

that van be sa d th fa or is that they have such a degree of utility 
that, having ga n I -Mim on, they have kept their place, and may now 
properly claim to occupy some share of attention in the school work. 
Certainly no one in the careliil and intelligent review will pronouucAl 
them the only stntlies needed by the mass of the people. 

But, though not intended for proof, a brief historical statement of the 1 
way in which these studies entered the school will allow us to criticisa| 
then with more freedora. 



!< COMMUM BCHO01.a. 

The earUest coriiinon schools, or schools for the common people, had J 
for their chief end instruction in the art of reading, iu order to enable ' 



A 



82 CIRCULARS OF INFtiEMATION FOR BSi. 

the peot>le toreatl tlie Bilile and the i)aiiliii book. Siicli were Luther's 
BchooU aad the pitrish schools of Ku^laod. (>i'tUogra[ihy came ndlh 
reiuliiip; as a necessary Htf|» in learmtifj to read. These two studies 
may, therefore, be comited as having had a legitimate introduction, 
since the schools were organised in their behalf. Against tliese oar 
ftrst charge does not especially lie. I^or against writing, which came 
in as an adjunct of reading, with similar practical uses. These three, 
indeed, are not sciences, but simply literary arts, which give the mas- 
tery over written language. As preliminary to all book learning, they 
are properly in the schools. To read one's lesson is necessary iu order 
to learn it. 

Our second and third counts lie against them with full force, Read- 
ing and spelling occupy an undue share of time in the common schools, 
a proportion of time wholly unnecessary to the proper learning of 
them; and they affoixi no adequate return in the knowledge or culture 
given for the time so occupied. The readiug lessons are nut stopped 
when the pupil has become able to read (as Luther would have had 
him) his Bible and hymn-book, nor when he can read (as we would 
have him) his text books and the newspaper besides. They continue 
to go on year after year, tilliug up in the common school fully one-third 
of the scant time of the teacher and using up a nearly equal proportion 
of each child's school days. Long series of readers, made up of scraps 
of literature, follow each other in seemingly endless procession. Spell- 
jng keeps its place beside its sister art, and through the years the pupil 
passes along the coluuina of selected words vainly attempting to fix in 
mind the characters of which they are composed by dint of repeating 
the names of those characters. 

And after all this enormous waste of time and money, the number of 
pupils who learn to peruse with easy and critical intelligence the col- 
8 of the next newspaper or the books they have occasion to consult, 
or, going beyond the mere silent perusal, are able to render the thoughts 
of the writer into clear articulation, with proper inflections and emphasis, 
is very small, and, small as it is, is made up chiefly of those who did not 
learn by reading in school, but from the private perusal of books fur- 
nished them at home or through the Sunday schools. 

Hlielling, the adjunct of reeling and writing, shows a still poorer rec- 
ord and result. The common school pupils are few who in later years 
can spell correctly even the words in common use, or can write, save id 
scrawls almost illegible. 

It is but fair to state that the reading Ifssons may be and are some- 
times made, by intelligent and skiU'nl teachers, the medium of much 
valuable information and culture. Under such teachers, the reading 
lesson teaches history, geography, grammar, language, literature, sci- 
ence, morals, and a hundred things besides. The reading class becomes 
tk school in itself, a school of universal knowledge; but it would he un- 
reasonable and nnsafe to expect the ordinary common school teacher to 



DEPAliTMKST OP SUPERINTENDENCE. 

do such work as this. Oiily the most gifted and those of ample readind 
and wide schol.irehip can thus make one branch of learning an opei 
<loor to all others. 



If now, from the studies which relate to the mother tongue, and whicl 
we liave agreed have their rightful place in the common schools of the 
people, we pass to those claiming attention as knowledges, the question 
»8 to their value and rightfulness of uhoioe would seem more pertinent. 
Let us take, first, the most universally studied and most appreciated of 
the remaining studies, arithmetic. This now holds so high a place in 
the public esteem that many will be surprised to learn that within the 
memory of living men arithmetic waa not allowed to be taught in some 
common schools of New England. It is true, as we learn from Governor 
Winthrop's Journal, that "divers free schools were erected, as at Eox- 
bnry and at Boston, where they made an order to allow fifty pounds to 
the master, and an house and thirty pounds to an usher, who should 
aJso teach to rciid and write and cipher." Ciphering to the extent of 
the four rules seemed needful to tbeui, but it was far from being a com- 
mon study in the common schools tdl more than a hundred years later. 
A writer in Barnard's Americau Journal of Education relates that the 
officers in some districts allowed evening schools to be established for 
tt'achiug arithmetic, but refused it admission among the day school 
studies. At a still later day, and within the memory of many of us, it 
was studied for the main part only by boys aiid young men. Many of 
the gii'ls neglected it entirely or learned only the four simple rules. It 
mode its way to favor from the feeling that it was in some way connected 
with our business affiiirs and would help men to make and save money. 
No one thought of establishing any comparison between this simple art 
of numbering and other fields of knowledge, either to ascertain its value 
in the information it gave or in the disciitline it afforded, or to determine 
how much time it should have. 

I do not need to pause here to prove how erroneous or exaggerated 
the ideas of ita value now so widely prevalent. These will sufficient];^ 
appe.iir in our future discussion. 



Englifih grammar came still later itjto the common school course, and 
(or a long time held ouly a narrow space in that course as a study for 
the more mature and advanced pupils. In the outset it waa introduced 
by some occasional teacher, who, having spent a term or two at the 
availemy or at college, had learned Latin grammar or that strange Eng- 
littli grammar borrowed almost bodily from the Latin, and who felt atn- 
(titiuiis to show his learning, or, perhaps, benevolently concluded to or. 
tenil it to his uhler and brighter pupils. From an occasional study, 
became, in time, a regular one, and was extended from the few 
Arst attempted its mastery to nearly the whole body of the childrei 



<i^TI 




CIRCULARS OF IXF'ORMATION FOR 188-2. 

' Til* idea of its uaefuliiess to teacli correct speech was iii after years 
' tltoiigbt of and made a reason for retaiuiiig the stndy in the schools. 



Very many are now living who cau remember tlie first intniductioii 
of geography into the circle of our common school studies. 1 recall 
now a certain small but thick octavo volume, with a single map of the 
world folded in opposite the title page, which bore the name Morse's 
Geography. It was occasionally brought to the winter school by the 
big boys and girls, and when they had exhausted the reading lessons 
of the American Preceptor, the Columbian Orator, and the old Third 
Part, they resorted to this geography as a reading book. The poor 
map was spi^edily disposed of as an unnecessary incumbrance, and 
the descriptions of the botindaries, characteristics, productions, &c.r 
of the several countries were read as interesting facts. Occasionally 
classes would be formed to learn and recite lessons from these map- 
less geogi'apbies, till at lengtti some bookmaker, seeing the chance of 
ntrodncing a new text book, provided us with geographies fitted up 
with maps and furnished with innnmerable map questions, sufficient 
to occupy our time for several years. The study became common, aud 
( ranks among tlie universal requirements of our common schools. 
Surely no one can claim that the intelligence of school boards, or of 
wise parents, or of anxious and far seeing teachers selected this from 
the round of human knowledge and accomplished its introduction on the 
ground of its superior utUity, either as a knowledge or as an esei-cise 
of the mind. Entering by accident, it owes its continuance to the en- 
terprise of bookmakers and book publishers, Such is the simple ll 
tory of the origin of our common school studies. 



pi e Iria- g 



From some articles ou "the schools of sixty years ago" in Barnard' 
American Journal of Education, volume 13, we extract tlie teatiniony 
ooncerning the early schools of New England given by some well known 
citizens and educators. NoaU Webster writes: "No geography was 
studied before the publication of Dr. Morse's small books on thatsub- 
I ject about the year 1786 or 1787." "Before the Revolution and for somn 
time afterwards, no slates were used in the common schools; all writing 
aud the operations in arithmetic were ou paper. The teacher wrote the 
copies and gave the snms in arithmetic, few or none of the pupils having 
any books as a guide.'^ "No English grammar was generally taught 
in common schools when I was young." Dr. Webster says the books 
commonly used in the schools in those days were the Bible, the Psalter, 
and the spelling book. 

Dr. Heraaii Humphrey, president of Amherst College, wrote iu regard 
to the common schools in his childhood: " The bi'anches taught were 
reading, spelling and writing. Grammar was hardly taught at all in 



DEPARTMEKT OF SUPERINTENDENCE. 

any of tliem, and tli.it little was confined almost wholly to committing 
and reciting the rules. Arithmetic was hardly tanght at all in the day 
sohools. Aa a snbatitate there were some evening schools in most of 
the districts." Hon. Joseph T. Buckingham wrote in his recollections 
of the common schools of his time: " Beading, spelling, and a little writ- 
ing were all that was taught." Ho says a more enterprising t«achei;^ 
at length came and tanght some arithmetic. 

A, Branson Alcott, in an article on the schools of his time, America 
Jonrual of Education, 1866, says : " Until within a few years no stndlet 
have been permitted in the day school but spelling, reading, and writ 
ing. Arithmetic was taught by a few instructors one or two evenings 
in a week. But in spite of a most determined opposition arithmetic is 
now permitted iu the day school, and a few pupils study geography," 
Much more such testimony might be quoted from the same and other 
sonrces ; but this is sufficient to confirm my statements as t.o the origin 
or introduction of these studies. 

It may be claimed that a general recognition and feeling of their ii 
portance has been at the bottom of the general nse of these studies 
Certainly their a^lvocates have used uo little eloquence and ingenuity in 
their attempts to urge upon pupils and parents their great importance 
and the very valuable results to be secured by these studies. We shall 
see further on whether these arguments have been founded on facta 
and have proved good iu use. 



Our second charge that these studies have monopolized the time 
snfficiently eWdcnt and is the more aggravated by the large iucrei 
«f school time thus monopolized. Within the past twenty-five yeara 
the average school term of oiir rural districts has increased from five 
OP six school quarters to as many years. It was, perhaps, no wonder 
that the mastery of the few reading books and of the more simple parts 
of arithmetic should have occupied the three or four scattered terms 
spent in school. But with the increase of wealth, and the multiplica- 
tion of schools, and the higher public appreciation of education, the 
school terms increased, till now many children, beginning at five or 
six years of age, attend both summer and winter sessions five or six 
years and then during the winter sessions for as many more. The school 
life has been increased to fully five times its former length, and with 
tiiia increase has come, not an increase in the numbex of studies, but in 
the number of text books. Where in former times we had a single text 
book, we have now a series, and the series is lengthened out by additions 
both to its upper and lower ends, until it is ready to cover the entire 
time of the child's stay at school. Thus, arithmetic is presented first 
in a little book half filled with pictures of objects to be counted, added, 
and subtracted. There are added to these primary arithmetics, mental 
arithmetics, practical arithmetics, grammar school arithmetics, high 



•igin^^l 

■im^H 
lies^^H 
tyin I 

xncB 

shall I 

fact^^^H 

aeij^^H 
-eas^^^^ 
reara I 



4 



■M 



86 CIRCULARS OF INFORMATION FOR 1882. 

E school aritlimetics, and philnsopical aritbmetius, fariiisliiug appIicatiou» 
of numbers to everything on the earth, in the heavens above, and in 
the Dueans that surronod us. Rules are multiplied upon rulea, new and 

I cuuniug jii-oce&Bea are iuveut«d to secui'e the same result, until euongb 
. provided to occupy the mind of the avorage student from childhood 

[ to ripe years. Certainly very lew of the stit dents ever succeed in com- 

[ pleting the books. 

In grammai' the history is the same: grammarin primer, grammar in 
twelve mo's, grammar in octavo, grammars of diagrams b> teach little 
children the mysterios of speech, and grammais full of great philological 
discussions. The apparent aim of the authors has been to meet the 
child with grammar on his firut eiiti'y into the school and not to leave 
him destitute of a grammar to study till his hist day in school. What 
shall we say of the geographies, extending from the picture primer 
through the long drawn series to the huge high school volume and the 
great treatise of physical geography T The pupil is required to travel 
in fancy, and with unaided imagination, over the whole broad earth, and 

I to learn tbenamesandlocationsof towns, rivers, bays, capes, and islands 

I as endless as they are insignificant. Scai'cely any attemjit is made, 
and certainlj' no attempt is availing, to give any definite notion or any 
interesting knowledge of the numberless places learned. They are seen 
I little ink spots, sprinkled over the gaudy colored map, with hard, 
nnpronouuceable names, and overloading the memory to such aii extetit 
that it breaks down under the burden and empties the whole mass of 
its acquisitions into the dead sea of oblivion. 

If now we go to the school room and ask for the introduction there of 

t some studies which may teach the child the knowledge of himself, of 
the body he inhabits, of the world he lives in, of the myria<i forms of 

[ life, of being around him, we are met instantly with the cry "We have 

' more studies already than we can teach." How can the child be ex- 
pected to learn the place or use of his lungs, his stomach, or his liver 
till he has finished geography, has learned the last town in Siberia, and 
all the rivers iu Patagonia^ Would you have him study the plants- 
from which he derives his daily bread, which beautify bis home, which 
shelter him, which furnish him with the material of his arts, you are 
met with the unanswerable assertion " Why, he has not yet completed 

Ibis arithmetic!" Thus these studies have come to stretch their lessons 
over the school life and to exclude all chunw* of other studies in the 
common schools. 
THE TmiD CWAIIGE. 
i 



1 

I 

I 
1 

t 

I 



I advance now to the third count in this indictment of the common 

I school studies. It is ciiarged that they give no adequate return for the 
time that is consumed in their study. Having crept into the schools at 
nobody's behest, except that of some casual teacher, or perchance of 
the bookmaker, and having continued to expand till they have filled 
tiie expanding school life of our American children, thoy leave 



DEPARTMKNT OF SUPKRINTENDE.VCE. 

cLildreii to go forth at last from tbeir schooling with returns so meagre, 
with knowledge so imperfect, so destitute of power ami skill, that one 
may almost raise the question whether the fruitnge of school life repay 
this expensiveueiM of cultivation. The charge here made iuvolves thi 
distinct parts: 

First. Those studies do not make iutelligeut men and women, 
are not capable of producing intelligence. In this respect they are pov- 
erty stricken. (Jould all the people learn these studies of the common 
schools and learu nothing more, we should never become an intelligent 
natioD. A stndy in order to proiluce intelligence must furnish tbod for 
thoaglit ; it must offer ideas which stimulate and excite mental inquiry, 
and it mnstgive kuowledge which throws light upon ordinary questiODS 
of life. It must hold such vital connection with our every day doings 
and' our every day observations that it shall be called constantly into 
exercise to explain the phenomena, to solve the problems, and to throw 
light upon the duties which daily meet us. 



How many such fruitful and stimulative ideas does the arithmetic 
give! How often is it made the topic of conversation by friends as 
they meet to pass a-«ocial hour! What mind is set in motion by it 
aod attracted into fields of fruitful thinking T What light doesitflaah 
upon «nr common experience, and how far does it serve to solve the 
great questions of moral, social, and political duty which each soul en- 
counters in its progress through lifef 

Indeed, arithmetic, as it is ordiuarily studied and taught in cotinl 
schools, is little moie than the guessing of so mauy riddles. The stud; 
of the rules and of the principles is pursued only far enough to enable' 
the pupil to perform the examples under them. He studies the rule 
as a direction for the ]»6rformauce of a set of sums, not as a law of 
numbers. And having learned the trick of solution under any given 
rale, the pupil hastens to cipher out all the other examples under the 
mie by the same formula. When the book is com|)leted he is simply ^ 
prepared to torn back and to begin and repeat the process. And wheal 
» young man twenty years of age comes to the college or universii 
examination, he asks if it would not be better for him to review aril 
metic once more. The examination teaches him that he has learni 
nothing of its principles, that he has studied it in vain. 






the 

.bi6"^^n 



In geography the case is still worse. In the ordinary methods <^m 
histraction it is reduced to a sort of game of "hide and seek" on thflfl 
tnapH ; erooked ink marks running here and there are learned as i 
rivers; black dots stand for cities; fringed lines represent mountains, 
and the pupil wastes weary mouths in learning that one dot with au 

Iprouounceable name lies in this corner of the map, another in J 



' 88 ClRCL'LAllS OF INFORMATION FOR 1881. 

tliat ; that the river lines begin at one point on ttie map aiul end at 
auother, and often without the faintest conception of tbe real nature 
or location of tbe country that be studies and with no idea at all of the 
cities, tbe seas, the iRlaud.s, the lakes, the mtiuntains, The harbors, whose 
location on the map he learns. 

Thus the pnpil loads his memory with useless lumber. It stirs no 
thought but that of we^riuesa of the lesson. It brings uo inspirattOD ; 
it throws no light ; it answers no qnestion. It is simply an intermina- 
ble catalogue of names of places never, perhaps, seen or to be seen or 
heard of, a catalogue which fades fi'oni memory in a tithe of the time 
that it took to learn it. 

Who is there among ns who in travelling or in trading dares trust 
for his directions to the geography that he learned in his cliildhood 
in the district school I 

The great principles of mathematical and physical geography, the 
coil atructi oil and use of maps and charts, the movements of our globe 
and the consequences of these movements in the changing seasons ; the 
physical eouformation of the continents and its inlinences upon climate, 
productions, and human life ; histiOrieal and commercial geography, with 
their living interest; the great cosmioal facts full of wonder and 
full of use — these might indeed stir thought and widen out the intelli- 
gence; bat these are not and perhaps cannot be included in the study 
for children of the tender years in which geography is commonly taught. 

As in the case of reading, so in geography, some teachers of wide read- 
ing, extended travel, and much learning have succeeded in making the 
geography lesson the vehicle of all kinds of informsttion, historical, 
commercial, and scientitic, and the study in their hands seemed rich 
and productive, but the riches were furnished from their own storea. 
It would be in vain to ask such teaching I'roiu the average district 
school teacher. 

IS GRAMMAU ANV BETTER F 

If yon turn to grammar the case is no better. Who ever heard gram- 
mar miule the subject of conversation, unless it was in a company of 
teachersi Whom does it stimulate to useful thinking unless it be some 
pedantic scholar! How far does it enable men to understand the 
daily phenomena of life or settle wisely the great questions of daily 
interestl Even in speech, the most useful awl tlie most used of all our 
arts, how much does grammar contribute' to our successful mastery of 
itt It is notorious that some of the best scholars of tlie grammar 
classes still fcilk in the incorrect phrases of their childhood in spite of 
their knowleitge of the rules of grammar. As taught in our country 
schools it is not the study of language, but the study of parsing and 
criticism. 

We conchide, then, and the conclusion is as certain as it is sad, that 
the sc^en common school studies alone and unaided by supplementary 



DEPARTMENT OF SUPERINTENDENCE. 

iostrudtioQ lying outside of tiieir own acopes and test boiik.s are tiofl 
anil cHuiiot be sure sources of public iDteliigence. 

^HpDar second char^re is stitl more serious. These common school stud- 
^flph do not fit their pupils for tlie ordinary avocations of life. The 
farmer's son who has filled his seat in the district school in his district 
sauimer aiid winter tor eight or ten years does not carry to the field 
one iteTn of knowledge which enables him to underst-and any better the 
soil that he cultivates or the processes of its cultivation. The mys- 
tery by which the browu earth builds from the tiny seed stalk and 
flower and fruit, is to him as much a mystery as ever. Hie arithmetit 
A^raminur, and geography, his lessons in reading and writing, have ni 
told him one single law that rules in the vegetable and animal kingdoi 
witb which his business is henceforward concerned. 

Even his own life is a mystery to him, and his own body an unkm 
world. 

The arts by which he is to live and gain a support for himself and 
fomily are utterly foreign to all that be ever saw, or heard of, or stud- 
ied in the little school-house where he spent so luany toilsome months 
and years. The rules of arithmetic give no facility in comprehending 
animal life as seen in the faithful donfestic beatjts which serve us or ii 
the iioxions vermin which destroy onr ganlens and our goods. Grai 
mar gives ns no aid in preparing or aua].^'zing our food or in accoi 
ing for the st«te of our health. And the geography of the world witb*! 
ont famishes ns with no map of the world within us. 

But why follow further this discouraging detail 1 We speak of what' 
is, and not of what need be.. Who does not know that common school 
knowledge and practical knowledge are things as distinct as grammar 
and grasshoppers. Tho popular voice has long since pronounced its 
verdict upon this matter, and men withdraw their sons and daughters 
from the schools when they deem it time to teach them the practical 
arts and duties of life. As Herbert 8penc«r says: 

Tbiit which cmr school coiiraes leave alniiist entirely onr, we thus tiuil to lie that 
wbicli mo»t nearly coQuema the businesH uf life. All our ioduBtrieB would oease, were 
it not for that information which men hegin l^i nci|Uiro as the,r best may after their 
•dnoatioii is said to he Buished. * • • The Tita) knowledge, that by which w 
hare p^rown as a nation t« what we are, and which now nnderliea our whole ei 
is a knowleilge that has got itself taught in oooks and corners, while thta ordninei^ 
•^nfies for lettchiug have been mumbling little else but dead formulas. 



Qd 

M 

ud 
„jd- 
aths 

^nS ■ 

ir iq^^^H 
rai^^^l 

i^itlf^^^H 

rhat'^^l 



Uut thirdly, aud finally, if these studies do not of themselves makfiV 
ioCeiligent people aud do not of themselves fit tbeir students for the ' 
avocatiops of life, perhaps they are useful to prepare for further studies, 
for liigher educatiou. So; here again tbey fail. The complaint from 
Che whole range of all the higher schools, tlie colleges, medical and li 



lakti^^^H 
the ^^^ 
lies, 

from J 

llan- ^J 



90 CIRCULARS OF INFORMATION FOR 1882. 

schools, polytecliiiic scLooIs, and imiveraities, is that thecoramoa scbonls 
do not prepare the student to ent«r upon the higher courses of instruc- 
I tion, do Dot indeed work in that direction. Neither the subjects nor 
T the method* of study fit the eouimon school pupil for any advanced 
I course. The ordinary student of urithmetie has found but little to help 
[ Ilim in the higher mathematics. Geography helps to little or nothing 
I beyond, and English grammair as taught furnishes scarcely the starting 
point for higher linguistic study in his own or in other languages. 
In the groat fields of science, of chemistry, of physics, of natural 
^ history, of philosophy, even the alphabet, the simplest notions and defi- 
y nitiouB, have to be learned by their studeuts without the slighest aid 
' from common schools. One chief diificulty that is felt in teaching these 
sciences in all the higher institutions is that their students ai-e unac- 
quainted with the simplest language of science. Weeks and eveu 
months must be expended in giving to the student of botany, astron- 
omy, &c., the simple elementary notions and names which must I)e 
hnown before he can enter upon the study of the science itself, though 
I these are as easily maJstered by the child as the name of grandmother, 
and are mastered by many children of intelligent parents. 



Now, to all this it may be replied, and doubtless will be by many, that 
the dilHculty is not in the comiiutn school studies themselves, but in the 
methods of teaching them ; tliat wlien we shall get a better generation 
of teachers, more thoroughly prepared for their work, whose methods 
shall be more perfect and whose labors shall be more systematic, this 
objection will be obviated and better and richer results will be obtained. 
Such indeed has been the plea for more years than I can remember, and 
able superintendents and normal teachers have set themselves earnestly 

'and diligently to the task of training up such a body of teachers. But 
ought not the very diiliculty of obtaining this better generation of teach- 
ers (the irapossibilitj' indee<l, that seems, thus far, to have hindered all 
ettbrts to train up the requisite number of teachers) to suggest to us thn 
possibility of another conclusion? Let us admit that bett«r teaching 
brings better results, as is often shown in our graded and city schools. 
But may it not be that these common studies thouiselves are so poorly 
adapted to the child, so unfitted indeed for the common mind and the 
common circumstances of the most of our children, that fit teachers will 
rarely be fouud, or even if found will never attain more than partial 
jcess ? Must they not succeed, if they succeed at all, by what they 

, add to the studies rather than by what they find in the studies them- 
selves t 

la it not time to seek the solution of the great problem before us ill 
some other (lirectiont Failing to elevate our common schools along 
this path, may we not be more successful by choosing another? If the 
teaching of those branches is so commonly defective and scholar 



DEPARTMENT OF SUPEKINTENDENCE, 

in them so difficult or ao iiiiattainable, may there not be other stud- 
ies more easily tnuglit and more rich aud useful when tanghtl May 
we not select a course of studies for our common district schools which 
shall more nearly meet the natural tastes, capacities, and needs of child- 
hood, which may engage and quicken the native activities of the pupils, 
and, rousing them to some natural eagejness of pursuit, make their 
progress and fljial auwiess to depend less upon the stimulating power 
and aid of the teaclier f And if this new course of studies shall be found 
also more interesting to teachers, more easily mastered and used b y • 
them, will it not also lighten the wock of preparation and offer an easiul 
solution to the great scholastic problem of a suQicient force of qualifiei 
teachers T 

To answer this question of a wiser course of studies for commoi 
schools, we must note more fully and carefully the object of all edaot 
tion. 

THE TBUR AIM OF KDCCATIOK. 

TKie great aim of education is, and of right ought to be, the 
the great aim of life. If this aim is simply and solely that of disciplioeyj 
then the aim of education is discipline. If the aim of life includes the 
ac4]uisition of knowledge, then education should also include this. And 
if the great aim of life goes beyond both discipline and knowledge, if it 
I involves the activities of life, its pursuits, its employments, and the 
whole round of its performance, then education should embrace all 
these. Both discipline and knowledge are doubtless involved as the 
necessary conditions of this higher aim, but only as conditions. Disci- 
pline has as its end the development of both strength and skill; knowl- 
edge has as its object both the nourishment and illumination of our 
minds. And as our several employments necessarily involve both ski ' 
and strength on the one side and intelligence on the other, so they 
quire as a condition of their success a subordinate training and stui 
&om which these proceed. But the plana of education for any humaa 
being must certainly prove either false or defective which do not 
dade a consideratiou of the probable employment aud destiny. A full 
education for any human being must take in all the training aud knowl- 
edge necessary to set him fully equipped upon his career. Our present 
question relates not to an ideally complete education for one, but to the 
common education of the many, and for the common duties of life. 



wl- 

our I 

'^ 

fuU 



What are tlie studies then that should be taught in onr common 
schools* I limit this discussion to the common school studies, Iweause 
in those schools the millions of our countrymen find all the school edu- 
oatiou they ever receive. 

Let it be remembered that I do not propose to banish wholly any onft- 
of the seven eommon school studies. I have admitted that they have™' 



J 



92 CmCULARS OF information for 1839. 

<leveloi)e<l a certain measure of utility which entitles tliem to remain, 
tliongb it) a somewhat changed form aud in a. much roKtricted amoaot. 

i only desire to affirm, and with strong i^mpbasis, that these seven 
studies ought uot to hold the exclusive place they now occupy, and that 
our common schools must remain poor and nnttatis factory till the stud- 
ies are changed. 

But, askhig the question wholly anew ami with the beat light of nine- 
teenth century experience around us, 

W1I4T OUOnT TO BB TAOOHT IN OUH COMMON SCtlOOLSt 

I answer, the knowledge of ourselves, physical, mental and moral, 
and the knowledge of the world in which we live, These arc the indis- 
pensable koowledgea. These the child begins, of necessity, to study 
in the cradle, and of these he continues to learn more and more till his 
dying day. They lie at the bottom of our civilization, and are the 
basis of our arts, our institutions, our wealth, and our well-being. To 
know the bodies in which we live, their parts and functions, and tlie 
laws of healthful living; to understand the mental functions and moral 
'duties on which soundness of mind and right conduct and ctiaracter 
depend; to know much of the world, of animal and vegetable life 
around us, from which our ftiod and raiment, the materials of our arts, 
and the comforts of our lives come tons; to know the physical features 
and forces of the world of matter — these are life studies ignorance of 
which means defeat and death, and the higher knowledge of which 
means advancing light, inereasing power, mastery over ourselves and 
over our environment. Keading is t« be studied as a means of studying 
these great central studies of man and nature; and all the other com- 
mon branches are t<) be made useful and subordinate to these. In plainer 
words, there should be included among the studies of the people, in the 
people's schools, physiology, botany, chemistry, zoology, physics, geom- 
«try, technology, and the elements of political, moral, and social science; 
not necessarily as sciences, not with text books, not by set lessons and 
in scientific terms, but as knowledges, lying in nature and open to the 
«yea and hearts of children, should all these studies have place in the 
schools, as they have place and uses in life. 

The very mention of these studies will be received by many with dis- 
approbation and with the oftrejieated assertion " that chihiren had bet- 
ter be made thorough iu the studies already pursued, rather than 
scatter their time and strength over any additional studies." 



And just here we meet one of the great popular fallacies which have' 
so long jiervaded our schools and help to destroy their influence. Tb© 
ory has been to be thorough. Teachers have admonished 'each other, 
and parents and school offteers, leaders and lecturers, have urged thoT- 
onghness as the great condition of success in teaching; but it seetnB 



DEPARTMENT OF SUPERINTENDENCE. 9S'| 

to have escaped tbe observatiou of iiiany that tlioroiigliLess c»n tievei 
be absolute ou this eartli; tbat Id regard to education and knowledge^ 
thoroughness is a relative terui. What would be thorough for a child 
of 5 would be Buper&eial for a child of 10; and the thoroughueBa of 
knowledge required of the teacher of 20 or 30 years of age is prac- 
tica.lly unattainable by his pu|itl of liJ and 15. If, then, our childreu 
are to be forbidden all study of their bodies, or of the plants and ani- 
malK with which they have daily to do, till they attain a thorough knowl- 
edge of grammar, geography, and arithmetic, then, whatever be the 
power of the teacher and whatever be the industry of the child, this 
demarid amounts to a prohibition, absolute and impassable, against any 
advance beyond the old line aud law of study and acquirement, it is 
not thoroughness in the sense of completeness that is needed, and which 
is probably meaut by this popular cry, but clearness of understanding. 
Let the child know clearly what he knows. Let it be true kuowledgi 
as far as it goes, not vague, half knowledge; so we all say. 



Bot another popular fallacy lies at the bottom of this demand for 
thoroughness. It is the supposition that the several sciences constitute 
a succession of studies vaiying in degree of difficulty, some of which 
are adapted to childhood, others to the middle age of youth, while others 
can be mastered only by the mature mind. Hence it is concluded that 
one istndy should be completed by the child before even the elements of 
other and higher studies are attacked. Sothing could be further Irom 
the truth in point of fact. All science begins with simple facts, facts 
BO simple that tittle children learn them, and all the sciences advance 
through successive grades and forms of truth till they reach the phil- 
osophical stage. Like so many Jacob's ladders, they have their feet in 
the dust, aud their first rounds are so low that the creeping child may 
reach them. Their sublime summits are lost in the heavens, where only 
tlie strongest oau soar and the steadiest can stay. 



n 



Every child of sound mind and onlinary opportunities will be found^ I 
on examination, to have acquired many elementary facts in every i 
branch of human learning. He has begun the study of the whole 
cycloptedia of science. He distinguishes his ball from his blocks, and 
knows well enough the contract between the sphere and the cube. 
This is the germ of geometry. He easily recognizes the difference be- 
tween birds and bees or bjitterflies. He is beginning the study of both 
entomology and ornithologj'. He cau practically distinguish soap from 
sngar, salt fiom vinegar; dreads the fire and delights in the sunshine^ 
and all this is incipient chemistry. He chooses his playthings by colors, 
knows that unsupported they will fall and lireak in pieces ; sees that 
force produces motion, aud has learned a huudred other facts in phyeiol- 



Ji 



9i 



CIRCULARS OF INFORMATION FOR 1883. 



ogy,p)iysic8, and meohanica. He heeds bia mother's voice, delights in h* 
smiles, fears her frowns, and shapes his little platis with a cunning that 
tells that he has already mastered much of the science of miud and mor- 
als. Even in arithmetic, geography, and grammar — or rather in num- 
bers, locality, and language — he has niEwle a heginning in nature's own 
methods, in facts and practice. In short, all nature has been an open 
book to him; and from his birth he has studied ita crowded pages with 
as much success as delight. Eager to learn, he observes, esperimeuta, 
inqnires, theorizes, tests his theories, compares, classihes, doubts, ob- 
jects, seeks proofs, learns truths, infers consequences, is full of eager- 
ness to know and name things. His education is going forward with- 
out any vacation, till in our foolish anxiety to make him learned in 
books, and especially in the common branches, we stop his education 
and send him to school. 



We stop his education, for we have come to believe that until he has 
acquired his alphabet, learned his a b abs, and spelled his way to 
reading, he cannot properly begin study. To learn in the proper way 
he must have a text book. We forget that the volume of nature ia 
God's text book, written in the child's vernacular, the beautiful lan- 
guage of living facts and visible forms. During all this period of hia 
book learning we foolishly count it a mark of idleness for our pupil to 
chase butterflies, pick flowers, or busy himself with anything else but 
the primer with which men have supplanted nature's great text buck. 

Festalozzi and Frobel and all the great thinkers and writers on edu- 
cation have protested against this substitution of book study for the 
study of nature. Rousseau would not allow his ideal pupil £mile to 
begin book study till fourteen or fifteen years of age, and the Uermans 
require the child to be taught orally from sis months to two years be- 
fore 'leing set to learn to read. 



If in place of seeking to tbrce the pupil througli M the stages of 
some one study, from its simple primer facts to its high philosophy, we 
should follow the course of nature, we should teach in the primer or 
primary grade the primer or primary elements of all knowledge. 

As the child advances in each and grows in strength and understand- 
ing, we should add successive facts and truths in all these sciences, tak- 
ing care to emphasize only such as may be of more utility. 

When the advancing years require us to lit the child for its chosen 
pursuits and the widening fieULs of knowledge compel some selection to 
b» made, then we should choose those studies, and those alone, which 
promise to have some bearing upon daily duties and the chosen destiny 
of the pupil. 

It Is not forgotten that knowle^Igeis fading in cKanicter, and that all 
knowledge which is not made bright by practice and kept bright by use 



DEPARTMENT OF SUPERINTENDENCE. 95 

will speedily pass from memory; and this will be equally- true of all 
sciences of nature and of the common school studies. K the unused 
geography and arithmetic are soon forgotten, so also will be the unused 
botany and chemistry. But so, too, skill and strength, the twin prod- 
ucts of the much vaunted discipline, also fade and perish if not kept 
bright by use. !N'either knowledge nor skill abides in full vigor if left to 
lie in idleness. 

But which knowledge will be most likely to be kept bright by fre- 
quent recall, the common school branches or that which concerns the 
ever present scenes and powers of nature? Will it be the geography of 
Asia, Africa, and Europe, or the botany of our door-yards and gardens 
which will be called into daily use? And what mental judgments will 
be most frequently repeated in daily life, those of the higher arithmetic 
and grammar or those which concern our physical condition and the 
phenomena of life and nature around us? 

THE GERMAN SCHOOLS. 

Now, lest all of this advocacy of another course of studies for our 
common schools shall seem unsupported speculation, let us turn for 
a moment to the common schools of another people among whom the 
branches of study were selected by wise leaders and under a set of con- 
ditions different from those which influenced our own. The German 
common schools, dating from Luther, may claim to be the oldest in Eu- 
rope or America. The German and American school systems grew up 
entirely independent of each other and without communication between 
their founders. They may be looked upon, therefore, as two distinct 
answers to the same problem. 

The study plan of the German common school, as reported by Dr. 
Stowe, embraces the following branches: For the youngest pupils, from 
fi to 8 years old, (1) oral teaching in the exercise of the powers of obser- 
vation and experience, including religious instruction and the singing 
of hymns; (2) elements of reading (after the oral teaching has gone on 
for six months) ; (3) writing; (4) elements of numbers. 

For the more advanced pupils, 10 to 12 years old, the study plan in- 
cludes (1) exercises in reading and elocution; (2) exercises in orna- 
mental writing; (3) religious instruction, Bible history; (4) the German 
language, with grammar and parsing; (5) "real" instruction, or knowl- 
f edge of nature and the external world, including the first elements of 
the sciences and the arts of life, geography, and history; (6) arithmetic; 
(7) geometry, doctrine of magnitude and measure; (8) singing. In the 
next grade, 12 to 14 years old, there were added to the foregoing (9) 
knowledge of the world and of mankind, including civil society, agri- 
culture, and the mechanic arts ; and (10) elements of drawing. Such are 
the common school studies of the German states. 

My own later observation confirms the statements of Dr. Stowe, with 
slight modifications. In a visit to the German schools in Saxony, in 

123 



CIRCULARS OF INFORMATION FOR 1883. 

1879, 1 found tbe stntly plan iucludiid ten brandies, and tlie teac^hing 
had the same jirevaleaue uf oral and practical woik. As Horace Mann 
aaid, "The German teachers have found out that each child has tive 
senses, and they teach the senses." 



While I hold fast, sternly and steadily, to the maiu purpose of this 
pa))er, to assert the mistake and wrong of the seven uommon school 
studies in their common methoil and measnre, as found in the district 
schools, and to affirm, on the experience of a hundred years and on the 
credit of many of the ablest educators of this country, the ntter impos- 
sibility of the attainment of auy high and uniform success in our com- 
mon schools with these seven studies alone, it would be as ni^just as it 
would be untruthful to deny the immense value of the work doue by 
these schools, in spite of the disadvantages of their bad choice of stud- 
ies. Aided and supplemented by district and Bunday school libraries, 
by cheap books, by the most extensive, if not also the ablest, newspaper 
pi-ees of the world, by a vigorous and instructive pulpit, by a political 
system ftill of popular inspirations and incitements, by a splendid sys- 
tem of colleges, seminaries, and high schools, and by the almost universal 
tuition of that noblest of all schools, the school of labor, our school sys- 
tem has helped to train up a fwople second to no other in public and 
])rivate intelligence, in vigor of practical understanding, in bold and 
far reaching enterprise, in high conceptions of human rights and duties, 
and in all the qualities of a vigorous, free, and advancing manhood. 
All the other agencies of public gmul woiild have been inoperative and 
useless without the ministry of the common schools. They have been 
the one mighty gear-wheel which has linked tbe people to all other 
machinery of moral, intellectual, industrial, and political elevation. If 
they have disappointed and are still disappointing the reasonable de- 
mands and expectations of their wisest and most earnest friends (I care 
little for the commonly senseless strictures of their few enemies), no one 
can deny that they have proved the best investment of public and pri- 
vate funds that our laud lias ever known, and that ttiey are indispen- 
sable to the continued existence and prosperity of our Government. It 
s this iudispensableness of these schools which pleads most loudly for 
the reform of stadies which shall put them iu completer harmony with 
the nature and needs of the childhood tbey instruct and with that great 
ou-going, eternal, and resistless march of nature and history for which 
they must fit and train their young recruits. 

Dr. Our, of Georgia, submitted the following resolution; which was 
secouded by Mr. Northroi', of Connecticut : 

WhoreitB tho NEiliorinl Biireaii iif Eiliicfttioii was Dstablislied to aitsiat iu collecting 
ami tu digest und distcibiitii infurtnalion in uiil ol' the Dnmniim eoboola and other iu- 
BlUiitions and Higenaies of ediicatiou ; aud 

Wtiaruna It is beliovod tiiM n moderatB luoreuae of cloiical force aud of the appn*- 
124 






DEPARTMENT OF SUPERINTENDENCE. 97 

priatioQ for collecting statistics is necessary to meet the increased demands on the 
Biir^Q, and that its Commissioner should rank as to salary as an equal of the Com- 
missioner of Agriculture or the Commissioner of Indian Atfairs : Therefore, 

Besoloedf That a committee consisting of tive members be appointed by this de- 
partment, whose duty it shall be to impiire into the needs of the Bureau of Education 
touching these matters, and make such representations and recommendations to Con- 
gres-^, or to the appropriate committees of Congress, as it shall deem important and 
necessary. 

Remarks in favor of tlie resolution were made by Dr. Orr, of Geor- 
gia; Mr. !N'orthrop, of Connecticut; Professor Hall, of Cambridge, and 
i< ■ Mr. Shepherd, of Baltimore. The last gentleman proceeded to lemark 
r B uufavorably upon the paper which had been read by Dr. Gregory and re- 
>\w I gretted that there was not time to discuss the views presented. Remarks 
\> • 1 were made by Mr. Smart, Mr. De Wolf, Mr. Richards, and Mr. Shep- 
L^^>^ I herd ; and Dr. Orr's resolution was then passed unanimously. 

The committee of five appointed by the chair consisted of Dr. Orr, 
cliairman, with Messrs. Marble, Smart, Gove, and Newell. To these 
pap I ^^ggpg Philbrick, Armstrong, and Scarborough were afterwards added. 
3 tun General Eaton invited the members of the department to visit the 

Bureau of Education during the evening. 
oJ - J ^^ motion of Mr. De Wolf, the meeting then adjourned to meet at 

2.30 p. M., in order to have a discussion of Dr. Gregory's paper. 
2~ "I The members of the department then proceeded to the Executive 
. / Mansion and paid their respects to Piesident Arttiur, being introduced 

bo«» 

?ai^| FOURTH SESSION— THURSDAY AFTERNOON. 

^jj^l Washington, March 23, 1882. 

^ I Mr. Sheldon was chosen to occupy the chair until the arrival of the 

[e tir t^resident pro tempore. 

r ^^ ' Discussion of Ihe paper of the morning being in order. Dr. GkeGtORY 

^aid that he was surprised that his remarks had given oli'ence ; that they 
\ t\ ^^^^^J gave a r6sum^ of some of the most important errors as to stud- 
[-xJi ^^P^^rsued in the schools; and although he had presented the matter 
in a different dress it was by no means new, nor did it differ from the 
ideas expressed commonly in articles published in educational journals. 
Mr. De Wolf indorsed the paper read by Dr. Gregory. 
Mr. Shepherd had no doubt that the goal in the mind of all present 
^^ \l ^^s the same. The most practical education is that which fits men 
I best for all the conditions of life. Are we not the wonder and admira- 
tion of the civilized nations of the earth for the character of our devel- 
vhicli*! ^P^ent? And yet it is said in the face of all this that the schools are 
^lot practical ! He concluded by speaking of the great value of the study 
of the English language. 
tuaotM'l Mr. BLOi)aETT, of Illinois, supported the i^aper which had been read. 
Mrs. Pollock, of Washington, spoke in favor of the introduction of 
,ftbe»pr| the Kindergarten. 

7 E ^ 125 



vdiy 

u5^ 



by the Commissioner of Education. 



lU 



coll<<'^ 



\)S CIRCULARS OF INFORMATION FOR 1882. 

Mr. Blodijktt thought that the department should pass some reso- 
lution ^'t^gal•diug the service to education rendered by Mr. Henkle. Mr. 
tH>VhJ, of Colorailo, wished the recent death of Mr. White to be simi- 
\m'\y noticeil. Thereupon General Eaton moved that a committee con- 
KtiMtiu);;' of Messrs. DeWolf, Blodgett, and Gove draw up suitable resolu- 
ihwH in regard to the death of these prominent educators; which was 
mU>pti)il. 

The foUowing pai>eT was received from W. T. Harris, ll. d., and on 
m(>tii>u i»f Mr. Marble it was accepted as a part of these proceedings. 

Ui»\V TO IMPROVE THE QUALIFICATIONS OF TEACHERS. 

TiiiJ nuperintendent of schools finds it his most important duty to 
iH'isutis and f(»wter au enlightened public opinion in regard to' the province 
and ftint^tionw of the system of education under his charge. 

VVUiUi^ the people furnish the material means to support the school 
4ud oUooMe teachers Und superintendents to direct and manage it, pub- 
Uii opiidim luavkn out the limit of development, for the teachers and 
iiiuiunintendeut umst represent the will of the people. They cannot 
i^UiHH^wwfully establish measures not approved by the community. 

On I lie othev hand, if the ideal standard of education is high in any 
(minuuiuity, mean** will be found and representatives chosen to realize 
iUii{> idi^al. 

{hi the imuvi(Jtion of the people, therefore, the perfection of the school 
wyibtiun depiMnU, and no structure has any stability if its educational 
iVttiilU nw loo eomplioated or too subtle for popular recognition. 

Kioui Uiiw we deduce our statement regarding the most important 
dut.v ui' the superintendent. The superintendent is a specialist in mat- 
tei« of ediieation. The community has chosen him and set him over a 
Hpeeial deiuutinent, namely, the direction of its schools. He has the 
Ite^l otipoitnnity to learn what the school ou^ht to do for the children 
of the peot>Us luul he can discover the best measures for its accomplish- 
Uient. Having, aw a wpeeialist, to form an ideal of excellence in his de- 
liaituienl, lie liUKta twtifold duty remaining to perform: he must realize 
thin ideal in the uduiiniHtrationof the details of his system and he must 
ediirale poiudai' opinion in his community to appreciate and support 
that ideal. 

'Vhe iupeiintendent (cannot consider too carefully the last item of his 
[M vd duties*, lie uuiwt nntke his educational ideal valid in and through 
t hvv ^HUi V ieliou of the i»e(»ple, and never allow himself to suppose that he 
\\i\H di«vhmgetl hin duties when he has discovered the educational needs 
\d ihe people and tnganlised the details of an eflBcient system to supply 

U iM u\d'oiUunUe ftn' the cause of education that so many excellent 
tiUpe^ i^devuleulJf* have neglected this third duty, and have even rejected 
\\^ V^^vpUvevneviU uw unworthy of attention from men with a higli sense 
\\i \\\\\\\^K^ They hnve i*eeM the political demagogue and his base flattery 

m 



DEPARTMENT OF SUPERINTENDENCE. 99 

of the passions of the multitude, corrupting them for the sake of per- 
petuating his own selfish power. Any appeal to the people, any means 
used to Influence the people directly, seems to be objectionable on the 
score of demagogy. 

Holding this view, our able superintendent devotes himself to dis- 
covering educational wants and perfecting his work of instruction and 
discipline, and he haughtily demands the support of the community and 
expects their confidence as a matter of right and justice due to himself. 
If the people take a different view and are dissatisfied with his exercise 
of power, and in the end overturn his establishment, he assumes the air 
of a martyr and finds his consolation in ennmerating the petty circum- 
stances of his persecution by low minded enemies while he was pursuing 
the strict and narrow path of duty. The people who removed him 
simply call him unpractical, and relate a few instances of his stubborn- 
ness in carrying out his abstract regulations where they conflicted with 
the customs and usages of the community. He insisted on applying 
his abstract rule of industry for all the children, in cases where study 
at home ruined the eyesight of Mr. A's son, or regularity and punctuality 
were insisted on so strenuously that Mr. B's daughters would go to school 
when not fully recovered from a fever, and the consequence is the death 
of one of them; or, in order to preserve the furniture of the new school- 
house from the wear incident to use by children not seated for study as 
in regular school hours, a regulation requires all pupils to remain in the 
open air until the bell rings at five minutes before nine o'clock, when 
all must form lines in the school yard and march into the building in 
military order. This being rigidly adhered to, a very inclement morn- 
ing has caused much suff'ering and some cases of severe illness. 

These are serious evidence of impracticability, "of a lack of common 
sense," as the people will tell you. But even when the teacher or super- 
intendent is very discreet in all matters of administration of the schools, 
if the parents feel themselves treated without respect and due consid- 
eration they will misinterpret the teacher's motives in a multitude of 
instances and accept an unfair account of much that he has done, and 
thus come to view him as lacking disinterested regard for duty or else 
as lacking common sense. "Common sense" differs from the other 
kind of sense in taking into consideration all the circumstances of the 
thing, all that has interest in common with the thing; while the lack of 
common sense shows itself in the tendency to view its own subject of 
interest out of its proper relations to the rest of the world ; it gets so 
close to its object that it is exaggerated by the perspective, and the great 
world is hidden from view by the mole hill in the foreground. 

The educator who lays all this stress on his first and second duties 
and neglects the third one is like the architect who draws an excellent 
plan on paper and then builds a beautiful structure with hewn stone 
and the best of mortar, but who has neglected the preparation of a prop- 
er foundation. After a short time cracks begin to appear in the walls, 

127 






100 CIRCULARS OF INFORMATION FOR 1882. 

tlie Structure becomes (lan<^erous and must be pulled down. In order 
to comidete our comparison we must imagiue our architect extolling 
the merits of his i)lans and the convenience of his building for human 
uses; it was a thoroughly rational contrivance to shelter man from 
the elements and give him light, heat, and ventilation, and room for all 
his needs. What a calamity, therefore, that it must now be pulled down. 
That he should not recognize the necessity of planning and building 
with reference to the foundation as well as with reference to the human 
uses for which the building \^ erected, would totally unlit him for the 
business of architect and builder. But there are many educators who 
cannot see that th'e superintendent should look constantly to this foun- 
dation of the institution under his charge, and build all his improve- 
ments on the foundation of the convictions of the people, and take care 
to buttress all the walls upon distinct and explicit recognition on the 
part of both parents and pupils. In our country and time no system of 
managing any institution will achieve a permanent success unless it is 
based upon and inter[)rets correctly the instincts and convictions of the 
people and unless it is made to seem to the people what it is in reality. 

"Three things govern the world," says Goethe: "love, wisdom, and 
appearance." Love is correct sentiment, wisdom is correct insight, 
appearance is the seeming of being; and, whether false or true, seeming 
will furnish the foundation for practical action. False appearance will 
lead to lame, impotent deeds; true appearance alone will furnish a basis 
for positive, rational deeds. Love and wisdom will not diffuse them- 
selves for the blessing of mankind unless their mode and manner of ap- 
pearance is looked after and unless the appearance of their recipients 
or objects is understood. 

It seems strange, at first, that the wisest literary men of our century 
should lay so much stress on appearance (or mere seeming ; the German 
word is Schein). But Goethe had looked into the political changes 
which announced their advent in our own Revolution and subsequently 
in the French revolution. 

After the battle of Valmy, in which he saw with his own ey^s the first 
defeat of allied monarchical power by insurgent French democracy, he 
said to the ofl&cers of the defeated German corps with whom he had ap- 
proached the position of the enemy that morning: "Gentlemen, to-day 
you have beheld the beginning of a new epoch in the world's history." 
His thought was this: Henceforth it shall not be suflacient for the gov- 
erning power to rule rationally and make up its accounts by its own 
standards. Henceforth in the history of this world it shall become more 
and more necessary to take into account the convictions and desires of 
even the lowest stratum of the people. 

The lower the stratum of the people, the less power have they to 
penetrate the disguise of appearance and see the true realitv. This 
makes it all the more necessary to see that the appearance of what is 
true and good is npt mistaken by humanity and in its place the false and 
.. .• 128 



* • » • • • 

" * r ■$ 



DEPARTMENT OF SUPERINTENDENCE. 101 

evil adopted because it has put on the guise of the true and good and 
masquerades under its appearance. We must do right and also make 
it seem to be the right. He who educates the people to know the right 
by its appearance does as good a service to the world as he who merely 
discovers the right or who merely organizes it into an institution. 

In discussing any topic relating to the duties of a superintendent of 
schools, therefore, it is necessary to keep in mind this threefold nature 
of his work. By its light we shall find the solution of many difficult 
problems that beset the administration of the affairs of education. 

I have been led to make this general disquisition on the scope of the 
work of the director of educational interests because the question as- 
signed to me for discussion before your honored association on this occa- 
sion is one that cannot be discussed profitably without a just appreciation 
of the third principle in the threefold duty of the superintendent. 

I therefore announce as the general form of my answer to the question 
'^How can we improve the qualifications of teachers?" bring them to 
feel by ail legitimate means and influences the importance of making 
themselves strong in their community. They must teach well, and this 
includes good instruction and good discipline. They must conduct the 
school well, and this includes a proper reference of their work to the 
regulations of superintendents and school directors and the most im- 
portant matter of educating the community at large into a critical 
knowledge of the quality of a good school. 

At first thought the teacher would be supposed to have enough to do 
if he attended simply to matters of discipline and instruction. In order 
to reach and largely influence parents it would be thought necessary to. 
visit the parents often, and that this would consume so much time and 
energy on the part of the teacher as to seriously weaken his fund of 
strength left for the work of instruction and discipline. But, in fact, it 
is not expected of the teacher that he shall make a system of visiting 
parents; such a course would be likelj' to diminish his influence. It is 
through the children themselves that the parents are best reached and 
influenced. The teacher who is careless of the opinion of parents and 
who feels no direct responsibility to them, governs his school in a very 
different manner from that of him who keeps the seuse of tlie com- 
munity constantly before him. Every teacher comes into relations with 
the parents of his pupils oftenest, as far as personal interviews go, 
through the failures of his pupils. Irregularity of attendance, want of 
punctuality, idleness, backwardness in scholarship, and improper be- 
havior are occasions for consultation with the parent. . The polite re- 
quest of the teacher, made in a manner indicating interest In the pupil's 
welfare from the point of view which the parent ought to take and does 
take, will nearly always secure the prompt attention of the parent and 
his cordial cooperation. The cooperation of the parent removes most 
of the difficulty in managing pupils. 

A comparatively small number of personal interviews suffices to estab- 

129 



102 CIRCULARS OF INFORMATION FOR 1882. 

lish the reputation of the teacher for good or bad among the parents of 
his district. One case of arbitrary exercise of authority or one case of 
ungoverned temper on the part of the teacher will be remembered by 
all who hear of it, and all will hear of it. Each parent takes to himself 
what is done to any one parent, just as each pupil trembles at the punish- 
ment inflicted on any one pupil, and perhaps the good pupils suffer more 
than the bad ones through imagining themselves to be in like circum- 
stances with the culprit. 

A sense of responsibility to the good opinion and moral support of the 
parents in the community makes itself felt on slight occasions, and soon 
gets recognized by all and gives rise to mutual confidence. The influ- 
ence upon the pupil of a knowledge of a mutual respect between the 
teacher and his parents is exceedingly beneficial. 

Whatever is done at school is reported at home, though not directly, 
by the children of each family. The parents form an opinion of the 
teacher through the fragmentary reports of their children, and /that 
opinion reacts directly on the behavior of the pupils. The experienced 
teacher, who has long been in the habit of looking beyond his pupils to 
the families they represent, has learned how to mould opinion through 
the impressions he leaves on the minds of his pupils. 

The superintendent can do no greater service for his teachers than 
to develop in them this habit of considering all their instruction and 
discipline as having a direct relation to the pupils, and through them to 
the parents, and again a still further reaction upon the pupils, which 
affects them permanently. The wise teacher will not waste his efforts 
in an impulse on his pupils that will be neutralized at once by the parents. 
He will find a way of educating the parents by a series of preparatory 
steps. 

These matters of direct relation of the teacher towards parents are 
very important, but they depend more on the impulse of the teacher than 
on the efforts of the superintendent. 

There are, however, many devices of school management entirely 
within the control of the superintendent which may be used for the im- 
provement of the quality of teachers' work. I will mention, first, the 
suspension of pupils. This may happen for irregularity of attendance 
or for disobedience; suspension is not expulsion. The teacher should 
not exercise the power of expulsion. Suspension means simply that the 
pupil has in someway violated the rules of the school in a serious man- 
ner, and that the case is referred to the superintendent, who will restore 
the pupil upon the api)lication of the parent. This brings about a 
meeting between the parent and superintendent, who must always be 
conciliatory toward the parent. It is the great mistake of some super- 
intendents that they assume a browbeating air towards parents of pu- 
pils who have been suspended. If the parent is punished in that man- 
ner the pupil's cause has become the i>arent's cause, and the effect is 
lost on the pupil. 

130 



DEPARTMEST OF SUPERINTENDENCE. 



The pareiit mast be free to complam to the superintendeut iu re) 
to the coiidcct of tbe teacher, but the superintendent will hold his 
counsel. In this way sometimea the fa«t will be revealed that the 
«lt has lost couttdence ia the justice or ability of the teacher. In that 
case the child caunot be exi>ected to profit by the instraction he will 
receive in that school, but will be a source of insubordination and a de- 
stroyer of sjTupathetic relations between the teacher and other pupils. 
The superintendent will explain this condition of things and urge 
strongly the transfer of the pupil to some other school in the neighbor* 
hood. If the parent insists on retaining the pupil in the same sehi 
he will then see the necessity of correcting his alienation towards 
teacher and will seek a personal interview. Under most eircuinstar 
transfer of the pupil to another school ia the best course. Transferred 
pupils come among strangers both as to pupils and as to teachers, and 
tliey have the best of opportunities to begin a new career. The parent 
is also far more apt to frown on a repetition of an offesce by his child 
in the new school. He now suspects that the original difficulty was the 
fault of his own child instead of the fault of the former teacher. The 
child gets no sympathy at home for his misbehavior and finds obedience 
the easiest course at school. But the recurrence of trouble at school 
on tbe part of tbe pupil after a case of suspension and restoration to. 
the same school is more, likely to be accounted for by the parent as 
case of grudge on the pai't of the teacher. 

It is a common practice in our cities to have rigid district lines sepa^' 
rating one school from another. It is thought that pupils should uever 
b«' transferred from one district to another. This habit of preserving 
strict lines costs a fearful price. The collisions between the teachers and 
tbe pupils and the parents ripen into feuds and continue to accumulate, 
with interest, from year to year, while by the plan of transfer they are 
neutralized at their inception and a strong attachment arises for each 
school on the part of its patrons. 

Tliere is no better preventive or remedy for the evil of irritabibty 
the jjart of the teacher than this device of transfer in case of sev( 
uompl'ciiut on the part of parents. The teacher is made aware of the 
efifects of his or her irritability, and at tbe same time of responsibility 
to the community. The peculiarity of the teacher's vocation — being 
obliged to deal with immature minds and especially with undeveloped 
wills subject to fits of caprice and irrationality — the very nature of 
the teacher's vocation tends to produce dogmatism and irritability. 
The superintendent must, therefore, organize all his means so as t(^ 
counteract this tendency and so as to protect the teacher against tin 
effects of his own vocation, 

Of course it will be conceded that professional training in a good 
aormal school is the best preparation for the new teacher. I have made 
repeated examinations of the comparative merits of normal school grad- 
uates and other teachers. The result has proved to be in favor of the 



. par^^^ 



rge I 

tor^^^M 

ices^^^n 
id 
.d 
it 
d 
le 

.6 

te 
ol 

M 




104 CIRCULARS OF INFORMATION FOR 1882. 

normal schools by almost 50 per cent, in quality of work. The criterion 
has been the estimate reported by the principal of the school and con- 
firmed bj^ the superintendent. Promotion for merit has been doubly 
in favor of the normal graduates. The average teacher stops growing 
within a short period after achieving fair success, three to five years 
being the ordinary limit fixed. The teacher educated at a normal school 
is more likely to continue growing throughout the entire career. 

The best device for the initiation of new teachers, whether from the 
normal school or elsewhere, is what is known in cities as "substituting.'^ 
The new teacher is sent to fill temporary vacancies as they occur. If a 
partial failure is made and demoralization takes place on the part of the 
pupils, the evil is soon remedied by the return of the regular teacher. 
Meanwhile the teacher goes to fill some other vacancy with a store of 
valuable experience acquired. It is very difficult for a young teacher 
to recover control of a school room after it has been lost by the mistakes 
of inexperience. The plan of sending out such inexperienced teachers 
as substitutes not only makes them successful in a far less time, but it 
positively saves many from complete discouragement and ultimate fail- 
ure. I have known many teachers of long experience, but wretched 
failures after all this experience, who have become good teachers after 
being employed a few weeks as substitutes. This practice of send- 
ing substitutes to fill vacancies is made more effective in improving the 
qualifications of teachers by the organization of schools in groups and 
placing them under supervisory principals. The supervisory principal 
can manage a system with twenty to thirty subordinate teachers. His 
work differs from the superintendent's in the fact that he is required to 
hear at least two regular recitations daily, a circumstance which keeps 
his supervision at the point of view of the teacher and makes it to differ 
widely frdm the supervision of the superintendent. 

The links of supervision when developed fully in a large city are three 
in number and very different in kind. The general superintendent is 
best qualified to detect one-sided tendencies in instruction and discipline 
and to take note of the trend of public opinion, give advice to the school 
board, &c. 

The assistant superintendents study details of management more 
closely and give more stimulus to the application of special methods 
and the correction of defects in practice. The supervising principal can 
give daily support to a teacher that is failing in discipline or instruction, 
and can conduct classes in the presence of the teacher and demonstrate 
the best methods of instruction, as well as prevent too harsh discipline 
by havingthe flagrant cases sent up to him for correction'. These flagrant 
cases he can usually reform by keeping a record of them and having- 
the same pupil bring up a daily record of his behavior from his teacher 
until he succeeds in attaining a perfect record for several days in suc- 
cession. 

There is still another very important means of improving the quality 
132 



DEPARTMENT OF SUPERINTENDENCE. 105 

of instructioD, by introducing into the course of study a certain amount 
of work to be done orally. The pupil is to have no text book and to 
have no previous preparation. The teacher must make elaborate prep- 
aration and ^rnisji the pupil information, and at the same time, by 
conversation, connect this new material with related objects that have 
already come into the child's experience. The oral lessons should not 
be given on work that the child can already master by his own study, 
such as the disciplinary studies, reading, arithmetic, geography, and 
grammar; but they should relate to the sciences of nature and to civil 
history, nature, and man. Inasmuch as the preparation by the teacher 
mast be elaborate, there should be not more than two of these oral les- 
sons a week. It has been a great mistake to bring in these oral lessons 
every day. The teacher has been unable to meet the strain on her 
energies and has been obliged to come to the lessons unprepared. With 
one long lesson a week in natural science and one in history, the teacher 
makes weekly preparation and gradually becomes well informed in all 
departments of natural science and civil history. A teacher continually 
growing in knowledge of the world will continually improve as a teacher. 
This oral work stands in sharp contrast to the regular text book work. 
Its results, however, continue to reappear in the greater interest which 
the teacher infuses into the recitation from the textbook. Her ability 
to cross-question and, to bring out into clearness all phases of the sub- 
ject continues to develop. There is and must be a periodical recurrence 
of a demand on the part of the public for this introduction of lessons in 
natural science and history into the course of study. These are infor- 
mation studies, contrasted with reading, writing, arithmetic, grammar, 
and geography as discipline studies, and their methods should be very 
difterent. Then they will be mutually helpful. All text book instruction 
tends to degenerate into parrot-like repetition of words without investi- 
gation of the meaning. All oral instruction tends to degenerate into a 
pouring-in process for the pupil, giving him amusement and saving the 
hard work for the teacher alone. The school should not give up its 
information studies because the people cease to clamor for them, nor 
introduce them at the expense of discipline studies when extremists 
demand it. The superintendents must be conservative in action and 
conservative likewise in reaction. For my closing sentence, I return 
to my main thesis: they must chiefly exert their influence to make the 
teacher strong in the community. 

Messrs. Smart and Houck followed in discussion; and Mr. KiCH- 
ARDS, of Washington, said that the essential in schools is not method 
but matter; that nine- tenths of the time of the children is spent in mem- 
orizing that which never results in anything. 

Mr. Northrop spoke in favor of the schools of the rural districts, 
and said that in nine cases out of ten country boys will succeed best. 

Mr. Sheldon remembered that Dr. Gregory made an address which 



106 CIRCULARS OF INFORMATION FOR 183-i. 

he beard in Michigan twenty-tive years ago on practical education, and 
he discussed the paper under consideration at some length.* 

Mr. Fletcher, of Maine, and Mr. Northrop made pertinent re- 
marks. 

Mr. Blodgett reported the following resolutions; which were adop- 
ted: 

Resolved, That in the death of \V. D. Heukle, one of the founders of this association, 
it has lost one of its most earnest and constant laborera, and the cause of education will 
miss his earnest advocacy of sound and comprehensive methods with his voice and 
with his pen. 

Resolved, That in the recent death of S. H. White, long the efficient principal of the 
Peoria Normal School and an earnest promoter of the interests of this association, we 
have lost a fellow-worker whose zeal was untiring, whose judgment was sound, whose 
friendship was warm and true. He has left valuable contributions in the important 
field of educational journalism. 

The Department then adjourned sine die. 

134 




Washington, D. C, March 15, 1882. 

The eomtiiission appointiid by the resolution of tbe House of B«pre 
sentativea, dated February 20, 1882, • • • for tbe purpose of ia^ 
vestigating the public school buildiogs of the District of Columbia, &a.jf 
has the hODOr to submit the following report: ' 

Having duly organized, the comiuission addressed letters of inquiry 
to tbe Comniiasi oners of the District, the board of tiustees of the public 
schools, the superintendents of the public schools, and the health officer 
of the District, referring to the resolution and requesting information 
bearmg on the matters referred to therein. All of these commuuieations 
received prompt replies, and the commission takes great pleasure in 
acknowledging the uuiforin courtesy with which it has beeu treated by 
all parties concerned in the inquiry, and their evident desire to ftirniah 
all the inforniation possible relating to its object. J 

The brief space of time allowed for the preparation of this report haffl 
not permitted of so complete an investigation into the character of tbel 
buildings, &c., atj would have been desirable; and by reason of pressure ' 
of other official duties the members of the commission have been unable 
to devote as much of tlieir time to persoaal examination of the various 
schools as they would have wished. Nevertheless, they have been able 
to visit in person a number of the schools, iucludiug specimens of the besS 
and of the worst of both the owned and the rented buildings. 

They have also beeu fortunate in obtaining through the courtesy p 
the National Board of Health theassistanceof Dr. Charles Smart, Uuitei^ 
States Army, who has made for them a number of examinations of ven- 
tilatiou, including careful air analyses, in buildings selected for that 
purpose as types. Mr. F. H. Cobb, an engineer of the Capitol grounds, 
has, at the request of the commission, made a careful examination of all 
the rented buildings in Washington and Georgetown, with reference toj 
their capaeitj, sanitary condition, security from flre, amount of rent paid^fl 
&c„ and this information, together with that furnished by Dr. Smari^a 
and some of the results of the personal observations of the commission, 4 
are embodied in a report upon each school building owned or rented. I 

After having carefully considered the data, • • ■ and after an 
examination of the plans of the various buildings furnished from the 
office of the inspector of buildings for the District, and after having 
had personal conferences with the Commissioners of tbe District, the 
inspector of buildings, the building committee of the board of trustees, 
and the superintendents of public schools, the commission have come 
to the following conclusions : 

I. The amount appropriated for the coustruction of new buildings 
tlie District during the last three years has not been sufBcient 



igsia ^J 

M 



108 



CIRCULARS OF INFORMATION FOR 1882. 



more than meet the demand for accommodation due to the annual in- 
crease of pupils during the same time. This will appear from the fol- 
lowing table, which shows the annual increase in attendance of pupils 
in the public schools during the last six years: 



Year. 



Averageen- t««^««o^ 



1875 
1876 

1877 
1878 
1879 

1880 
1881 



14, 417 
15,646 
17, 112 

18, 959 
20, 389 
21,600 
22,061 



Total increase for six years 

Average annual increase for six years 



1,229 
1,466 
1,847 
1,430 
1,211 
461 



7,644 
1,274 



The amount of additional accommodation provided during the last 
three years by the erection of new buildings has been about 1,320 
pupils annually. It is believed that this statement sufficiently accounts 
for the fact that there has been little or no diminution in the number of 
rented buildings, notwithstanding the number of new buildings which 
have been constructed. 

The following table shows the total number of school-rooms owned 
and rented in the District at the present time, which gives an average 
of 55 pupils per room : 



White. 



Colored, i Total. 



Owned .... 
Rented 

l^otal 



180 

84 



109 
25 



289 
109 



264 



134 



398 



The large school buildings that have been erected in the District 
during the last three years have received careful examination. The 
general plan of all these buildings is considered fairly satisfactory, and 
they are superior to some and equal to the average of school buildings 
in other large cities of this country-. They have been as cheaply built 
as is consistent with the purpose for which they were designed, no 
money having been used for architectural eifect or ornament of any kind. 
They include the Peabody, Henry, and Force school buildings and the 
one at the corner of Tenth and U streets. The plans of the Peabody 
and Henry buildings were selected by prize competition. 

The principal defect, from a sanitary point of view, in all these build- 
ings is in regard to the fresh air supply, which is entirely insufficient. 
The method adopted for this purpose is to admit the air through a per- 
forated plate placed beneath the sills of four windows in each room. 
Having passed through this plate the air is supposed to pass downwards 
through a narrow slit in or behind the wall, and to enter the room at a 
level with the floor, and then pass up through a steam radiator which 
is i)laced against the-window. The sum of the area of the clear opening 
in the external plate of each window is from 22 to 25 square inches, so 
that the area of clear opening for the supply of pure air to the room is 
136 



DEPARTMENT OF SUPERINTENDENCE. 109 

from 88 to 100 square inches, giving an average of about two-tbirds of 
one square foot. When it is remembered that this is intended to suppl^^ 
fresh air for 60 chiUlren, each of whom shouhl have as a minimum 30 
cubic-feet of air per minute, it will be seen that it is simply impossible 
to obtain such a supply through the openings provided, which in fact 
will hardly furnish 5 cubic feet per minute per pupil. In most of the 
rooms at the time of the examination these fresh air openings were 
found to be entirely closed and even when open, in a majority of cases, 
very little air was entering through them. It would appear that they 
are kept closed in part to prevent the freezing of the condensed water 
in the radiators and in part to avoid draughts upon the children sitting 
near them. The greatest part of the supply of air for the school rooms 
in cold weather comes directly through the brick and plaster walls of 
the rooms, especially on the windward side of the building, and from the 
large central halls, the doors and transoms into which from the several 
rooms are usually kept open. Examinations showed that in most cases 
a strong current inwards existed in the lower part of the open door- 
ways. 

In the Tenth and U streets building the foul air flues in the external 
walls are so arranged that at times the two large aspirating ducts on 
the opposite wall pull against them to such an effect that there is a 
down draught through the external foul air flues into the room. The 
large central aspirating shafts in these four buildings appear in the 
main to work well. Each school-room has, opening into these shafts, 
registers, one-half near the ceiling and the other near the floor, 
amounting in all to four square feet of clear opening. The velocity of 
air at these openings was found to vary from 80 to 200 feet per minute. 
The maximum would give 800 feet per minute removed as the work of 
these shafts. The amount which should be removed from the room to 
give 30 cubic feet of air per minute to each child would be 1,800 cubic 
feet j)er minute, or more than double the work actually effected by the 
aspirating shafts. The heating apparatus in these buildings is alto- 
gether insufl&cient to heat during cold weather the amount of air supply 
which should be furnished. To effect this, both the amount of radi- 
ating surface and the size of the supply pipes would need to be largely 
increased. 

There is no provision in any buildings for diminishing the temperature 
of the incoming air without totally cutting off the supjily of heat, and 
when the rooms become overheated, as appears to be not unfrequently 
the case, the only method of cooling is to shut off the heat and open the 
windows, thus creating draughts. In the Peabody and Henry buildings, 
the building on the corner of Tenth and U streets, and in the Curtis 
building, a simple bell trap in the floor of the basement is the only 
protection against the entrance of sviwer gas into the buildings. These 
bell traps are entirely unreliable for this purpose, and as a matter of 
fact in the Henry and Curtis buildings, and also to a slight extent in 
the Peabody building, the gases from .the sewers were found to be 
passing through this trap into t^ie basement. As the air of these base- 
ments communicates freely with the upper part of the building, and 
forms, as ha« been pointed out above, one of the main sources of supply 
for the school rooms, the great danger from this source can be readily 
understood. 

II. Very few of the rented buildings have any special provision for 
ventilation. The great majority of them are heated by cast iron stoves 
standing in the room, and have no special arrangements for either fresh 
sdr supply or the removal of foul air. It is believed that in the majorit' 



110 CIRCULARS OF INFORMATION FOR 1882. 

of these buildings great improvement in the ventilation might be ef- 
fected by simple means and at comparatively small expense by employ- 
ing ventilating stoves, which shall warm the fresh air to be admitted, and 
by the insertion, at suitable points, of flues for the escape of foul air. 
As regards the rents of these buildings, the commission would refer 

to the recommendation of Mr. Cobb and of the inspector of buildings. 

* # # * * * . * 

It must be remembered, however, first, that the assessed value is 
considerably beneath the actual value, and, second, that while the rent 
paid for some of the buildings is undoubtedly exorbitant, it is probable 
that these are the only bliildings in the vicinity which can be procured 
for the purpose. 

The locations for new buildings to be erected should be selected with 
a view to diminishing the amount paid for rental as much as possible. 

III. In view of the fact that the construction of these buildings is 
so far advanced toward completion, and after an examination of their 
plans and of the work so far as completed, the only suggestions which 
it appears to be necessary to make at this time with regard to them 
are: (1) That in view of the recent burning of the Jefferson school 
building, and that it is alleged that this was due to the fact that 
the horizontal ventilating flues were combustible, it is advised that all 
the ventilating flues in the new buildings should be made fireproof. 
(2) That care should be taken by means of i)roperly adjusted valves to 
secure a free supply of fresh air at all times, whether the heating appa- 
ratus be in operation or not, and also the possibility of so mixing cold 
with the warm fresh air as to secure the admission of a free supply of air 
at any temperature desired. The system of heating and ventilation by 
means of indirect radiation in these buildings is, in the opinion of the 
commission, the only one which will give satisfactory results in large 
buildings of this class. 

Into the details of the sizes of flues, &c., to secure the necessary 
amount of air supply and removal, the commission has not had time to 
enter. 

IV. The commission is of the opinion that the control of and respon- 
'sibilitj' for the erection, repairs, and care of public school buildings and 
property pertaining thereto should be vested in the school board by the 
Commissioners of the District. It is advised, however, that no new 
building should be erected, or any important alterations in existing 
buildings made, until the plans and sites selected for such new buildings, 
or the proposed alterations, shall have been approved by a board of ex- 
perts representing the best and most recent knowledge in sanitary 
science, in pedagogy, and in architecture. In view of the fact that one- 
half of the expense of these schools is borne by the General Government 
it seems only proper that it should, through its own oflScers, exercise the 
controlling power of approval with regard to the erection of new build- 
ings or important changes in those already existing. Such an impor- 
tant matter as the arrangement of a large school building should not be 
left to the discretion of a body of men who have no special familiarity 
with the approved principles of school management, sanitary science, 
or architecture. 

The simplest and most satisfactory way of obtaining such a board of 
experts would be to have them appointed by the President, who would 
probably have no difficulty in selecting suitable persons from among the 
various officers in the different departments of the government who are 
on duty in Washington. 

V. It is the opinion of the commission that the amounts heretofore 

138 



DEPARTMENT OF SUPERINTENDENCE. Ill 

allowed for repairs in the school buildings have been economically used, 
but that they have been insufficient to meet the current wants. The 
commission find, however, that under the present system there is no 
possibility of ascertaining what each individual building has cost in the 
way of ref)alrs, and it is considered that this is a defect which should be 
remedied. An account should be kept with each building, not only for 
its original cost of construction, but for the subsequent cost of repairs, 
heating, lighting, &c., for purposes of comparison, and to ascertain the 
relative merits of different plans of construction, &c. 

VI. In all buildings which have water closets within the buildings it 
is desirable that the present plumbing regulations of the District of 
Columbia should be enforced, and this should apply not only to those 
in process of construction or hereafter to be erected, but also to those 
already occupied. It is the opinion of the commission that every school 
building in the District should be carefully inspected at least once a 
year with reference to its ventilation, plumbing, and general sanitary 
condition, by an officer of the health department, and the result of such 
insx)ection be reported to the board of trustees of public schools through 
the Commissioners of the District. 

VIL Only a i)ortion of the buildings owned by the District, and none 
of the rented buildings, are fireproof. As regards the majority of the 
rented buildings, however, the danger in this respect is comparatively 
small, since they are only one or two stories in height, and the stories 
are so low that, in case of fire, escape could probably be readily effected 

by the windows. 

.*'* # * * * * # 

VIII. The commission has carefully considered the existing wants of 
the District for additional school accommodation. 

Looking at this side of the question ouly, it would appear that there 
is at the present time great demand for additional school buildings. On 
the other hand, the commission fully recognize the fact that there are 
great and urgent demands upon the revenue of the District for other 
jjurposes, and more especially for drainage, sewerage, and for putting 
the streets into a proper condition, and also that the rate of taxation 
upon the property owners in the District should not be materially if at 
all increased. It is because this last point has been kept in view that 
the commission has refrained from commenting in detail upon the de- 
fects which are found in the existing school buildings, even in the best, 
or from urging the erection of such buildings as would be considered, in 
the light of the combined requirements of modern sanitary and peda- 
gogical science, as model schools, since to secure the amount of light 
and fresh air which should be furnished in such a building necessitates 
not only a certain increase in cost of construction over that which has 
been heretofore expended upon school buildings in the District, but 
also additional cost for their maintenance, more especially as regards 
heating, since in cold weather the fresh air to be supplied must be 
warmed, and if the proper amount is supplied the cost for fuel must be 
increased to correspond. Taking all these things into consideration, it 
is the opinion of the commission that for the next three or four years 
at least the sum of $100,000 per annum should be expended in the con- 
struction of new buildings upon plans to be approved b^^ a board of 
experts, as above suggested, and that, setting all other considerations 
aside, it will be much more economical to make this expenditure than to 
pay the rents of the structures which these new buildings would replace. 

In the plans of buildings to be hereafter erected, the commission 
consider that the following points should be insisted on, concurrinp* 

139 



« u 



112 CrRCULARS OF INFORMATION FOB 1882. 

with regard to them with the report of a special committee of award 
upon plaus for public schools, as reported in the Sanitary Engineer for 
March 1, 1880, with certain modifications relating more especially to 
the conditions in the District : 

1. All sides of the building shall be freely exposed to light and air, 
for which purpose they shall be not less thdn sixty feet distant from any 
opposite building. 

2. !N^ot more than three of the floors, better only two, shall be occu- 
lted for classrooms. 

3. In each classroom not less than 15 square feet of floor area shall 
be allotted to each pupil. 

4. In each classroom the window space should not be less than one- 
fourth of the floor space, and the distance of the desk most remote from 
the window should not be more than one and one-half times the height 
of the top of the window from the floor. 

5. The height of the classroom should never exceed fourteen feet. 

6. The provisions for ventilation should be such as to provide for 
each person in a classroom not less than thirty cubic feet of fresh air 
per minute, which amount must be introduced and thoroughly distrib- 
uted without creating unpleasant draughts or causing any two parts 
of the room to differ in temperature more than 2^ Fahrenheit, or the 
maximum temperature to exceed 70^ Fahrenheit. The velocity of the 
incoming air should not exceed 2 feet per second at any point where it 
is liable to strike on the person. 

7. The heating of the fresh air should be eff'ected by indirect radia- 
tion. 

8. All closets for containing clothing and wraps should be thoroughly 
ventilated. 

9. Water closet accommodation for the pupils should be provided on 
each floor. 

10. The building should not occupy more than half the lot. 
All of which is respectfully submitted. 

JOHK S. BILLINGS, 
Surgeon, United States Army. 
JOHN EATON, 
United States Commissioner of Education, 

EDWAKD CLARK, 
Architect United States Capitol. 

140 



'"• »r • ♦ • •' 



CIRCULARS OF INFORMATION 



OF THE 



BUREAU OF EDUCATION 



No. 3-1888. 



PROCEEDINGS PF THE DEPARTMENT OF SUPERINTENDENCE OF THE 

NATIONAL EDUCATIONAL ASSOCIATION AT ITS MEETING 

AT WASHINGTON, FEBRl'ARY 20-22, 1S83. 



WASHINGTON: 

GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE. 

1883. 
586 ED 1 77-78 



CONTENTS. 



Page. 

Letter of the Commissioner of Edacation to the Secretary of the Interior 5 

Members in attendance 7-& 

Natural history in public schools: its utility and practicability as illustrated by 

the methods adopted in New York City, by Prof. Albert S. Bickmore.-. 9-12 

Address of N. A. Calkins, president of the department 14-1& 

Report on indastrial education in Boston 16-20 

Communication respecting indastriltl education, by Chas. 6. Leland 20-2^ 

The educational lessons of the census, by Dr. Wm. T. Harris, Concord, Mass.. 24-34 

Bemarks of Dr. Henry R. Waite on the paper of Dr. Harris 38-40 

Remarks of Dr. Harris in reply 40-42 

Membership of committee on national aid to education 42 

If universal suffirage, then universal education, by Rev. Atticus G. Haygood, of 

Georgia 43-54 

Constitutionality of national aid to education, by William Lawrence 54-58 

Remarks of Hon. Jos. Desha Pickett 5& 

Resolution respecting national aid to education 58 

Address of Hon. B. G. Northrop respecting Indian education 59-6^ 

Address of Gen. S. C. Armstrong respecting Indian education 63-64 

Address of Miss A. C. Fletcher respecting Indian education 64-73^ 

School supervision : Remarks of Mr. C. G. Edwards and others on How and 

by whom the fitness of pupils for promotion is determined 73-76 

Remarks of Hon. Joseph White and others on compulsory education 76-78 

Remarks of Hon. M. A. Newell on the chief obstacles to successful results in 

the schools 78-81 

Conclusion ., 81 

79-80 



LETTER. 



Department of the Interior, 

Bureau of Education, 
Washington^ D. C, May 18, 1883. 

Sir : The accompanying papers contain the records of the proceedinggp 
of the recent meeting of the Department of Superintendence of the 
National Educational Association, together with the addresses presented 
daring the several sessions. 

Their publication in this form has the advantage of bringing out the 
carefully prepared statements of those who presented papers and the 
various experiences and views of others who joined in the discussions- 
The demand for the proceedings of the previous meeting has been so- 
great as to exhaust the first edition and require a second issue. 
Very respectfully, your obedient servant, 

JOHN EATON, 

Commissioner. 
The Hon. Secretary of the Interior. 

Publication approved. 

M. L. JOSLYN, 

Acting. Secretary^ 

81-82 




mmm 



Wtrnfim 



(6—030.) 



Please fill and return this Itcceipt* 



^ >♦< ^ 



.,188 . 



I have received from the Bureau of Education the 



fnlloTjuing: 



(^PLEASE SIGN THIS LEGIBLY.) 



}fame, 



Profession or official position. 



Post-office address (town or city, county y and Stale), 



If city, street and number,. 



NOTJE. — Any critlcioms or remarks which your examiuation of this report may 
suggest are respectfully invited. 

[127lH>--50,00'J.] 




tar^v^^f^ 



"■^V*^^ 



NATIONAL EDUCATIONAL ASSOCIATION. 

DEPARTMENT OF SUPEEIKTENDENOB. 



PERSONS IN ATTENDANCE. 

General S. 0. Armstrongs, principal of I^ornial and Agricultural In- 
stitute, Hampton, Va. 

Principal George P. Beard, State Normal School, California, Pa. 

Professor Albert S. Bickmore, ph. d., American Museum of Kataral 
History, Central Park, New York. 

Hon. John M. Birch, superintendent of schools, Wheeling, W. Va. 

Professor J. H. Blodgett, Eockford, Illinois. 

Henry C. Brown, esq., secretary of the international committee of the 
Young Men's Christian Association, New York, N. Y. 

Mr. G. M. Brumbaugh, Normal College, Huntingdon, Pa. 

Hon. B. L. Butcher, State superintendent of free schools. Wheeling, 
W. Ya. 

Hon. N. A. Calkins, president of the Department of Superintendence, 
assistant superintendent of schools, New York, N. Y. 

Hon. G. F. T. Cook, superintendent of colored schools, Washington, 
D. C. 

Hon. Newton C. Dougherty, superintendent of schools, Pepria, 111. 

Mrs. Sarah B. Earle, member of board of education, Worcester, 
Mass. 

Professor J. E. Eastman, Naval Observatory, Washington, D. C. 

Eev. Horace Eaton, d. d., Palmyra, N. Y. 

Hon. John Eaton, United States Commissioner of Education, Wash- 
ington, D. C. 

Hon. C. G. Edwards, assistant superintendent of schools, Baltimore, 
Md. 

Miss A. C. Fletcher, Indian Territory. 

A. P. Flint, esq., Philadelphia, Pa. 

W. H. Gardiner, esq., chief clerk Bureau of Education, Washington, 
D.C. 

Eev. J. A. Hamilton, Norwalk, Conn. 

Hon. Henry M. Harrington, superintendent of schools, Bridgeport, 
Conn. 

Hon. Wm, T. Harris, LL. D., Concord, Mass. 

Rev. A, G. Hay good, D. D., general agent of the John F. Slater fund, 
Oxford, Ga. 

63 



8 CIRCULARS OF INFORMATION FOR 1383. 

Hon. John Hitz, Washington, D. C. 

Hon. Dwight Holbrook, superintendent of schools, Clinton, Conn. 

B. T. Janney, esq., supervising principal, Washington, D. C. 

Hon. H. S. Jones, ph. d., superintendent of schools, Erie, Pa. 

J. E. Keene, esq., supervising principal, Washington, D. C. 

Hon. John E. Kimball, superintendent of schools, Newton, Mass. 

Hon. William Lawrence, First Comptroller of the Treasury, Washing- 
ton, .0. C. 

B. G. Lovejoy, esq., member of school board, Washington, D. C. 

Hon. George J. Luckey, superintendent of schools, Pittsburgh, Pa. 

G. G. McLean, esq. 

Hon. A. P. Marble, ph. d., superintendent of schools, Worcester, Mass. 

Eev. A. D. Mayo, Boston, Mass. 

Professor H. P. Montgomery, supervising principal of colored schools, 
Washington, D. C. 

W. S. Montgomery, A. M., supervising principal of colored schools, 
Washington, D. C. 

Hon. M. A. Newell, ll.d., State superintendent of public instruction, 
Baltimore, Md. 

Hon. B. G. Northrop, LL. D., ex-secretary State board of education, 
Newton, Conn. 

Professor C. C. Painter, Nashville, Tenn. 

Eev. Wm. S. Palmer, d.d., chairman board of education, Norwich, 
Conn. 

Eev. W. W. Patton, D. D., president of Howard University, Wash- 
ington, D. C. 

Professor E. A. Paul, principal of high school, Washington, D. C. 

Hon. Jos. Desha Pickett, State superintendent of public instruction, 
Frankfort, Ky. 

Professor Zalmon Eichards, Washington, D. C. 

Hon. A. J. EickoflF, superintendent of schools, Yonkers, N. Y. 

Hon. Henry E. Sanford, superintendent of schools, Middletown, N. Y. 

J. W. Schermerhorn, esq.. New York, N. Y. 

Hon. James H. Smart, ex-State superintendent of public instruction, 
Indianapolis, Ind. 

Hon. E. W. Stevenson, superintendent of schQols, Columbus, Ohio. 

President Eli T. Tappan, Kenyon College, Gambler, Ohio. 

Dr. Henry E. Waite, special educational agent of the Census Office, 
Washington, D. C. 

Dr. Charles Warren, statistician of the Bureau of Education, Wash- 
ington, D. C. 

Hon. Joseph White, ex-secretary State board of education, Williams- 
town, Mass. 

Hon. J. O. Wilson, superintendent of schools, Washington, D. 0. 

J. M. Wilson, esq., Washington, D. C. 

84 



DEPARTMENT OF SUPERINTENDENCE. 



FIEST SESSIOIif— TUESDAY EVENING. 

WASHiNaxON, February 20, 1883. 

The members of the Department of Superintendence of the National 
Educational Association and their friends met in the High School Hall 
at 8 o'clock p. M., Hon. N. A. Calkins, the president, in the chair, and * 
Hon. H. S. Jones secretary. 

After calling the meeting to order and announcing the sessions for the 
following day, Mr. Calkins said : 

In introducing to you the speaker for this evening, it is proper that 
I should state, in regard to the selection of the subject which he will 
present — natural history in public schools — that the invitation to Pro- 
fessor Bickmore to come before you was suggested by the character of the 
work which he is doing for the public schools of the city of New York. 
Believing that there would be many of those in attendance at this con- 
vention who would be pleased to learn what is done there in the mat- 
ter of introducing natural history into the public schools and knowing 
that any mere description of that work would fail to give you an accu- 
rate idea of it. Professor Bickmore was invited to come here, to bring 
with him some of his apparatus, and to show you what he is doing for 
the schools of that city. 

I may add that arrangements have been made with Professor Bick- 
more by which he gives on Saturdays, in the Museum of Natural His- 
tory at Central Park, lectures before teachers of the grammar schools^ 
as a means of preparing them to give instruction in natural history ia 
the schools where they are employed. These lectures are thus made to 
awaken an interest in this subject among the pupils in the schools, 
which leads them to visit the museum, as many do with their teachers. 
During lessons in school, which follow these visits, questions are asked 
these pupils concerning the animals which they saw and the subject of 
the lesson is discussed in an intelligent manner. 

But Professor Bickmore will be able to represent to you what he i» 
doing much better than I can tell you. I now have the pleasure of in- 
troducing to you Prof. Albert S. Bickmore, of the American Museum of 
Natural History, Central Park, New York, who will address you on the 
subject of 

NATURAL HISTORY IN PUBLIC SCHOOLS: ITS UTILITY AND PRACTX- 
CABILITY AS ILLUSTRATED BY THE METHODS ADOPTED IN NEW 
YORK CITY. 

Professor Bickmore said : 

Mr. PitESiDENT, Ladies and Gentlemen : About two years and a half 
ago the authorities of the museum with which I am associated addressed 

85 



10 CIRCULARS OF INFORMATION FOR 1883. 

a letter to the board of education of our city, suggesting that they se- 
lect a limited number of their teachers to come up to our institution, 
and that I should give them conversational talks (we scarcely call them 
lectures) upon the objects that we had on exhibition in our halls. It 
proved to be an extremely stormy day in winter when the first gather- 
ing took place, but all those invited were present, and we were at once 
impressed with the magnitude and importance of the work thus thrust 
upon us. The attendance of the teachers was so constant that the six 
informal talks were extended to eighteen or twenty. The board of 
education then addressed us a letter expressing their high estimation 
of the work* thus begun and asking that fifty teachers be allowed to be 
present at the next course. At the conclusion of these lectures the board 
wrote us a second letter stating that there were one hundred and four 
schools in our city under their direction and asking if accommodations 
could be made for at least one teacher from each of them, in order that 
there might be a distinct, definite influence going out from our museum 
every week to each school, conveying important instruction and aiding 
the teachers to give the most complete information to their pupils upon 
human and comparative anatomy and zoology and other subjects upon 
"Which the board might require oral instruction to be given in the com- 
mon schools. A course on zoology is now in progress, and every Sat- 
urday our little hall is filled to overflowing. 

Believing that the sense of sight is the royal avenue to the mind and 
that all information which can be. conveyed by the eye is much more 
<;omplete and satisfying than that conveyed by the ear, I planned to 
^ive the instruction desired by ocular demonstration, that is, by exhibi- 
tions. A large part of the objects we wished to display to the teachers 
are too small to be seen distinctly by the naked eye, and yet their re- 
mains in some places make up the chief bulk of mountain ranges. 
O^her animals, as the deer, the ox, the horse, the moose, and the ele- 
phant, are far too large to be transported from the exhibition halls to 
the lecture room, and yet they are among the most interesting objects to 
(the children that are to be found in the animal kingdom. How we could 
•easily and without loss of time place these various objects visually be- 
fore the class of teachers was the problem that came to us when we 
ibund the personal interest they manifested in this department of natural 
science. We purchased the most complete stereopticon to be obtained, 
-but we found that photographic transparencies of the objects we desired 
\to display could not be discovered in any of the lists of slides offered for 
«ale in London, Paris, or Vienna, and that, if any teacher had hitherto 
prepared them, he had never published any account of his work nor indi- 
cated how his successors might avail themselves of his labor. 

A few views of the animals in the Zoological Society's Gardens of Lon- 
don were found and a few copies from works on anatomy ; but no con- 
tinued, systematic series of illustrations existed, so far as we are aware. 
A.n assistant skilled in this department of the photographic art was em- 

86 



DEPARTMENT OF SUPERINTENDENCE. 11 

ployed to make negatives and slides from the specimens on exhibition 
in our public halls, supplemented by copies from the best illustrations 
in standard works on natural history. The prominent book and map 
publishers of London and l^ew York cordially aided by striking off un- 
colored impressions of their wood-cuts and engravings for the use of our 
photographer, who has already made some 800 negatives, in addition to 
the large series of views we have purchased from every available source. 
The transparencies which we have made at the museum so far exceed 
in clearness and brilliancy any that we have found in the market that 
we propose in time to use only prints on glass from negatives of our 
own manufacture. This system of illustration can be made just as 
elaborate as the time and means of the instructor may permit. What 
we have so far accomplished we regard merely as a beginning in the im- 
portant work of enabling teachers to properly educate their pupils in 
zoology. The same mode of effective illustration is equally applicable 
and important in teaching physical geography, geology, and mining,, 
and every other department of natural science which can be rendered 
more instructive and therefore more interesting by photographic views, 
diagrams, or ideal sketches. The field of labor thus opened to the in- 
structor is a wide one, for it demands that he shall not only be thor- 
oughly conversant with the latest and best maps and drawings and 
other means of illustration that now exist, but that he shall keep con- 
stantly adding new transparencies from the latest explorations in these 
various departments in ever^^ land. 

The negatives being once provided, the slides can be supplied at little 
more than half the price now paid for such transparencies, and, while 
we shall use here this evening the oxyhydrogen or lime light we have 
brought from Kew York, I am happy to say that I have seen these same 
slides shown by a light burning simply kerosene oil, and the illumina- 
tion was sufficient for an ordinary class room containing 50 to 75 pupils. 
Any teacher here present that can take proper care of an ordinary kero- 
sene lamp can, therefore, with the simple lantern of which I speak, ef- 
fectively repeat to his class the illustrations which our lime light will 
now place on tbe screen. 

This mode of exhibition necessitates a darkened room, and, as I have 
experienced the inconvenience of not being able to exhibit specimens 
or make diagrams on the blackboard while the illustration is on the 
screen, I have introduced into my lecture room a second lantern, which 
throws a light upon any portion of the blackboard I may desire, so that 
the classification of the animals to be shown is constantly before the 
audience while the several specimens appear in succession on the screen. 
In an a^oining place in the room I have fitted up a series of shelves, like 
a case in our public hall, on which the specimens to be described are ar- 
rangeil. Diaphragms pierced with round or square holes of varying 
dimensions will light up any portion or all of the specimens on the shelves, 
and in this simple method we are able to transfer our audience instantly 

87 



12 CIRCULARS OF INFORMATION FOR 1883. 

from the lecture room to our exhibition halls, and that, too, in a more- 
effective way than if the audience actually passed into one of the large 
rooms, for in the hall some persons would be looking at one object in one 
case while others would be interested in other objects in other cases; but 
by confining the light to the specimens that are being described we con- 
centrate the attention of all to the object or group of objects we are dis- 
cussing, and the mind .of the speaker and the minds of all his audience 
necessarily move on from point to point in the discussion in perfect har- 
mony. 

Professor Bickmore then gave a description of the building occupied 
by the American Museum of Natural History, which contains four 
stories and a gallery and was erected at an expense of $700,000. He 
then showed upon a large screen, by the aid of a stereopticon, the fol- 
lowing subjects, calling attention to the principal facts of interest con- 
cerning each: protozoans: a young sponge, the Venus flower basket^, 
corals, ideal sketch of the bottom of the sea in the Mediterranean, a 
coral island (atoll, Bermudas), brittle stars; mollusks: a common salt 
water mussel, oysters, the mode of dredging off* the shores of France,, 
a dredge, a helix, a cone, a large squid, the squid as it was represented- 
in old books ; articulates : a "common" and a "spiny'' lobster, a lob-^ 
ster car, the violet crab of Jamaica; insects: a minute insect, a flea,. 
Colorado beetle; vertebrates: the arm and hand of a fish, tortoise, 
whale, deer, seal, dog, mole, bat, ape, and man ; fishes: a climbing perch, 
the circulatory system of a cod ; reptiles : a boa constrictor, a water boa 
or anaconda, the structure of the fangs of a rattlesnake, an iguana, a 
tropical scene from Brehm's Thierleben, chameleon, turtle catching, an 
ideal view of marine animals in the Triassic period, a landscape in the 
coal period; birds : an ostrich in the Paris museum, a gull, sand-piper, 
flamingo, a male and female humming bird, the migration of birds, a 
view on a Siberian river in early spring, the nest and young of the 
gray plover, the light-house at Heligoland on a migration night, a map 
of our own country, a map of South America, a relief map of Europe ; 
mammals: the skeleton of a cow, the Brahman bull. Brahman cow and 
calf, antelope from the Kocky Mountains, a giraffe, the skeleton of a 
giraffe, skeleton of a deer, a fossil deer found in Ireland, a camel, a- 
dromedary, skeleton of a camel, the wild boar of West Africa, the skel- 
eton of a hog, African wart hog, rhinoceros, the skeleton of a rhinoce- 
ros, a horse, zebra, zebra hunting in South Africa, a European wolf, a 
royal Bengal tiger, lion, the skeleton of a lion, the animals of the stone 
age; man: two slides of human anatomy (colored), the African race — 
a view on the Congo, Stanley and his followers, the Zulus ; the Mongo- 
lian race — a Chinese mandarin, a Chinese hamlet among the tea hills,, 
curling the tea leaves, sorting tea; the Aryan race — a native of India,, 
a Mohammedan prince of India, a Mohammedan temple at Lahore. 

The president announced that there would be a business meeting^ 

88 • 



DEPARTMENT OF SUPERINTENDENCE. 13 

immediately after the dispersion of tlie audience and requested the 
members of the department to remain. 

At this meeting the following resolution was offered by General 
Eaton, and was adopted: 

Beaolved, That an executive committee of three members of the department be ap- 
pointed by the president, and it shall be the duty of said committee to arrange and 
report an order of proceedings for this meeting. 

The president named as this committee Messrs. Wilson, of Washing- 
ton; Marble, of Worcester; and Pickett, of Kentucky. 
Mr. Wilson offered the following : 

Resolvedy That the president of this department be requested to appoint a commit- 
tee whose duty it shall be to represent to Congress the views of this association on the 
subject of national aid to education, and to take such further action in the premises 
as may be deemed advisable. 

After the unanimous adoption of this resolution, the department 
adjourned to meet on the following morning in the lecture room of the 
Congregational Church. 



SECOND SESSION^- WEDNESDAY MOKNING. 

Washington, February 21, 1883. 

The members of the department assembled in the lecture room of 
the Congregational Church at 10 o'clock and were called to order by 
the president. Eev. A. D. Mayo opened the session with pra^-er. 

Hon. Henry M. Harrington, of Bridgeport, Conn., was elected treas- 
urer, and Mr. J. E. Eockwell, the stenographer, assistant secretary. 

Mr. Wilson, from the committee on order of exercises, announced 
the following topics and speakers : 

Address by the president. 

Industrial edncation. Reports on the subject to be read by Supt. John £. Kimball 
and Dr. Charles Warren ; followed by discussion. 
Educational lessons of the census^ by Dr. Wm. T. Harris. 

The following letter was received : 

Office of Superintendent of Public Schools, 

Frajjklin Building, 
Washing toHy D. C, February 20, 1883. 
Dear Sir: The members of the department of superintendence are cordially in- 
yited to visit the public schools of this city. The schools will be in session to-mor- 
row, Wednesday, and will then be closed until Monday next. The Webster School, cor- 
ner Tenth and H streets, and the Franklin School, corner Thirteenth and K streets, 
are both near the Congregational Church, the place of meeting for the department. 

Very respectfully, 

J. ORMOND WILSON, 

Superintendent. 
Hon. K. A. Calkins, 

President, ^c. 

The president announced that the treasurer would receive applica- 
tions for membership in the association. 

89 



14 CIBCULA.RS OP INPOEMATION FOB 1888. 

The assistant secretar}^ read several expressions of regret from mem- 
bers unable to be present. Among the letters received were those 
from Hon. Thos. W. Bicknell, ll. d., editor Journal of Education^ 
Boston, Mass.; D. K. Camp, A. m., Few Britain, Conn.; Hon. Charles 
L. Collier, superintendent of schools, Memphis, Tenn. ; Hon. A. Coward, 
State superintendent of public instruction. South Carolina; Hon. J. L. 
M. Curry, ll. d., general agent of the Peabody education fund, Eich* 
mond, Va.; Rev. J. H. Cuthbert, Washington, D. C; Hon. R. R. Farr, 
State superintendent of public instruction, Richmond, Va. ; Hon. J. M. 
Fish, superintendent of schools. Little Rock, Ark. ; Hon. Aaron Gk)ve, 
superintendent of schools, Denver, Colo.; E. L. Kellogg, esq., 21 Park 
Place, New York ; Charles G. Leland, esq., Philadelphia, Pa. ; Hon. E. B. 
Neely, superintendent of schools, St. Joseph, Mo.; Hon. James Mac^- 
Alister, superintendent of schools, Milwaukee, Wis. ; W. A. Mowry, ph» 
D., Providence, E. I. ; Rev. A. M. Pitzer, d. d., Washington, D. C. ; Lieut* 
R. H. Pratt, u. s. A., superintendent of Indian training school, Carlisle 
Barracks, Pa. ; Hon. W. C. Rote, superintendent of schools, San Antonio, 
Tex.; Hon. J. C. Shattuck, State superintendent of public instruction^ 
Denver, Colo.; W. E. Sheldon, esq., editor of The Primary Teacher,. 
Boston, Mass.; Governor Hugh S. Thompson, Charleston, S. C; Gen. 
Francis A. Walker, Census Office, Washington, D.C.; Hon. J. P. Wick- 
ersham, ll. d., ex-State superintendent of public instruction, Lancaster, 
Pa.; Hon. C. S. Young, State superintendent of public instruction^ 
Carson City, Nev. 

Mr. Calkins, the president of the Department of Superintendence, 
delivered the following address: 

address of the president. 

Members of the Department of Superintendence of the 
S'ATiONAL Educational Association : Once again representatives 
of the educational systems of the States and cities of the nation have 
assembled at its capital to consider matters pertaining to the interests 
of public instruction. The fields of labor occupied by those gathered 
here are widely separated and the work performed by each has differ- 
ing characteristics, yet there exists a union of purpose among all which 
binds us together as a brotherhood, laboring for the noble cause that 
contributes much toward the stability and prosperity of our beloved 
country. 

I rejoice with you that it has become our annual custom to come 
hither and confer with each other fraternally in relation to those things 
that belong to a general diffusion of education among all classes of 
people, and that in this work we have common interests and aims. 

The circumstances attending our respective spheres of work often 
compel attention to matters that demand serious deliberation and the 
exercise of sound wisdom to guide aright in the acts that must follow. 
In the midst of the dif&culties that sometimes meet us we long to 

90 



DEPARTMENT OF iSUPERINTENDENCE. 15 

inqaire of a successful brother who has overcome similar obstacles and^ 
learn from his experience. These fraternal conferences furnish opportn- 
nities for such inquiries; they also inspire our hopes and strengthen our 
hands for better work and greater success in the cause of education. 

The present outlook as to progress in the direction of better element- 
ary teaching and the corresponding results that follow in general edu- 
cation is gratifying. During the past ten years great strides have been 
made by the thinking, progressive te^ichers toward a clearer knowledge 
of child nature and in right ways for reaching child mind. The result* 
appear in the more general development of power among the pupils of 
these teachers to observe carefully, of ability' to think understandingly 
concerning that which has been seen, and in the firm foundation thus- 
laid for subsequent attainments in knowledge. 

It is fast becoming understood that mere imitators soon attain their 
growth in teaching and that the §nd of real progress with them is near 
the place of starting. Among the hopeful signs for the future is the 
fact that so many of our schools are becoming fields in which the teach- 
ers are themselves making important discoveries in the true work of 
education, instead of contentedly following the traditionary customs of 
the past. The fact that so many teachers are turning their attentioi^ 
to psychology and earnestly inquiring after a science of educations 
which may guide them in the art of teaching is a hopeful sign. 

Great changes, also, have bee» made in the means for diffusion of edu- 
cational intelligence during the past decade. We now have not only 
monthly and bimonthly but weekly journals, with large circulations^ 
4evoted to the interests of education in all its varied aspects. In addi- 
tion to these the weekly and daily papers reflect the general interest of 
the public in relation to educational matters in their several localities. 

Whenever the minds of those engaged in the work of education in 
one locality become unusually active in relation to a particular depart- 
ment of the work or concerning anything intimately affecting it, that 
activity widens and widens, like the circling waves on the placid lake 
into which a pebble has been tossed, until the distant shores are reached. 
Let the cry be raised in Boston against the burden of too many text 
bookSy and its wail will be echoed in Chicago and in San Francisco. If 
the public in Quincy discover a supposed better way for education, pil- 
gnmages are made, and the towns of the East, of the West, and of the 
South are moved thereby. 

As an instance of the increasing interest in matters that relate to 
methods of education, it may be mentioned that only a few months ago 
the Bureau of Education issued, as a circular of information on indus- 
trial art in schools, an article prepared by Charles G. Leland, esq., of 
Philadelphia, in which the way is pointed out for making hand work 
and school work cooperate with each other in general education and 
culture. Fifteen thousand copies of this circular of information have 

91 



16 CIRCULARS OF INFORMATION FOR 1883. 

been distributed already. The mail of a single day recently brought 
orders for more than six thousand copies. 

In these and kindred facts, we may find much for encouragement and 
hope that the widening diffusion of intelligence on subjects pertaining 
to public education will ere long produce a corresponding extension of 
increased facilities and improved character in the common schools of 
every State. In view of these fa<5ts, we are reminded, also, of the neces- 
sity for careful consideration of matters relating thereto, especially by 
those who occupy positions which should exert great influence in decid- 
ing what the public schools shall become, by me?ns of an intelligent 
public opinion. It is fitting on this occasion, therefore, that we direct 
our deliberations to those matters which relate intimately to the work of 
securing a better education for the people. And in these deliberations 
we should aim to call out the best thoughts and ripest experience on 
the topics considered, while each endeayors to say the most in the fewest 
words possible. 

It was with the view of facilitating such deliberations that I placed in 
the programme of subjects for this meeting that of " School supervision ' 
its specific aims and methods employed," and invited superintendents to 
consider topics designated under this subject and to present at this 
meeting results of their experience in relation thereto, in concise state- 
ments. And, further, I believe that a fair portion of the time of the 
meeting of this Department should be H^ent in efforts less formal than 
exhaustive addresses, with a view to making available the experience 
and wisdom of the greatest number in matters pertaining to our special 
duties in connection with the work of education. And with this view, 
I commend to your consideration the advisability of devoting the time 
of one session of this meeting to topics relating to school supervision. 
In this connection allow me to suggest that the least possible time be 
consumed in stating theories and that the chief aim of all be to show 
how the desired results in supervision may be secured. May each of us 
return to his field of labor with garnered treasures. 

Finally, allow me to bespeak your counsel and cooperation in efforts 
to make this a profitable and pleasant meeting. 

INDUSTRIAL EDUCATION. 

Superintendent John E. Kimball read the following letter from the 
principal of the D wight School, Boston, with his report on industrial 
education : 

Boston, February 12, 1883. 
My Dear Sir : The experiment in industrial education is to be tried in the Sherwin 
School, under the auspices of the school board, during the coming season. In my own 
school the expenses were paid by a syndicate of wealthy gentlemen and ladies who 
were interested in the subject. The success was so great that the board assumed 
•charge of it, and now only await an appropriation from the common council of $500 
to perfect their arrangements. ' 

I have no doubt the success will be as decided in the Sherwin School as it was with 
92 



DEPARTMENT OF SUPERINTENDENCE. 17 

me, and, if so, the plan will gradaally grow into favor, and will be extended to other 

boys' schools throughout the city. 

Yours, very truly, 

JAMES A. PAGE. 
Hon. N. A. CalkinSj 

President Department of Superinlendence. 



REPORT. 

CITY OF BOSTON. 

In School CoMMirrEE, July 5, 1881. 

Ordered, That the principals of the D wight and Sherwin Schools be authorized to 
accept the liberal offer of the Industrial School Association, and to permit such or 
their pupils to receive the instruction thus tendered as may, in their judgment, be 
best fitted to profit by it, the instruction to be given at such time as will least inter- 
fere with the progress of the pupils in their regular studies. 

Ordered, That the abovementioned principals be instructed to report to the board 
the resalts of the instruction thus given at the end of the school year. 

• 

In compliance with the above order, I respectfully submit the following as my 
report : 

In order to carry out the generous offer of the association, it was thought necessary^ 
at the outset, to secure a good room in which the lessons in manual instruction might 
properly be given to the pupils of the two schools mentioned in the order. During 
the early fall considerable time was taken and many visits were made to different parts 
of the district in search of such quarters. The committee of the association founds 
however, no single place that was not open to serious objection either on the ground 
of poor light and ventilation or on that of bad surroundings. 

It was not until they concluded to accept one of the school rooms of the D wight 
School building, for the time being not in use, that they felt that any progress had 
been made in that direction. 

It was owing to this difficulty of obtaining suitable rooms that Mr. Stone, of the 
Sherwin School, agreed with the committee and myself that the experiment had 
better be. confined to one school, and that it should be the one under whose roof the 
trial was to be'made. This room, though rather small (27 feet by 27 feet), was found in 
other respects to be a good one for the purpose. 

The superintendent of public buildings ordered the seats to be taken out, the room 
was cleared of all its school furniture, the benches were placed, the tools bought, the 
teacher, Mr. Walter Bachelder, a carpenter and builder, of Chelsea, was secured, and 
everything was ready to begin in December, 1881, soon after the annual municipal 
election. This room had been designated by the city council as one of the voting 
places in the ward. 

On the first Thursday of January the instructor gave his opening lesson to a class 
of eighteen boys, all that could be accommodated at the three benches at one time^ 
These boys had been selected by myself from the graduating class, without reference 
to their standing, and no conditions were made with them except that they should 
not fall behind in their regular school work. Another clads of the same number was 
selected from the second, third, and fourth classes, in order that the experiment 
might be tested by a wider application to ordinary grammar school material. Many 
of these latter had already handled tools, to a certain extent, either at home or ia 
their fathers' workshops. 

In arranging the practical details of the school with Mr. Bachelder, it had been 
agreed that school discipline should be maintained throughout the sessions ; that the 
programme should be carefully written out on the blackboard ; that each boy should 
be marked on the work done ; and that a record of it should be kept. All this was 
faithfully carried out, ai^d contributed, as I think, largely to the final success. 
2 ED 586 93 



18 CIBCULABS OF INFORMATION FOE 1883. 

From this beginning to the close the school went on with unbroken and saccessful 
regularity. The teacher was promptly on hand, the order was good, the pupils were 
interested. It was delightful to see the eager desire manifested everywhere in the room 
to do the day^s work well. 

There was no absence, no tardiness. On one occasion a count was made, and sey- 
lenteen out of eighteen pupils were found at work at one o^clock, when two was the 
hour for begi nning. 

It was feared that the noise of many hammers and other tools, in use at once (as 
"was necessary in giving the same lesson to a whole class), would be so great that the 
<other rooms on the same floor might be seriously disturbed. It was arranged, there- 
fore, that the school in the adjoining room should proceed to the hall whenever a 
lesson in the training room was going on. Practically, however, no trouble was felt 
from this source. The walls in the school room were found to be so thick as to deaden 
the sound almost completely. 

It was thought, also, that taking a part of a class away from its regular school 
work would result in more or less detriment to its progress in the prescribed studies. 
Here and there a complaint was made by the teacher of some second class boy that 
lie was not doing his work well in his own room; but the pupil, in every case, was so 
anxious to remain in the *^ carpenters' class" that a word or two of warning was suffi- 
cient to bring his performance up to the standard again. » * # i consider that 
the results go far to prove that manual training is so great a relief to the iteration of 
school work that it is a positive benefit rather than a detriment to the course in the 
4)ther studies. 

The lessons, as prepared and given by Mr. Bachelder, are appended to this report 
-and marked **A." 

The school was visited by a large number of ladies and gentlemen, some of them 
lirom distant parts of the country and many of them anxious to learn the details of 
the plan upon which the school was carried forward. It was also visited by mem- 
bers of the school board, the snperiutendent of schools, and by many educators of 
.all grades, thus showing a widespread interest in the general question of manual 
training in the public schools. 

The cost of the scliool to the association from January to May^ inclusive, five 

months, as furnished by Henry S. Grew, esq., treasurer, covers every item of expense 

•in a school of this size, except those which, in another building, would have to be 

met under rent, lighting, and heating. The figures in full will be found in the paper 

-marked **B." 

Here, perhaps, I ought to close my report, having answered the demands of the 

order passed by the school board in giving the results of the instruction in manual 

training in the Dwight School. But I have a conviction, and, with permission, beg 

to state it here, that this instruction is surely in the line of the teaching that is to 

'be. I would be glad, therefore, to see the experiment still further tried and all the 

experience which has been gained and all the plans which have been essayed fully 

.formulated, availed of, and worked out into practical details, so that by and by, at the 

proper time, the best Kindergarten vrork, the best object teaching, and the best 

lanethods of manual instruction shall be known and, furthermore, shall be ''organ- 

.ically combined with the^whole scheme of education, and be made to support and 

coalesce with all the other studies of the child.'' 

It is easy to see that this band instruction may be made the means of teaching 
^whole chapters of arithmetic more thoroughly. I have seen it made the means of 
teaching geography and natural history effectively in our own school. 

There. are high authorities who believe there can be no thoroughly clear, "vigor- 
"ons, and enlightened brain without the cultivated hand. Such are Sir Charles Bell, 
the author of the Bridge water Treatise on the Hand, and Dr. William B. Carpenter, 
the physiologist, no ^ visiting this country. If these men are right, then manual in- 
struction intredaced into our schools would be a step forward, because it would luiYe 
94 



DEPARTMENT OF SUPERINTENDENCE. 19 

a special value of its own in 'developing the mind, which is the avowed purpose of all 
schools. 

The great difficulty will be the lack of competent teachers. But that difficulty 
may be met, as it has been saccessfully met once before. What lias been done in the 
matter of drawing may yet be done in industrial work. A corps of teachers, as sug- 
gested by General Walker, maybe furnished by the Institute of Technology, and that 
institution may eventaally do for industrial what the normal schools of the State 
have done for general insti*uction. 

I have, in closing, to acknowledge the interest shown in the school by very many 

fri«nds, to whom I feel under great obligation ; especially to the Rev. Mr. Chaney 

the president of the Industrial Association, and to Mr. Henry S. Grew, its untiring 

treasurer; to Dr. J. G. Blake, who spoke words of encouragement and advice to 

the boys in the midst of their work ; to Mr. Bachelder, thQ faithful teacher of the 

elass ; and to many others who gave their encouragement and support by visiting 

the school again and again. 

JAMES A. PAGE. 



*' A."— • Topics of the Industrial Class of 1882. 

Lesson L — (1) Striking square blows; (2) nailing, first process; (3) nail and set- 
ting nail ; (4) nailing on line; (5) nailing flush ; (6) blind nailing. ^ 

Lesson II, — (1) Toenailing; (2) straightening small piece of pine; (3) planing 
surface of small piece of pine ; (4) planing surface of large piece of pine. 

Lesson III, — (1) Joint and square the edge of the board; (2) remove the jointer's 
iron, and readjust it; (3) learn to use the ^auge ; (4) learn to use the splitting saw; 
(5) learn to use the rule and pencil in drawing parallel lines. 

Lesson IV, — (1) Learn to use the chalk and line; (2) learn to use the try square 
with pencil and knife. 

Lesson V, — (1) Learn to use the cutting-oflf saw ; (2) remove the jointer's iron ; (3) 
^sharpen the plane iron on the oil stone. 

Lesson VI, — (1) Learn to use the cutting-off saw with bench hooks; (2) learn to 
use the block plane ; (3) learn to cut a chamfer with a chisel. 

Lesson VII, — (1) To cut a chamfer with a plane; (2) to learn to use the bit and 
bit brace! 

Lesson VIII. — (1) To plane a piece to an even thickness and width; (2) to make 
several pieces of the same length and width ; (3) to make one piece of a certain length 
and width. 

Lesson IX, — (1) To nail together several pieces, work out the same, making a box 
with three apaitments ; (2) to plane a piece of an even thickness, one end to be wider 
than the other ; (3) to make a tenon. 

Lesson X, — (1) Paring with chisel; (2) cutting chamfer with chisel and plane; (3) 
to make a piece having eight sides or corners. 

Lesson XL — (1) Marking and boring ; (2) to reduce each end of the eight-cornered 
square pieces to fit a f hole ; (3) to make a mortise. 

Lesson XII, — (1) To cut a square block to a described shape; (2) to chamfer the 
4same ; (3) to sand-paper the several pieces. 

Lesson XIIL — (1) Sand-papering; (2) fitting together the different pieces to make 
. good joints ; (3) to put together the different pieces with glue. 

Lesson XIV, — (1) Td make a box for the oil stone, to be made of two pieces of wood; 
(2) to halve together two pieces. 

Lesson XV, — (1) To make an open mortise and tenon ; (2) gluing. 

Lesson XVI, — (1) Make a double open mortise and tenon; (2) sand-papering ; (3) 
to plane and square. 

Lesson XVII, — (1) To make a tenon (review) ; (2) to make a mortise ; (3) to fit them 
together; (4) to plane and square. 

Lesson XVIII, — (1) Planing and squaring; (2) marking; (3) making tenon (review) ; 
(4) moftiee to be made (review); (5) to fasten mortise and tenon with draw bore. 

^'B.'' — Statement of cost of industrial school h^ld in the Ihcight School-HousCf Boston, Jan- 
uary to May, 1882. 

Tliirty-fiye lessons, of two hours each, to two classes of 18 each (36 boys, each two 
kom^ lemon per week) : 

Instraotor..! fl75 00 

8loek: iMarda «nd material to work up i 20 75 

95 



20 CIRCULARS OF INFORMATION FOR 1883. 

Sundries $21 43 

Two new benches and labor of starting the school $146 64 

Estimated cost of one old bench 50 00 

196 64 

Purchase of new tools 120 48 

Estimated cost of old tools on hand when school was opened 161 90 

282 38 

Janitor of Dwight School '. 15 75 

Total 711 95 






HENRY S. GREW, 
Treasurer Boston Industrial School Asaooiaiion, 
June 1, 1882. 

The following communication addressed to the members of the De- 
partment of Superintendence by Charles G. Leland, esq., in reference 
to industrial education in Philadelphia, and containing information 
supplemental to the Circular of Information of the Bureau of Educa- 
tion, Ko. 4, 1882, was read: 

Regretting that I cannot be present at the teachers' convention, I 
take the liberty of making by letter a few remarks on industrial art as a 
branch of education in schools and on the success of the experiment as 
conducted in Philadelphia. 

I must premise that the system of whi(Jh I speak is 'different from 
that pursued by the industrial schools. Properly speaking it occupies 
the time between the Kindergarten and the industrial school. The latter 
is specially adapted to boys and to technological or mechanical studies. 
A high authority in such schools has declared that their instruction 
was not suited to even boys of less than 14 years of age. This i^ uothiug 
to the discredit of the schools. A university is not an infant school. 
Again, the industrial school requires a building and a fortune to estab- 
lish it. It can only be carried on in a city. The Philadelphia system 
of industrial art teaching attempts,.first, to find out what kinds of manual 
labor are really adapted to all boys and girls whatever, especially to 
those under 14 years of age, and, secondly, whether it be possible to 
introduce some method of teaching them in all schools, in families, and 
to individuals. 

Extensive travel and earnest study of this subject during many years 
taught me that, while children cannot learn mechanical trades with- 
out detriment to mental studies or health, they can easily acquire the 
minor or decorative arts, including that of decorative design, which is 
the basis of them all. I have never found in any country that girls or 
weak or very young boys could with '* humanity'' be set at shoemaking. 
weaving, or factory work ; but they can all learn outline design and 
modelling in clay in a few weeks or months, and this to a degree that 
would astonish even an artist who did not know of what children are 
capable, They can also carve wood, embroider, work in leather,' and 
emboss sheet brass. That all of this can be well done by pupils only 
ten years of age is being shown to all who choose to visit my Philadel- 
phia school. 

96 



DEPAETMENT OF SUPERINTENDENCE. 21 

It has been strongly arged against this system that it teaches only 
art and "fancy work," that it is therefore useless, and above all that 
what boys want is a good practical education by which they may make 
a living. Now this is very true. Boys do need a [practical education. 
But to teach an average girl or boy of ten]||or eleven or even twelve 
years a trade is impracticable and visionary. The practical men had 
the experiment all to themselves in their own^way for many years in 
Pennsylvania, as in other places, long before they were troubled with 
visions of art, but they did not succeed with the little ones. If it had 
been possible this whole w^orld of ours would have become like many of 
the factories of Few England at the present day, a hell of hard labor 
for infants of eight and even six years of age. But in India and China, 
where human life is so cheap, although children are made profitable at 
art work, they cannot be profitably employed at trades. 

I have conducted this experiment without making a cent by it, for the 
purpose of testing human capacity. I have learned by it that, as the 
flower prepares the fruit, art work in children is a proper preparation 
for more practical callings^ Outline design and modelling qualify chil- 
dren to become useful in all factories where any kind of casting or shap- 
ing anything to graceful forms is required. Easy embroidery leads little 
girls to the far more difficult art of good plain sewing. Wood carving 
Daturally includes the elementary work of carpenters and joiners. Sheet 
brass embossing, little known as yet and first made known to amateurs 
both in England and in this country by my manual on the subject, calls 
forth or develops both the power of design and of mechanical execution 
to a really remarkable degree. A more important subject, to which I 
have paid particular attention, is the fact that the study of design and 
artistic hand work develops in all children intellectual powers of every 
kind. Given two boys of equal mental power, and let one study the 
three It's alone, while the other at the same time learns to design and 
model, and it will be found at the end of, say, two years that the latter 
will in all respects be by far the cleverer of the two. And it could not 
be otherwise. When the curiosity and interest of a boy are awakened 
in art he begins to observe the design in every shop window, in every 
piece of furniture, in every wall paper. He has entered a new world. 
In a few weeks the boy can tell you if a lace pattern or a sofa cover is 
correctly designed (I am sorry to say that in most cases he can tell you 
that it is not)j and give reasons for it. Is not this intellectual develop- 
ment! Is it not a practical preparation for a great deal of business! 
Would it spoil a boy for selling lace, dry goods, wall papers, or furni- 
ture! Would he know less about metal work! Would not, on the 
contrary, the knowing how to design patterns be through life of real 
use to him in manufacturing or selling almost any kind of fabrics t 

I have no pupils who receive from me and my assistants more than 
seventy hours of instruction during the year. In this time they learn 
to design fairly well, and with design learn one or two other minor arts. 

97 



22 CIRCULARS OF INFORMATION FOR 1883. 

That this is actually done is proved by the results. Those who will may 
visit the school, see the pupils at work, and examine the reJsults. Very 
recently, since I have been able to engage teachers for wood carving 
and sheet brass embossing, there has been a great improvement in the 
work. 

If I am asked what boys and girls can learn while attending school 
and without adding to the burden of the crowded course of studies, I 
reply, outline design according to a very simple elementary method 
founded by myself on principles long known to such teachers as Owen 
Jones, and that when this is learned there is very little trouble expe- 
rienced in wood carving, modelling brass, embroidery, sheet leather 
work, setting mosaics, working in papier mS^ch^ or any other plastic 
substance. As regards finding time for this, there is not a school child 
in Philadelphia who would not gladly keep up his or her average in 
other studies to be allowed to come to the PubHc Industrial Art School. 

I consider it as proved from my own observation that design and art 
■work stimulate quickness of perception and awaken interest in all cult- 
ure. If there are any present who have notHnvestigated the subject, 
I commend to them the perusal of the pamphlet on Industrial Art in 
Schools, published as Circular l^o. 4, 1882, by the Bureau of Education, 
Washington, under authority of the Commissioner, General John Eaton^ 
who is familiar with the school and knows what the pupils have done. 
I must in this connection express my regret that I was unable to have 
made betimes certain specimens of our art work for exhibition at this 
meeting. 

Of this pamphlet I may be allowed to state that it attempts to set 
forth clearly and practically how any person whatever may learn the 
principles of decorative design with the aid of an elementary manual, 
and that while thus learning one may also teach them to a class. When 
this is done any of the minor arts presents no diflSculty. The interest 
which the pamphlet has awakened in every corner of the Union is shown 
by the great number of letters I have received from persons interested in 
education informing me that they intend to test the Philadelphia system 
in schools or families. 

What I have ventured to characterize as the Philadelphia system is 
the theory that decorative art work is better suited than mechanieal 
work for boys and girls under 14 years of age, but that the artistic shall 
be so taught as to lead on to the mechanical or to technology. This art 
work is to be taught according to a simplified system of design, in which 
free hand drawing from the shoulder is combined with the most mechan- 
ical aids and appliances. In this system original design is taught from 
the first lesson. It is in full operation and has been perfectly tested, 
not only in the Public Industrial Art School, but also in the Ladies^ Art 
Club of Philadelphia, of which I am president. In the school I have 
150 pupils, soon to be increased to 300 ; in the club I have 200 grown-up 

98 



DEPARTMENT OF 8UPEEINTENDENCE. 2$ 

scholars. The same system of minor instruction is also pursued in< 
both institutions. 

I cannot conclude this brief communication without expressing my 
gratitication at observing how much is being done for education at 
present — wisely, efficiently, and nobly — without much appreciation or 
aid from either the public or its exponent, the press. Twenty columns 
of politics, half of them the politics of the slums and groggeries, or little 
better, may be found in many newspapers to one on education. It is in 
the bands of the teachera that the souls, the intellectual lives of all the 
coming generation, are placed. The teacher should be the highest,. 
the most honored in the land. He was actually so in early days, whei^ 
the priest and teacher were one. But there is a time coming, and that 
soon — I put the prophecy on record — when education will enter into 
onr national politics, and when candidates shall be measured, not by 
the blind and brutal tests of mere faction, but by their views as to how 
to advance culture, to promote honesty, to train the young, and to keep 
training and teaching man at every age. The best patriot is the man 
who will do most to bring this about. 

In the discussion which followed the reading of these reports, Mr» 
Marble said : 

I wish to make a remark upon a certain phrase in this excellent paper 
from Mr. Leland, where evidently the author's rhetoric ran away with 
his logic or truthfulness. He speaks of New England factories as hells- 
of hard work and labor for children six or eight years of age. I^ow, I 
mistrust that the latest information which the writer has may have been 
obtained from some Inaugural address where education may have been 
mixed up with politics. I would call attention to the law which forbids^ 
the employment of any children under the age of ten years. Further- 
more, I wish to say that I cannot see why the teaching of industrial 
drawing should be claimed as the "Philadelphia system,'^ when it has 
been practised for about a dozen years in many cities, and in substan- 
tially the same way. 

Dr. Warren thought that the law might sometimes be broken io 
reference to the employment of children under ten. He supposed Mr. 
Leland meant by " Philadelphia system " a combination of various things 
which others have taught singly. 

Dr. Tappan wished to inquire as to what branches should precede 
instruction in decorative art and mechanics. 

Mr. KiGHARDS thought the writers of the reports read had a correct 
idea as to what should precede industrial training. Decorative train- 
ing, he said, should begin with the child as he begins his alphabet and 
should be continued until he is fitted for some specific employment in life* 

He said: It is not a necessity that the child should be trained to a trade 
in school, and whether I would carry it as far as they do in the Boston 
schools, I am seriously in doubt. I would, however, have arrangements 

99 



24 CIRCULARS OF INFORMATION FOR 1883. 

«o made that every child should understand the language of the arts 
of common life. 1 believe the time is coming when there will be an 
industrial department in every well organized system of public schools. 
The employment of the intellectual training should alternate with the 
physical training. I would not train a child to become a carpenter or 
shoemaker, but I would make him familiar with the language of these 
employments. 

Mr. Mayo declared that all he had ever heard in regard to industrial 
training had been in connection with city schools. The experiment in 
Boston cost $20 for each scholar. Kow, can any gentleman tell us of 
any experiment that amounts to anything that has ever been tried in 
the ordinary country district school! Is this thing practicable! 

Mr. Marble replied that this question was like that asked by the 
colored man, who, when told that God made*man in his own image and 
stood him up against the fence to dry, inquired, "Who made that 
fence!" This question overthrows the whole system of industrial ed*- 
cation. Mr. Marble expressed himself as anxiously looking for light on 
industrial training. He deprecated the idea that the schools are re- 
sponsible for the after life of the pupils. The parents ought to bear 
«ome of the responsibility. 

Mr. Pickett thought that education meant the harmonious develop- 
ment of head and heart and hand. It is impracticable to carry out the 
work of industrial education, even in city schools; in country schools it 
18 entirely impossible. The school, in his opinion, is assuming too much ; 
it is taking too large a share of the responsibility of the parents. 

Mr. KiciiARDS understood that it was the part of the school to do 
what could not be done by the parents. A revolution of normal schools 
is what is needed. 

Mr. Jones stated that the Pennsylvania Railroad Company in hiring 
a boy wished to know whether he was a good mechanic. The railroad 
company understands its business; the world needs mechanics, not 
more workmen. 

THE EDUCATIONAL LESSONS OF THE CENSUS. 

Wm. T, Harris, ll. d., of Concord, Mass., then read the following 

pajier: 

It was my task on a former occasion to lay before rhis honored asso- 
ciation of school superintendents some suggestions as to the educational 
uses of the ceuHUS, and also the need of some changes in the schedules 
of the existing census tables. For the purpose of studying political and 
national aflfalrs we found that the items regarding race, nativity, mili- 
tary age, voting age, and total population were most important. For 
the purpose of studying the social condition of the people we had the 
Items of wealth and pauperism, sex and ages by nationalities, occupa- 
tions, deaths, diseases, public indebtedness, crops, machines, produc- 

100 



DEPARTMENT OF SUPERINTENDENCE. 25 

tious, months of birth of the population, also items relating to the in- 
sane, deaf, blind, and other unfortunates. 

For the study of education we had the items of schools and teachers, 
illiteracy, pupils, libraries, newspapers and periodicals, churches, the 
number of children of school age and their enrolment and actual at- 
tendance on the schools. The immense improvement in the methods of 
preparing the national census for 1870 led us to hope that the same en- 
lightened supervision after ten years of experience would produce even 
better results, if the recommendations and arrangements of the direc- 
tor of the census were seconded and supported by Congress. 

In so far as the results of this new census for 1880 have been given 
to the public, our anticipations have been fully realized. It is only to 
be regretted that an unwise reduction of the corps of laborers engaged 
in tabulating the results of this census has kept back from the people 
for so long a period the full use of the results of this most reliable and 
minute of all our national censuses. 

It is unnecessary to speak at length of the importance of self knowl- 
edge on the part of the individual or on the part of society or the state. 
It is evident that the wise direction of the state depends on a states- 
manship that possesses accurate knowledge of the social condition of its 
people and understands the measures necessary to "promote the gen- 
eral prosperity and secure the blessings of freedom.'' 

Social reform, too, is conditioned by accurate knowledge of the statis- 
tics of production and consumption, or of uses and abuses, evils and 
benefits, that may be itemized in the economy of the community. 

From our point of view as educators, nearly every item in the census 
has a significance because acting or reacting on the people as an educa- 
tional influence. 

Let us look for one moment at the most general item, that of the .ag- 
gregate population of the country — fifty millions and more. Ten years 
previous it had been less than forty millions and twenty years previous 
it had been about thirty millions. 

We all know that there is a subtle and unobserved educational in- 
fluence proceeding from the consciousness of nationality. To belong 
to a weak and despised nation is to submit to a perpetual training in 
humility and loss of self respect. A great blight settles down on the 
character of the individual like a foul, raephitic vapor, and prevents 
healthy growth. It was great to be a Eom^n citizen in the times of the 
Oaesars. It meant that the individual walked about clothed with an 
invisible garment of protection. The might of the greatest nation, the 
oonqueror of the world, shielded its humblest citizen. 

In modern times what a well-spring of character to the man is the 
consciousness that he is an Englishman. Eight hundred years of vic- 
torious national growth strengthen the backbone of each Briton. To 
belong to the nation whose flag is saluted by a perpetual morning sun 

101 



26 CIRCULARS OF INFORMATION FOR 188S. 

aroand the world is an education in self respect, manliness, honor^ 
virtue, and productive activity hardly to be estimated. 

Up to 1860 the United States had not reached the standard of a first 
class power among nations. Each of the " five great powers'' in Europe 
was larger. Our civil war came just then, and it seemed to all Europe, 
to our friends as well as our enemies, that our doom had come and that 
no constitution like our own could survive civil war. Before we had 
come to be respected for our national might, we were to be divided and 
rendered less and less formidable. 

When, in 1870, we reached thirty-eight millions of people, after 
emerging from a decade one-half of which was occupied with destruc- 
tive civil war, burdened with an enormous debt and still more by the 
uncertainty of the problem of reconstruction, our aspect was still too 
problematic to secure for us a recognition among the statesmen and 
historians in Europe. As a nation we are affected by foreign opinion 
perhaps less than other countries because of our distance and because 
of our consciousness of having a special national function and destiny 
different from those of European states. But the recognition that has 
begun to be accorded us by the nations abroad will awaken a new re- 
gard for foreign opinion and prove a great educative influence on u» 
through the increased intercommunication by travellers, by commerce^ 
and especially by literature, which describes our national manners as 
seen from the point of view of England, or France, or Germany. 

In a peculiar sense this is the age of the newspaper, and every morn- 
ing each man and woman living in a civilized community is supposed 
to take a bird's-eye view of his whole country, and, more than this, of 
the whole world that is reached by the telegraph. The nations that 
are far down in the scale of progressive humanity are coming to the 
gaze of the civilized world as a totality. The most wonderful thing is 
that they are also coming to feel the influence of public opinion. 

The veil of distance has been lifted and each people finds itself play- 
ing its part on the open stage before the world as spectator. It cannot 
do what it will, but it must do what alone will be permitted by the opin- 
ion of the world that looks on. 

This is national education in the largest sense, for It is the education 
of whole nations of people by whole nations of people. 

In this sense the American people are entering upon an era of na- 
tional education, in which the decennial census forms a very important 
agent. 

With the growth to fifty millions the United States for the first time 
rises distinctly above the national horizon as a great world power. The 
rate of increase will give sixty-five to seventy millions in 1890 and ninety 
to one hundred millions in 1900. We cannot easily realize the meaning 
of these census figures. Their chief significance lies in the new career 
that opens np to our people as a world power instead of a local power 
limited to this hemisphere. Our most adventurous Fourth of July 

102 



DEPABTMENT OP SUPERINTENDENCE. 2T 

orators have not been able to paint for as the national feeling that will 
be developed through our recognition in Europe. It is the English 
thinkers who have first seen the coming influence of the United States 
and of other English speaking peoples on this planet. 

Startled by the phenomena of the decade of 1860-1870 they have come 
to study America seriously and more seriously. They have seen a gigan- 
tic war lasting nearly five years in a republic where the central power 
seemed a shadow and the local power everything; after an unparalleled 
display of centralized strength, the restoration of local self government 
complete; spurious- reconstruction followed by genuine reconstruction; 
a new South rising out of the old, not like some fabulous phoenix, but 
with the more real agencies of the steam engine, the railroad, the tele- 
graph, and the powers of productive industry, and fortifying its new 
social position by means of the school, making greater efforts than any 
country ever made before in this matter of schools. The European spec- 
tator sees an enormous debt funded and refunded and constantly de- 
creasing, not by repudiation but by constant payment in specie. He sees 
the volume of paper money contracted and the resumption of specie 
payments. He sees the wonderful presidential settlement of '* eight to 
seven," and the coolness and patience of the American people under 
established legal forms. Then he looks again at an increase of twelve 
millions in ten years, reaching an aggregate of fifty millions of people^ 
the next nation to Bussia in point, of population, and all these people 
speaking English and living under a modified British constitution that 
realizes local self government here far more perfectly than it is realized 
in England itself. 

Ko wonder that the far-seeing thinkers of Great Britain are looking^ 
forward and casting up accounts, anticipating our census and calling^ 
the attention of their young men representing the aristocracy and wealth 
of the island to the meaning of the growth of British colonization in 
America. Napoleon's career at the beginning of the century and Bis- 
marck's towards the close of it, says a university professor, will seem 
very insignificant to the historian who looks back from the next century 
and calls attention to the quiet, unnoticed growth of the United States 
in the first half of this. 

He sees that our nation may then have three hundred millions of peo- 
ple, as many as all Europe, perhaps. We have a government in the 
form of local self government that allows the individual to manage all 
affairs that concern himself alone, but insists that he shall constitute 
with his neighbors a joint directorship over affairs that are common to 
them. His will must submit to the general will in all matters of com- 
mon weal. The numerous steps and stages — the school district, the 
township, the county, the State, the nation — ascend from the individual 
to the political summit. 

This means freedom to all and to each. Those who are really con- 
cerned in the business manage it, whether it be single individuals, or 

103 



28 CIECULARS OF INFORMATION FOR 1883. 

small commanities or large communities. Heuce^ while Europe sees 
American influence rising above the horizon as a world power, this does 
not forebode evil, as the increase of Eussian power portends an invasion 
of her neighbors by the Cossack. Even England and France might be- 
come parts of the United States and preserve all control of what con- 
cerns only themselves. And as for common interests between nations, 
do we not see and do they not see that the day will soon come when suoh 
interests must and will be managed by international commissions! 

This is the interest of. our census in its most obvious feature: its in- 
terest first to us and secondly to the world and thirdly to us again be- 
cause it interests the world. It is the education it brings to each and 
every American who lives in the consciousness of this mighty destiny 
before the whole world. It is a training in dignity, self control, hu- 
manity, earnestness, simplicity. You could tell a Roman of the empire 
by this ; so a Briton of the present ; so a Spaniard of the time of Charles 
V; so a Frenchman of the time of Ilfapoleonj so a Prussian of the Bis- 
marck regime. 

^Three-fourths of a million immigrants come here annually. A better 
educated class comejiere than formerly. The facts of our census 
arouse the attention of the more intelligent inhabitants of Europe and 
induce them to try their fortune with us. 

Turning from these considerations of the educational influence of the 
growth of the nation as a nation, let us contemplate for a moment the 
side of civil society, and recount to ourselves the meaning of the enor- 
mous sum of the productive industry of the country. The production 
of wealth appears to be the absorbing occupation of our people. Com- 
paratively few seek the fields of scholarship or the fine arts or states- 
manship. The growth of great corporations demands the most and the 
best of the great directive power that is developed here. Let us study 
for a moment this creation of property and the relation of its acquire- 
ment and preservation to education and the higher spiritual life of man. 

It is clear that all the bodily wants of man, food, clothing, and shelter, 
depending as they do upon the ownership of property for their satis- 
faction, are through this means elevated and spiritualized, because 
property is a result of the institution of society. For property is not 
the creation of the individual 5 mere possession does not suffice; it is 
the recognition of society that makes things become property. Civil 
society establishes rights of property and division of labor. Through 
this each man is required to labor for his fellow men and to depend 
upon their labor to supply him the articles of food, clothing, and shelter 
which his own labor does not produce. His bodily wants are no longer 
mere immediate impulses, as animal wants, but they are converted into 
the instruments of realizing his spiritual or reflected being; he is forced 
by hunger and cold to combine with his fellow m^n and to form a com- 
munity in which he is to respect their recognition far more than his 
own animal impulses and desires. 

104 



DEPARTMENT OF SUPERINTENDENCE. 29 

Thns, too, the institation of the family lifts man above mere sexual 
passion, and makes him iu that respect a reflected being, a rational 
being. 

Civil society is organized for the realization of man's existence as a 
property owner, so that he shall be a universal or rational essence, and 
not a mere individual animal, dependent on his mere locality and the 
season of the year and his unaided might for his physical life. For 
when man becomes a property owner and enters into this social combi- 
nation of productive industry he does not lose himself but rather finds 
himself. He adds to himself the gigantic system of the industry of the 
whole world just as really as if he were absolute monarch over it- and 
all mankind stood ready to fetch and carry at his bidding. Indeed the 
reality is more wonderful than the story as told in the Arabian !N'ights. 
The conception of Aladdin and his wonderful lamp, of Houssain and 
Ids magic carpet, and of Ali with his magic tube was the first dream 
of the wonderful organization of mankind into civil society. By its 
potency the humblest individual lives in communication with all the 
rest of mankind. The products of their labor are coming to him in a 
constantly flowing stream, from the ends of the earth ; he is in constant 
communication with all mankind and hears of their deeds, their joys^ 
and their sorrows, and cannot but profit by this communication and 
grow wiser by what he reads in his daily newspaper. The institution 
of private property made transferable and exchangeable by means of 
the device called money makes each man a central focu.^of dominion: 

For liim the winds do blow, 

The earth doth rest, heaven move, and fountains flow. 

Nothing he sees but means his good, 

As his delight or as his treasure ; 
The whole is either his cupboard of food 

Or cabinet of pleasure. 

Each man, by the simple process of industry and becoming a producer, 
puts into the market and storehouse of productive industry his little 
mite of a day's labor and thus gains the right to draw out from that 
market a portion of each of the products that all the countries of the 
world have contributed to it. 

Note, especially, that the contribution of each boars no proportion to 
the blessing that he receives in return. As Aladdin had to rub his 
lamp in order to call up its genius, the slave of the lamp, so, too, the 
lamp of human industry must be kept bright by the toil of the indi- 
vidual, and then all is provided. 

The service performed by the combined labors of all men is a service 
infinitely more considerate and thoughtful than the service of the slave 
of the lamp or the slave of the ring, in the Arabian tale. That service 
did only what was desired and commanded by the individual Aladdin ; 
but the service of the industry of the world does ten thousand things 

105 



30 CIBCULABS OP INFORMATION FOB 1888. 

for his true good and his possible wants that the individual cannot think 
of or understand. 

The individual needs to be educated in order to learn to perceive 
what servants wait on him and what priceless gifts stand ready for his 
hand. 

This is the miracle, that the whole of society is the slave of the ring 
that serves each individual. For is not social combination in a world 
of productive industry and commerce a gigantic ring of human beings t 
And does not each single individual in that ring find that he is enriched 
by all the labors of all the human beings in that ring, so far as those 
labors are labors of production and exchange ? ' 

Through civil -society each individual commands by his own feeble 
efforts the resources of the entire globe. The organization of civil 
society is so perfect that every day's labor of the wheat grower affects 
the price of wheat all over the world. Every day's labor in the mills of 
Lowell or Lawrence affects the price of cotton cloth in Australia. The 
day laborer in the streets of this city commands with his meagre wages 
to that extent a share in the coffee of the distant Indies, the sugar of 
Louisiana, the tea of China, the drugs of South America, the fruits and 
^*ains, the manufactures from all sections of the country. 

The fact that conscious intelligence — directive power — controls the 
property of the world is too obvious to need restatement. I call prop- 
•erty a *' reflected being'' because it exists only through the recognition 
of society. Things exist, it is true, without such recognition, but things 
do not become property until society confirms the right of ownership. 
Such recognition is always an act of directive intelligence. There are 
no rights of property where the possession and use of things depend on 
the will of the strongest individual. Rights of property arise only 
with the growth of insight into the supremacy of the social whole as 
organized in the state. Man must see that society is stronger than the 
individual and learn to obey the will of this invisible body and to 
renounce the temptation to substitute his might for right before prop- 
erty can really come to exist in a community. The laws that create 
and preserve property state the nature or constitution of the bonds that 
hold society together. They state the principles on which man shall 
oontribute to his fellow men and be permitted to share in their labors. 
Such distinctions as the laws of property set up contravene the imme- 
diate desires and wishes of the individual and demand of him the 
ooustant effort of self control. He must acquire a reflected will, that 
is to say, a will that is bent back upon itself in order to regulate its 
own action according to universal principles called " laws." 

A thing is an immediate existence ; but a piece of property is a thing 
that has become subject to my will through the recognition of society. 
Society acknowledges and respects the sway of my will over those 
things that constitute my property. Hence property is not a thing nor 
a direct product of my will, but the product of my will only as reflected 

106 



DEPARTMENT OF SUPERINTENDENCE. S*! 

in^^the will of the social whole existing in the form of a political body, 
the state. 

It is clear enough that the rights of property cannot exist except in 
a community whose directive power has adopted a code of laws and 
legal usages defining such rights of property, and only where there 
exists a class of the community specially educated to interpret the ap- 
plication of those laws to particular instances and enforce their appli- 
•cation on the part of the state or guide the individual by professional 
legal advice. It demands, too, the education of the law making power. 
Under all there must be the generally diffused insi^rht of the people into 
the necessity of the support of the power of the social whole against the 
might of particular individuals or classes of individuals. 

This insight into the necessity of the political organization of society 
is an insight that belongs to what I call " directive intelligence,'' be- 
cause it can be realized only through the control and direction of the 
mere individual will, requiring it to renounce its inclinations, wishes, 
and whims so far as they are not compatible with the existence of social 
combination. The rights of property can be conserved only through an 
educated class. 

The higher kinds of property, such as franchises, imply a high intel- 
ligence in the community. The property that consists in franchises 
requires a more thoroughly educated community, because such rights 
rest on more subtle distinctions than the rights to chattels and real 
estate. The individual must be so disciplined in mind that he can see 
readily the connection of his own well-being with the existence of such 
franchises. 

Again, the possibility of possession of property by all iu this country 
adds new validity to it here and makes it more valuable. That you 
<5an alienate your real estate, makes it property in a complete sense. 
If it is entailed it is only part property. The free possession of prop- 
•erty, without feudal liens and tenures (the dead hands of the past 
owners still clutching the symbol of their reflected being), comes to ex- 
istence only when a government of all the people, for all the people, and 
by all the people prevails, and when it is rendered possible through 
universal education. Who would own real estate in Turkey! Who 
would accept a Eussian estate on condition that he live on it and assume 
its responsibilities! No one of us, I think. The quality of property — 
its intrinsic value — depends upon the quality of the community who 
recognize it. The status of the reflected being is the status of those 
who reflect it. Property in a refined and cultivated community is raised 
to a high potence of value; in a barbarous community it is not worth 
the risks incidental to its possession. In proportion as a man is edu- 
•cated he sees the substantial character of reflected existence, and this 
perception creates continuially new subjects of property, founded on new 
recognition: bodiless possessions, ^incorporeal hereditaments,'' that 
receive their substance from conventional recognition. 

107 



32 CIRCULARS OF INFORMATION FOR 1883. 

• 

The growth of corporations is the wonder of this generation. They 
perform what the individual never could do for himself, and yet need« 
to have done in order that he may become freed from the thraldom of 
nature. The individual could not aflford to build an aqueduct to obtain 
pure water from the distant hills, or establish gas works, or own a rail- 
road or a telegraph or express system. Corporations furnish him all 
these things. If corporations abuse their power sometimes, this is be- 
cause society has not yet learned where to place legal restrictions upon 
them and is another illustration of the necessity of education in the 
community. 

This general relation of education to wealth production brings us close 
to the question of so-called industrial schools : manual training schools^ 
school shops, and the like. It is clear enough that such schools are in 
demand and have a legitimate function to perform. But it is not so 
clear that they should be incorporated with common school education 
or in any way encroach on the time-honored disciplines of the common 
school, i. e., reading, writing, arithmetic, geography, grammar, &c., or 
indeed take the place of anything that can be called general instruction. 

Let us see what the census teaches us in regard to the proportions of 
the population engaged in the particular arts and trades. We shall then 
see whether such industrial instruction can be made general enough to 
answer the future needs of any considerable fraction of the pupils in 
school. 

if each of the five hundred arts, trades, or occupations in the commu- 
nity required a special school for the preparation of its laborers and had 
uo manual and technical disciplines in common with the other occupa- 
tions it is clear enough that such special industrial education could not 
be introduced into the common schools. 

I have selected for this investigation nine cities differing greatly ia 
respect of manufactures, commerce, and professional and personal ser- 
vice. They are New York, Philadelphia, Brooklyn, Chicago, Boston, 
St. Louis, Cincinnati, New Orleans, and Baltimore. 

It is evident that the inhabitants of cities will present us a larger 
proportion of laborers at the arts and trades than the country popula- 
tion. In the cities, if any where, it would be desirable to establish indus- 
trial education in the common schools. 

According to the census of this country for 1870 — I use the statistics 
of 1870 because the returns are complete — there were 350,656 persons 
above the age of ten years in the city of New York who were reported 
as laboring in some occupation. Of these 86,17 1 are reported as females. 
Of the entire number there were 1,401 engaged in agriculture and 115,259 
in professional and personal services, the last being one-third. Personal 
services included 49,440 as domestic servants, 28,451 as mere laborers, 
4,832 as in hotels and restaurants, 5,604 in laundries, 1,278 in livery 
stables, 1,535 in boarding houses, 2,549 barbers and hair-dressers, 42 
billiard saloon keepers — 93,731 in all. Professional services included 

108 



DEPARTMENr OF SUPERINTENDENCE. 3'3 

V 

715 clergymen, 316 journalists, 1,283 lawyers, 4,222 in Government offices, 
1,741 physicians and surgeons, 669 soldiers, 3,511 teachers — 12,457 in 
all. There were 9,071 others engaged in personal or professional services 
not specifically designated. 

When we consider the various occupations named above, under which 
one-third of all the laboring population of Xew York are classified, we 
see that there could be no special training school added to the common 
schools that would fit each pupil for his particular vocation, if one of 
these. 

By far the largest number in any single occupation are classed as 
domestic servants, and these form one-seventh part of the entire num- 
ber of laborers. 

The general discipline of the hand and eye that is given in the study 
of free hand drawing in our common schools would be of great service 
to nine-tenths of these laborers. Still more valuable would be to all 
the training of the Kindergarten occupations at the early age \Vhen the 
muscles are not yet formed and fixed. The one occupation of mould- 
ing from clay would be useful to all cooks and to all who have to do 
with giving shape to plastic material. 

The census reported 88,611 as engaged in trade and transportation, 
one-fourth of all the laborers. Of these, 23,872 were traders and dealers, 
4,744 were hucksters, pedlers, &c., 27,590 were clerks, salesmen, &o., 
3,355 were bankers, brokers, insurance men, &c. — 59,561 total in trade. 
Of those in transportation, 3,844 were engaged by railroads and express 
companies, 296 by telegraph companies, 4,463 were sailors, &c., 9,813 
draymen, teamsters, &c. — 18,418 in all. Of those engaged in trade and 
transportation, 10,632 were not more specifically classified. 

Here, too, we see that the general industrial education fitted for all 
is a knowledge of arithmetic, reading, and writing, and not some spe- 
cies of manual skill. 

The number engaged in professional and personal services, added to 
those engaged in trade and transportation, gives us nearly three-fifths 
of the whole industrial population of New York. The number engaged 
in manufacturing and the arts is reported at 145,285, or the remaining 
two-fifths of the industrial population. Of these, 3,533 were black- 
smiths, 2,296 were iron and steel workers, 3,787 were machinists, 1,562 
were tinners. Here we see 11,178 whose occupations have something in 
common, namely, the working with iron and steel or hardware in some 
8hai>e« The use of the hammer and the file would be useful to all these; 
but they form only three in one hundred of the entire industrial popula- 
tion. In a school of one thousand they would make a class of thirty- 
two pupils. If more than thirty-two pupils were attracted into this class 
from a school of a thousand, it would be likely to produce discontented 
laborers, who were not needed because their trade was overstocked with 
workmen. 

Taking another general class of manufacturing we find 10,427 carpen- 
3 ED 586 109 



34 CIRCULARS OF INFORMATION FOR 1883. 

ters, 5,071 cabinet makers, 686 carriage makers, 1,606 coopers — 17,790 
workers in wood. The use of the file would not be specially useful to 
these. The use of the hammer would be necessary to all, but a very 
different knack in its use would be required. The use of the hammer 
on iron and steel would be likely to specially unfit one for the best use 
of it on wood. But these woodworkers could all learn the use of wood 
cutting tools: the saw, the adze, the chisel, &c. But a class of only 
fifty could be formed in a school of one thousand pupils, even if the 
whole school were destined to some industrial occupation. 

Next we find 1,477 cotton and woollen mill operatives, 9,747 milliners, 
18,t564 tailors, 29,788 who should know something about the manufact- 
ure of cloth and most of whom should know how to sew. About 75 in a 
school of 1,000 would enter a class that should know the specialties of 
the tailor and^milliner. Probably 500 of such a school should know how 
to sew. We find 6,960 shoemakers, 3,855 bakers, 4,870 butchers, 5,824 
painters; 8,018 masons and plasterers. The common efement of skill 
among these trades is a very general one, such as we call discipline t)f 
the hand to delicate manipulation and of the eye to accura.cy of meas- 
urement. Such training is given in the study of freehand drawing and ' 
in the so-called ** gifts and occupations" of the Kindergarten. 

In the other eight cities the proportion of the industrial population 
engaged in i^rofessional and personal services ranges from a little less 
than one-third, as in Philadelphia, to nearly one-half, as in New Orleans. 
The population engaged in trade and transportation ranges from less 
than one-fifth in Philadelphia to more than one-fourth Im Chicago. In 
manufactures, arts, and trades the number ranges from one-fourth in 
Kew Orleans to one-half in Philadelphia. 

These exhibits show from 30 to 40 per cent, of the population counted 
as industrial population. The population over ten years of age is about 
75 per cent, of the whole population. 

These lessons show us how wild are the theories of those who declaim 
against the present course of study in the common schools and demand 
the introduction of the arts and trades instead of the general diiftji- 
plines that are now taught. 

' To meet the wants of the age, as these reformers understand them, 
they should ask for the curtailment of the school period and the appren- 
ticeship of children to trades. Suchr apprenticeship is not likely to be 
undertaken by the state so long as the present ideas of personal free- 
dom prevail in this country. 

That the state may require a general education in science and letters 
and a training in secular morality is reasonable enough, but it cannot 
choose the vocation of the citizen for him without attempting more than 
any state has done since the petty tyrannies of India ceased to exist. 

Special industrial schools may be established at the expense of the 
state, such as are called school shops and polytechnic schools, and 
doubtless they will do much good. 

110 * 



DEPARTMENT OF SUPERINTENDENCE. 35 

They will prepare a set of master workmen who will be able not only 
to direct the labor of the journeymen mechanics, but also teach them the 
best methods of manipulation. Such superintendent workmen will be 
doubly valuable to the community : first, securing better work ; sec- 
ondly, educating the workmen. 

* Within the past twenty-five j^ears great strides have been taken by ^ 
European governments in establishing systems of public education. It 
has been seen clearly that unless the laborer were educated the indus- 
trial product would be inferior and come to be discriminated against in 
the markets of the world. Technical education thus began at South 
Kensington for England, as it had been before established in France 
and Germany. The foresight of Frederick the Great, backed by the 
religious dogmas of Luther, secured general education to his people. 
The weight of the Prussian people in war came to be seen in their Austrian 
and French campaigns. Since these wars public education has received 
an enormous impulse. Not merely the industrial success of the people, 
but national independence itself seems dependent on the general educa- 
tion of the people. 

But man will not submit to be educated simply as a director of ma- 
chines and instrumentalities of industry-. He soon aspires to direct him- 
self and be self governed. To be sure there is a long step from the mere 
hand laborer, the one who turns a crank or carries a hod, the galley 
slave who works chained to his oar — there is a long step from the mere 
physical laborer to the director of a machine, to the engineer, to the 
overseer of a loom, or the manager of a telegraph. The former is all 
hands 5 his own brain even is a mere hand governed by the brain of an- 
other, who directs him. But when directive power develops so far as to 
direct and govern machine labor, nay, even when it is so far cultured as 
to reach the principles of natural science and to be capable of applying 
these in mechanic inventions, even then it is not at its summit of realiza- 
tion. It will stop at nothing short of the spiritual culture that makes 
it alike directive and governing in the sphere of mind, the realm of social, 
moral, and intellectual existence. 

It is agreed that this age is one of productive industry. Its active 
principle is invention, especially mechanic invention. Every day we 
heUar of some new discovery that harnesses a new force of nature and 
compels it to work for man and assist in providing means of food, cloth* 
ing, and shelter, or means of intercommunication and the spread of 
knowledge. Mind, not the body, is the inventive power; the directive 
power that can manage and use machines to advantage is mental, and 
not physical skill. The growth of invention is so rapid that the increase 
of manufacturing power by the aid of machinery is said to double, for 
all the world, once in seven years. The multiplication of steam engines 
and the improvement of machines renders this possible. What unin- 
telligent hand labor is ther^ that has any certainty of being in demand 

ten years hence I More than this, what trade is there that can count 

111 



36 CIRCULARS OF INFORMATION FOR 1883. 

on using, ten years hence, just the kind of technical skill that it requires 
now? 

The history of the present era of industries shows a continual shift- 
ing of vocations, no vocation having any long lease of life. The new 
discovery will make the trade learned to-day, after a long and tedious 
.apprenticeship, useless to-morrow. Any peculiar knack which depends 
on manual dexterity may be rendered valueless by a new application 
of machinery. The practical education, therefore, is not an education 
of the hand to skill, but of the brain to directive intelligence. The edu- 
cated man can learn to direct a new machine in three weeks, while it 
requires three years to learn a new manual trade. The hand trained 
for twenty years at one kind of labor cannot learn a new work requiring 
different skill, because the rfiuscles have become set and stiffened into 
one form of action. An uneducated workman will be thrown aside to 
perish in an almshouse. Only the versatile intelligence is able to meet 
the demands of the age of productive industry. 

We are to find the most practical education for our age, then, in the 
general education that is and has been furnished in our schools. The 
branches of the course of study include language studies and studies of 
nature with a view to fit the pupil for combination with his fellow men 
and for ability to command the forces of nature. Mathematics gives 
the individual man control over nature, and the study of reading and 
writing gives him access to the wisdom of the race and ability to com- 
municate himself to his fellow men and receive their advice. These 
general studies are, moreover, essential in our day to the preparation 
of citizens who shall support and defend the established order and not 
conspire for its overthrow. 

All the studies of the common school are conservative in their char- 
acter, because they all open the windows of the soul and give the mind 
insight into the substantial character of the institutions of civilization. 
They all tend to produce the conviction that the well-being of man is 
best furthered through the very instrumentalities that have been dis- 
covered and elaborated by the race, and especially by modern civiliza- 
tion. Beading, writing, arithmetic, geography, history, and grammar 
all open the soul to light on the question of subduing nature or on the 
question of the character and destiny of the human mind as revealed in 
language or social usages or political forms and changes. 

The good school, moreover, teaches industry effectually. But its in- 
dustry is that of directive intelligence. The progress of civilization 
supplies more and more the machinery to perform menial service and 
makes it necessary to educate all into directive intelligence. Self-direc- 
tive intelligence makes for itself avenues of employment. Directive 
power is the only power that is never wasted. 

It is not surprising that our people educated in common schools are 
versatile and industrious. Indeed it is the most valid criticism that we 
hear, the general criticism that the American people overwork. Their 
m 



DEPARTMENT OF SUPERINTENDENCE. 37 

ever active intelligeuce sees too many opportunities in the presence of 
this half-settled and haif-civilized New World, and the consequence is 
premature old age on account of an unbroken career of toil. 

There is too little leisure from the rough work of pioneering to pro- 
duce finished scholarship. But education, as far as it goes, disciplines 
the mind and fits it to understand the complicated questions which it 
meets in a new political experiment. But there is not enough of this 
general education for the real needs of the age. Every citizen ought 
to be able to read and write and to know enough geography, grammar, 
and history to understand the daily newspaper. At least so much as 
this is essential to the voter in a free republic. 

But .here we come upon the most unpleasant and unwelcome data that 
our census furnishes. The census of our country for 1870 said: Of the 
population over ten years of age, 5,658,144 cannot write ; 4,880,271 of 
these are native born and 777,873 are of foreign birth 5 2,789,689 of 
these illiterates are colored. The total population of the nation over 
ten years of age was 28,228,945. Hence, 20 per cent, of the population 
over ten years of age could not write in 1870. In Massachusetts, even, 
there were 97,742 who could not write, 89,830 of these being of foreign 
birth and only 7,912 being natives. Eight thousand is a large number 
for a State like Massachusetts. Twenty-three thousand illiterates were 
in Boston. 

The census of 1880 tells us again that there are 6,239,958 persons un- 
able to write out of a total population of 36,761,607 persons of ten years 
of age and upwards. 

We have permitted universal suffrage, and the Government is made 
by the majority. If we do not have universal education, we shall all 
suffer for it 5 for we are tethered to the lowest stratum of our population 
and must accept their influence in our politics. ^N'othing but education 
will ameliorate it. 

The lover of his kind rejoices in the knowledge that here in America 
we have so organized our society that the welfare of the highest is con- 
nected indissolubly with that of the lowest, so that each and all must, in 
the main, see clearly that he is his brother's keeper and realize the soli- 
darity of the social whole. Each man is what he is, not through himself 
alone, but by and through the reflection thrown back upon him from 
the social whole in which he lives and has his being. Under monarchies 
and despotisms the s^me fact is also true, but there is such a mirage 
created by the principle of caste that it cannot be seen clearly except 
by deep thinkers. Here it is visible, for the common laborer is also a 
voter and participates in making the laws of a free government. 

The critics of our educational system are never done with telling us 
that its results are to make the rising generation discontented with its 
lot. As if this were a defect instead of the crowning glory of the 
system! What place is there in this age for a drone who is void of 
aspiration f To be like dumb driven cattle— this is not to be permitted 

113 



88 CIRCULARS OF INFORMATION FOR 1883. 

in a Christian civilization. Man is immortal and has an infinite des- 
tiny: this is the burden of Christian teaching. In consequence of 
this, Christian civilization strives towards the heavens 5 it subdues 
nature and makes natural forces toil for it aud procure food, clothing, 
and shelter for the body. It continually turns out the drudge from his 
'vocation, and says to him: "I do not want your mere bodily toil at any 
price; I must have brain labor joined to hand labor. I have machines 
made of wood and iron that can do such work as the like of you can, 
and at a far less price than you would call starvation wages. Up, then, 
and acquire directive intelligence, so that you may manage and direct 
this machine and other machines, for presently we shall need no more 
mere hand labor, but require all to be intelligent and directive.". 

As made in the image of God and as destined for His eternal king- 
dom, is it possible that any education that schools may give is too high 
for the position to which a human being is called to occupy in life 1 In 
view of the necessity for educated directive power in an age of produc- 
tive industry in which the superintendence of machines is the chief 
industrial business, is a general education that gives one insight into 
nature and insight into the human mind too much? In a representa- 
tive democracy, in which the laws that govern property and personal 
rights are made by the representatives elected by all the people, includ- 
ing the humblest citizens of the country, is any education too good for 
the people f 

The American answer to this question is No ! 

Dr. Henry Randall Waite, having been called upon to speak, said: 

Education is intended to fit men for success, not only as bread 
winners, but in the fulfilling of the parts assigned them in the economy 
of society as factors for the accomplishing of whatever in their places 
as component parts of the social organism their special aptitudes and 
inclinations best fit them for doing. The address to which we have 
just listened calls special attention to the tinith that in order to succeed 
in the pursuits and callings of the individual, one of the chief essentials 
is a knowledge of the relations, one to another, of the facts bearing 
upon these pursuits and callings. In connection with the lessons 
deduced IVom statistics by Dr. Harris, I recall as pertinent the remark 
recently made to me by one of the most prominent and successful of 
Boston publishers, that he attributed hf s success to the efforts made 
throughout his business career to utilize the laws of nature by making 
them a(\junctH for the accomplishment of his purposes. This successful 
attempt in the application of sound philosophy to the management of 
business affairs illustrates the results which may obtain in larger 
degree if the lessons deducible from facts bearing upon the affairs 
which concern men in all the important relations of life can be made 
more generally accessible and shall be more commonly studied. If, as 
indicated, the chief object which engages or ought to engage the atten- 

114 



DEPARTMENT OP SUPERINTENDENCE. 39 

tiou of educators and students alike is the means which will most cer- 
tainly enable men to grow into whatever place in the social organism 
they«are^ all things considered^ best fitted to fill, education from its 
earliest beginnings should include proper attention to whatever will in 
any way cast light upon the various pathways open to the choice of the 
youth in our schools. It is the opportunity for the study of facts iif 
their various relations as presented m statistical form which gives to 
statistics their chief value; and as facts thus collated enable us to arrive 
at conclusions which are shown to be of the utmost importance as affect- 
ing the future interests of the young, such facts may well be regarded 
as worthy of the most painstaking study. The results of such studies, 
as presented by Dr. Harris in his summary of some of the lessons 
taught by the figures of the last census, should therefore be especially 
welcomed because of their important educational influence. It may 
be too much to hope, and still we may indulge the expectation, that 
when the great value of such studies is more fully appreciated oppor- 
tunities will be in some manner afforded to the youth in our schools 
for entering upon them. The natural laws which govern human affairs 
in respect of education will, in the near future, I trust, be as well 
classified and understood as those which relate to political economy. 
A study of these laws as applied to the important question of industrial 
training, which has been engaging our attention this morning, would 
cast much light upon that subject. 

Industrial education seems to me to be merely the amplification and 
perfection of the system of object teaching. It takes from the latter 
that which was abstract and theoretical and gives to it, as applied to 
the useful arts, a practical bearing. When the question of such educa- 
tion is under discussion and we ask what part in it the artistic and deco- 
rative shall have as compared with manual labor of a grosser sort, it 
may be well to inquire as to the proper relations of the triune functions 
of man, the head, the hand, and the heart (so eloquently referred to by 
Mr. Pickett), the natural order of sequence in which these exercise their 
functions, and as to the relation which the various steps in industrial 
education bear to this sequence. If in the order of nature's laws we 
find that observation through the eye precedes the knowledge acquired 
by the sense of touch or hand manipuhition, will not this aid us in the 
orderly arrangement of the various steps to be taken in industrial train- 
ing I Again, by the careful study of the facts which acquaint us with 
the natural laws (to ignore or to disregard which will result in the 
failure of our best efforts), we may, I think, solve the two most impor- 
tant problems connected with this question in its practical bearings •. 
first, under what circumstances industrial education may be profitably 
employed, and, secondly, circumstances being favorable, how to em- 
ploy it to the best advantage. ^ 

It has been said that the methods contemplated by such a system 
cannot be made universally applicable. Assuredly, conditions in city 

115 



40 CIRCULARS OP INFORMATION FOR 1883. 

and country, as remarked, are so widely different as to make it evident 
that the rnles applicable in the one case will be applied less easily or 
not at all in the other. A careful inquiry into these conditions should 
certainly precede attempts to introduce a system whose usefulness and 
value may be imperfectly appreciated and greatly nnderestimated as 
'the result of hasty and unwarranted conclusions on the part of its 
friends. Statistics, generally regarded as a dry subject, and possessing 
little interest, in so far as their study can be made plainly contribu- 
tory to the solution of the important social problems which are more 
and more engaging the attention of intelligent men, will receive the 
attention due them; and, as men turn more and more to the study of 
what we have been accustomed to hear spoken of as "dry figures '> 
because they find that such studies ponr floods of light upon the vital 
problems which chiefly concern them, figures will have a new meaning. 

Mr. liiciiARDS. I would like to ask Dr. Harris a question. Why is 
it that only one in fifty of the children that are in the courses of educa- 
tion in our country are in the higher grades ! 

Dr. Harris said in reply : 

1 believe, of course, that primary instruction may be improved, but 
I do not attribute the fact that there are so few in the higher grades 
to the want of good instmction in the lower grades, as Mr. Eichards 
seems to do. 

The average attendance on the school is perhaps not more than three 
years (of ten months each) all told, say thirty months' schooling, on an 
average, io all our i)eople. The reasons for this are obvious enough. 
First, there is the poverty of the people, real or imaginary. The parents 
of the clasH of manual laborers are content if they give their children 
the ability to read and write and the mastery of the simplest rules of 
arithmetic. So much is " a great deal more than they received.'' 

Then, secondly, there is the stimulant of opportunity in this country. 
What country was there ever before that offered such chances to the 
individual to get wealth! The youth catehes the gold fever or the 
emigration fever, and (juits the school for active labor. 

It is not quite ho bad as it seems, for the youth who can read and will 
read may become a learned man before old age, through the blessings 
of cheap books and i)erIodicals, and above all the daily newspaper, 
which is our greatest i)opular educator next after the common school. 
The ]mpil learns how to read at school, and he graduates from that 
prei»arati(m into the American university : the newspaper and public 
library. 

1 flnil myself unexpectedly bringing my paper into the midst of a 
debate on industrial education. I would like to say on this point that 
the great fact tliat meets the student of modern civil society is the fact 
of the change of vocations reii^ered necessary by the invention of ma- 
ohiues. ^o laborer can be very sure that his trade will be good for a 
livelihood for many years to come. This development of inventive 



DEPARTMENT OF SUPERINTENDENCE. #41 

power is due beyond question to the study of natural science and the 
increased devotion of speciah'sts to the observation of the phenomena 
of physical processes. This study of nature, again, if we are to follow 
up our explanation of the peculiarity of our historic period, must be 
considered as due to the development of the Christian idea of the world. 
So long as nature was looked upon as a mere illusory appearance or 
" naaya,^^ as the East Indians called it, there would not arise the concep- 
tion of the possibility of finding rational laws in it. So, too, the con- 
ception of the Greek mind, that nature is the manifestation of indi- 
vidual divinities concealed behind it, would not permit the observer to 
entertain the thought that nature is a consistent manifestation of rea- 
son. But the Greek philosophers broke away from superstition and 
arrived at the idea of the world as a Cosmos, a world which, as Plato 
represented, was made by a Creator entirely without envy and moved 
only by the desire to impart to it all His perfections. 

The Christian religion taught that the world was a revelation of 
God. Accordingly, as soon as the weightier questions of the struggle 
for existence against the northern and eastern barbarians were settled 
in its favor, there arose a wonderful passion for the study of nature in 
one or another form. At first it was the era of geographical discov- 
eries, then the era of separation of the secular from the dominion of the 
church. In itself this separation of the state from the church is the 
proclamation that nature shall have validity as a peer to the spiritual 
whenever it assumes the form of harmony with it. The state has as- 
sumed the form of the dispenser of justice, and justice being a divine 
attribute it harmonizes with the principle of the church, and the state 
may become independent of it, inasmuch as it has adopted a principle 
recognized by the church and now no longer needs ecclesiastical super- 
vision. The secular emancipation is brought about by the Christian 
principle which teaches the divinity of men and places infinite responsi- 
bility on the individual. 

Science will emancipate man from thraldom to nature through me- 
chanic invention. First, there came the age of simple inventions, 
clumsy machines being invented to perform the movements that the hand 
had executed in the previous era of division of labor. The age of ma- 
chinery is the age of synthesis in place of division. After simple ma- 
chines come those more complex, combining the operations of many sim- 
ple machines in one. The more complex the machine the more versatile 
the intelligence required to direct and control it. But the emancipation 
of the human being is much the greater for it. The productivity is enor- 
mously increased in proportion as the human individual is dispensed with 
for its direction. Foo<l, clothing, and shelter grow cheaper, and each 
human being can have more of them in exchange for his day's labor. 

There are two consequences resulting from this progressive conquest 
of nature by the aid of mechanic invention. The first is that more edu- 
cated general intelligence is demanded in the director of the machine. 

117 



42% CIRCULARS OF INFORMATION FOR 1883. 

The second- is that the human being gets more and better foodj clothing, 
and shelter, and more leisure for spiritual development, and conse- 
quently his child stays lopger in school, for the reason that labor demands 
intellectual preparation and leisure permits such preparation. 

Mr. Richards said that more time was needed to educate youth in 
those higher branches that give directive power. 

Mr. LuCKEY thought that the question why there are so few rich 
people and so many poor ones might be asked with equal propriety. 
All would be rich if they could and all would educate their children if 
that were possible. We do not understand this question of industrial 
education. The schools are managed by poor directors and controllers. 
Let the children be properly educated in the rudiments, and those who 
can take advantage of the high school education will do so. The chair- 
man of a French commission remarked in my hearing that the best 
reading he had heard in his life was in public schools in America. " But 
of what use is it? In America you devote four times as many hours to 
teaching children to express themselves as we do, and of what use is it? 
Are you educating these children to go upon the stage or become law- 
yers or preachers ? Oral expression is not what you want. You wish 
to teach children to read in order that they may gain information. If you 
will take 90 per cent, of the time that you give to expression and teach 
the pupils the meaning of words they will do better." Xow, I have ob- 
served that children that come to us from England and Scotland and 
Ireland and Wales can read books that American children of the same 
age cannot comprehend. 

Mr. HiTZ concurred in the views expressed that the directive power 
should be developp.d, aud Mr. Richards emphasized his previous re- 
marks. 

The president announced the following committee on national aid to 
education: M. A. Kewell, State superintendent of public instruction, 
Maryland, chairman ; B. G. Northrop, ex-secretary of the State board 
of education, Connecticut ; Atticus G. Haygood, general agent of the 
John F. Slater fund, Georgia; ]^. 0. Dougherty, superiutendent of 
schools, Peoria, III. ; J. H. Smart, ex-State superintendent of public 
instruction, Indiana; Jos. Desha Pickett, State superiutendent of pub- 
lic instruction, Kentucky ; Joseph White, ex-secretary of the State board 
of education, Massachusetts ; W. T. Harris, St. Louis, Mo. ; Andrew J. 
Eickoff, superintendent of schools, Yonkers, N. Y. ; Eli T. Tappan, 
president of Kenyon College, Gambler, Ohio ; Geo. J. Luckey, superin- 
tendent of schools, Pittsburgh, Pa. ; C. C. Painter, Nashville, Tenu. ; 
S. 0. Armstrong, principal of the Normal and Agricultural Institute, 
Hampton, Va. ; B. L. Butcher, State superintendent of free schools. West 
Virginia ; B. G. Lovejoy, member of school board, Washington, D. 0. 

The department then adjourned to meet at 8 p. M. 

118 



DEPARTMENT OF SUPERINTENDENCE. 43 



THIRD SESSION— WEDNESDAY EVENING. 

• 

Washington, February 21, 1883. 

The third session of the Department was held in the High School 
Hall at 8 p. M. . 

The president introduced Atticus G. Haygood, d. d., president of 
Emory College, Oxford, Ga., and general agent of the John F. Slater 
fand, who delivered the following address : 

IF UNIVERSAL SUFFRAGE, THEN UNIVERSAL EDUCATION. 

The records in the Bureau of Education show that in the recent slave 
States of the Union the total school population in 1881 was 5,814,261. 
Of these 3,973,676 were white and 1,840,585 were colored children. The 
school age in these States averages from six to nineteen years. Of the 
whole number the total school enrolment was 3,034,896. Of this num- 
ber there were of white children 2,232,337 j of colored, 802,559. Of the 
total school population of 5,814,261, 2,779,365 were not enrolled, that 
is, they were not at school*. The whites not enrolled numbered 1,741,339 \ 
the colored, 1,038,026 ; that is, nearly half the white population of school 
age and more than half the colored were not enrolled. Of the entire 
school population 52 per cent, were enrolled, 48 per cent, were not en- 
rolled ; of the whites a fraction over 56 per cent, were enrolled, of the 
colored a fraction over 47 per cent. In this matter the whites are only 
a little better off than the negroes. 

Upon the schooling of the 3,034,896 enrolled in 1881, these States 
expended the sum of $13,359,784, that is, $4.40 per capita. Of these 
States all but two or three distribute the school funds without distinc- 
tion of races. In these States the public school term does not average 
four months; in most of the cotton States the average term is three 
months. When we say that 3,034,896 children were enrolled in 1881 in 
the late slave States, this does not mean that so many were at school 
three months. It is doubtful if two-thirds of the whole number were at 
school during the full term. 

Here, for convenience in remembering them, let us come to round 
numbers for a moment. Allowing for the ordinary increase of popula- 
tion since 1881, it is safe to say the school population of the South is» 
now 6,000,000. Of these 4,000,000 are White and 2,000,000 are colored 
Of the 6,000,000 about one-half are enrolled and at school. 

What is the case with adults in these States? We may just here 
consider only the case of the voters, there being, however, more illiter- 
ate women than men. The total number of men of voting age in these 
States, by the late census, is shown to be 4,154,125. Of these, 1,354,974 
could neither read nor write, that is, nearly one-third of the whole number 
of voters are illiterate. Of the white vote 30 per cent, are illiterate f 

119 



44 CIRCULARS OF INFORMATION FDR 1883. 

of the colored, 70 per cent. In one of these States the illiterate vote is 
the majority of the whole number. 

This is bad enough, but this is far from being the worst of this sad 
case. The worst is this : The illiterate vote in these States is increasing. 
From 1870 to 1880 the increase of this army of ignorant voters in the 
South amounted to 187,671. Leaving out Delaware, the illiterate vote 
increased in every Southern State. In this downward progress the two 
races keep well together. The increase of the illiterate white vote was 
93,279; of the illiterate negro vote, 94,392. The whites being in the 
majority, take the South. as a whole, the increase of the illiterate vote 
is relatively greater among the negroes. 

Let us give details as to a few of these States. In Georgia the 
illiterate white voters in 1870 were 21,899; in 1880, 28,571; the illiterate 
negro voters in Georgia in 1870 were 100,551 ; in 1880, 116,516. The 
Illiterate white voters in Kentucky in 1870 were 43,826; in 1880, 54,956; 
the illiterate negro voters in Kentucky in 1870 were 37,889; in 1880, 
43,177. In Tennessee, in 1870, the illiterate white voters were 37,713; 
in 1880, 46,948; the illiterate negro voters in Tennessee in 1870 were 
55,938; in 1880, 58,601. In Texas, in 1870, the illiterate white voters 
were 17,505; in 1880, 33,085; the illiterate negro voters in Texas in 1870 
wore 47,235 ; in 1880, 59,669. 

If things remain as they are, 1890 will show a further increase of this 
huge illiterate vote. Things will remain as they are in these matters; 
ratlier, they will grow worse, unless the South gets strong help to bear 
her double load of ignorance and poverty. 

We are apt to put a rose color on even such figures as these. A very 
little ability to read and to write takes one out of the lists of the illiter- 
ates in the census tables. The inquiries are not searching ; few men are 
willing to acknowledge that they cannot read. I make no question that 
many tliounands counted out of the illiterate columns can neither r^ad 
nor write; it is beyond all question that hundreds of thousands who 
can, in a mechanical way, do both are less qualified by general intelli- 
gence to vote than are many who can do neither. 

Mere ability to write one's name and to read coarse print imperfectly 
Ih no good proof of fitness to vote. This sort and degree of ability may 
exint with abHolute ignorance of the merits of the issues involved in 
popular eleetlouH. 

Let me give a fair H])ecimen, drawn from life. There is not a touch 
of fancy or buiiesque in it. For nearly eight years I have had in my 
employment a (jolored man of good character and superior qualities. 
Ue in above the average of his race in intelligence; he is about my own 
age; he (jan Hign his name imperfectly and he can read a little. You 
will niiHM the point in my story unless you bear it distinctly in mind that 
tUiM man, Daniel Martinby name, has voted the Eepublican ticket every 
time Hlnce he was made a voter, and that he so votes to this day. Let 
me show how well qualiflod a man may be to be a voter who can just 



DEPARTMENT OF SUPERINTENDENCE. 45 

write his name and read a store sign. The day before the Hayes and 
Tilden election Daniel was ploughing in a little field near my house. 
One of the students asked him : " How areyou going to vote to-morrow, 
Uncle Daniel? " The southern negro never delivers a grave judgment 
without coming to a full pause in whatever engages him. One conse- 
quence is he comes to a great many stops. Moreover, he thinks in 
metaphor and speaks in i^arables. So Daniel came to a full stop in his 
ploughing, and, sticking his plough deep into the ground, delivered him- 
self as follows : 

"Now, Mr. Longstreet, you see me plowin' along dis furrow here ; if 
I plow dis furrow all de time, I makes dis furrow too deep and I don't 
plow de balance of de patch." Longstreet admitted the force of the 
statement. The philosophic voter continued : " I think things is bin 
gwine on one way 'long enough ; dere ought to be a change. Wharfore 
Fse gwine to vote for Hayes to-morrow." 

The next day he and I went to our county town and voted. He voted 
for Hayes, that there might " be a change," I voted for Tilden that there 
might " be a change," and we were equal before the law. 

Talk to such a man about the tariff, taxation, the currency! You had 
as well talk to him about horizontal parallax and spectrum analysis. 

There is no question so pressing in the United States to-day as this 
"What can we do with^Daniel Martin in politics, the white Daniel and 
the black Daniel?" 

Every male person twenty-one years oM, not an idiot or felon, is a 
voter. The vote of the most ignorant weighs as much in law as the vote 
of the wisest. In the South ignorance is really in the majority 5 practi- 
cally it amounts to this : Where one man in the South knows what he 
is doing when he votes, there is at least one man who does not know 
what he is doing. Sometimes there are two of them. 

The votes of ignorance are not in any country — in Massachusetts or 
South Carolina, in New York or Georgia — determined by intelligent dis 
crimination between men and measures. The best thing that ignorant 
voters can do is to vote on the judgment of the wisest men. But this is 
the thing they are least of all likely to do. As a rule, the illiterate voter 
is not under the guidance of the wisest and best citizens, but of the cun- 
ningest and most unscrupulous citizens. It is not your best man who 
has most power over the illiterate voter ; generally it is your worst man. 
The least dangerous element in the votes of the illiterate is not that 
their ignorance disqualifies them for a rational judgment, but that it 
exactly qualifies them to be the tools of bad men. 

It is neither exaggeration nor fancy. More than one-half the vote 
in the South represents just this : The viishes of wirepullers and of&ce- 
seekers. What determines this huge illiterate vote? (1) In small part, 
the ad vice of intelligent men; (2) in great part,'^the,^management of 
shrewd men; (3) in large part, bribes in one form] or another; (4) in 

121 



46 CIRCULABS Ot' INFOKMATION FOE 1883. 

considerable part, prejudice inevitable to ignoi*ance, whether of white 
people or of negroes. 

What does voting like this signify to republican institutions? 

There is another matter of measureless moment to be mentioned just 
here. Where the majority or even a great part of the voters are 
illiterate, cheating in elections is as easy as it is certain. The wrong 
done to the illiterate in such cheating is less than the injury done to 
those who do the cheating. In the one case, a vote cast by a man who 
did not know its value is not counted or is miscounted; in the other, 
a man who does know its value is debauched by corrupt politics. 

Denouncing corruption in elections will not give us honest elections ; 
honest elections must at least be made possible by qualifying the elect- 
ors to vote rationally. There never was one man who knows why he 
votes, especially if he pays all the taxes', satisfied to be voted down by 
another man who does not know what he is doing, especially if he pays 
no t ixes. There never were one million of men who know why they 
vote aiul who pay the taxes who would long endure to be voted down 
by another million who do not know what they do in voting and who 
pay no taxes. 

It would be hard to prove that the capable ought to endure being 
voted down by the incapable. If they do, the ends of government are 
destroyed. This side the millennium capable nftn will not, if they can 
help it, endure such voting down by Ignorance. After the millennium 
there will not be such voting. If capable men are forced to endure such 
voting they will come to abhor republican institutions. When this feel- 
ing is fixed in the hearts of men the foundations are destroyed. 

What are we to do with the ugly facts revealed by the inexorable 
census table f 

The treatment of these facts will depend on those to whom their 
attention is brought. Some men will not think of them at all ; disagree- 
able facts they ignore, because the study of them disturbs their repose. 
But we do not do away with ugly facts by shutting our eyes to them. 
It would be as wise to reject vaccination and quarantine when small-pox 
is epidemic and pacify our anxieties with affidavits that there is no 
small-pox, or that it is not dangerous, or that it is, upon the whole, 
rather an advantage, as giving employment to undertakers. 

Some among those who control the press of the country are content 
to publish these ugly and portentous facta as mere " news items.'' 
Others, seeing that here is something to arrest attention and to awaken 
anxieties, are content to lecture the South, telling her for the thou- 
sandth time how much behind she is. "No efficient remedy this for^the 
evils indicated by the facts. Sk)me are in despair ; they have sunk down 
into the abyss of political x)essimism; they say there is no remedy 
whatever; they have despaired of the republic. With all their railings 
and wailings and propbesyings these men are not true lovers of their 
country, else they would not despair so readily. 

122 



DEPARTMENT OF SUPERINTENDENCE. 4T 

Others are indiffereut; they don't care. They are the favorites of 
fortune; they are having a good time, making, hoarding, or spending 
their money. To them the poor and ignorant are nuisances ; they 
rather hate them than otherwise. Of the Government, of our republi. 
can institutions, they know little and care less. They have no national 
feeling in them ; they are utterly devoid of patriotism. " They are 
preserving their game " — talking *' imperialism '' over their wine. And 
this class controls a great deal of money. Very careless and indiffer- 
ent they are ; but they have abundant reason to care. The ignorant 
vote, that holds the balance of power, is a constant menace to the in- 
stitutions that secure ihem in the enjoyment of their gold, their bonds, 
and their palaces. This great black giant of ignorance, many -handed 
grim, and desperately hungry sometimes, is digging away at the founda- 
tions. So far as money values are concerned, these careless ones have 
most reason to care. 

Some, patriotic enough so far as mere sentiment goes, smile at the ap- 
prehensions of the thoughtful student of facts, rely complacently upon 
what they dream of as the glorious " destiny of the republic.'' They talk 
about Providence^ There is no blinder folly than faith in Providence 
that refuses to use the means that Providence appoints for securing 
gracious results. Providence never yet saved any nation that refused 
to do what it could do to save itself. Such a nation is not worth sav- 
ing; such a nation cannot be saved. Salvation of any sort must pro- 
ceed according to law ; there is no saving a man or a nation in violation 
of law. It would be a violation of law — fundamental and absolute — to 
save republican institutions by the votes of men who do not know what 
they are doing. No device of law, no constitutional amendments, no 
statutes regulating elections, no force of arms, can secure institutions 
that depend on elections determined by ignorance. In the very nature 
of things such preservation of republican institutions is impossible. 

Some visionaries calm their fears by their confidence in the educating 
power of the ballot. The ballot has this educating power when placed 
in the hands of ignorance: it discovers its power to the point of 
making the best bargains with parties and candidates when votes are 
wanted. 

So far, in this address, there has been no special reference to the 
negro vote; we have been glancing at southern illiteracy in bulk, and 
fearful it is; and for this good reason, a white man who knows nothing 
is as dangerous as any other man who knows nothing. Worse he may 
be ; worse he is, if he has more force. If he is superior in any respect, his 
ver^' superiority makes him more dangerous. When machinery is out 
of order, the greater the power that drives it the greater the ruin. 
Thoughtful men in the South are awake to the danger that lurks in the 
illiterate white vote of their section. When they cry for help, they want 
education for their white as well as for their colored fellow citizens. 

But, as all informed people know, the condition of the lately emanci- 

123 



48 CIRCULAKS OP INFORMATION FOR 1883. 

pated people of the South constitutes the stress and urgency of the ap- 
peal we make to the nation for such help to meet this great emergency 
as only the nation can extend. 

There are now nearly seven millions of negroes in the United States, 
about one-eighth of the whole population. The great mass of them are 
crowded into eight or ten of the late slave States. They increase faster 
than the white population. The increase of the whole population from 
1870 to 1880 was 30.06 per cent.; the increase of the white popula- 
tion, aided by large immigration, was 28.82 per cent.; the increase of 
the negro population, unaided by immigration, was 34.78 per cent. 
Thoughtful people will consider such facts. 

Out of these facts arise questions that concern the very life of the 
Southern States. The whole nation should have a care for what so 
deeply concerns the South ; for the South is a vast region of untold 
possibilities, indissolubly bound to the Union. The nation affirmed, 
through a long and bloody war, that it could not get on without the 
South ; these States have now concluded that they cannot get on with- 
out the nation. We are one people and we expect to remain one people. 

To the people of the South it is a matter of overwhelming concern that 
these millions of negroes, made citizens in a day and armed with the 
ballot, should at the earliest possible moment be qualified for citizen- 
ship. But is it a southern interest only ? Is it a matter of small mo- 
ment to Massachusetts, to Connecticut, to New York, to Minnesota, or 
to any State in the Union free from this trouble and danger of a vast 
illiterate negro citizenship, that Georgia, South Carolina, Alabama, 
Mississippi, and other Southern States are now wrestling with the 
hardest problem that was ever forced upon any people ? Does gov- 
ernment by illiterate votes in the South mean nothing to the States 
Korth and West H May States exposed to all the perils involved in 
illiterate majorities suffer the evils inevitable under such conditions 
without infecting with the deadly virus other States more fortunate in 
these respects if Carlyle tells of a poor Scotch pauper woman who 
could not from any get recognition of her sisterhood ; she died of typhus 
fever. Typhus fever killed seventeen other persons in her alley ; and 
thus she got recognition of sisterhood. 

These illiterate majorities are not limited to ^tate elections ; they 
enter into the election of President and members of Congress. If a 
man in Kew England is interested in the election of President or of the 
Congress, he is int^erested that voters in the South should have some 
knowledge of what they do when they deposit their ballots. 

What is to be done? These i)eople, these ignorant people, white 
and black, for the most part wretchedly poor, must be educated ; they 
must be taught to read, to write, and to keep accounts. As to the ma- 
jority of the i)arents of the untaught children in the South, it is as 
much as they can do to live, to live in a very cheap and humble way* 
They are unable to meet the expenses of the education of their children. 
124 



DEPARTMENT OF SUPERINTENDENCE. 49 

Some say let the Southern States educate their own illiterates. Easy 
solution this, so far as words go. But the Southern States cannot do it. 
In proportion to ability the Southern States are now doing about as 
much as the best Northern States; more than some. The State of New 
York is worth in taxable property as much as all the Southern States, 
yet these expended on their schools in 1881 $13,359,784 ; in 1880 New 
York expended $9,936,652. The total valuation in New York was, in 
1880, $2,651,940,000 ; the total valuation of the Southern States, in- 
cluding Missouri, was, in 1880, $2,903,619,070 ; leaving out Missouri, 
$2,370,923,269. New York is richer than the whole thirkeen grouped 
in the census tables as " Southern States." 

But in such comparisons it is the poorer States that deserve most credit. 
It is much harder for a poor man to pay 1 per cent, on his little prop- 
erty than for the rich man to pay 1 per cent, upon his great property ; 
for the rich man has more left. What is left after paying to a good 
cause is a better gauge of liberality and public spirit than what is given. 

To illustrate the general statement that the South is not able to take 
care of its hordes of illiterate children, let us compare two cities. The 
facts now to be stated are quoted from a report by Mayor Courtenay, of 
the city of Charleston. Mayor Courtenay says : 

The facts are these : In the first place, the assessed values in the city of Charleston 
were $46,000,000 in 1860; in 1880, $21,000,000— a reduction of more than one-half in 
taxable values, in the face of an obligation to educate double the number of children. 

This heavy load has been assumed up to the highest pitch of taxation, however, as 
the facts show. The taxation in the city of Chafteston, in 1880, for public schools was 
^hiee and one-half mills, made up under a levy of two mills under the State law, one 
and one-quarter mills under the special city tax, and one-quarter miU special levy to 
rebuild Friend Street School — in all amounting to about $61,000 a year on public 
sohools. And this is exclusive of an annual appropriation to the high school of 
Charleston and to Charleston CoUege. 

How much above a maximum this is, and what a burden this is, is evident upon 
comparison. For instance, compare this taxation with the city of Boston, whose 
Bchools are models and whose people have the world-wide reputation of giving liber- 
ally for educational institutions, and we find that the city of Boston gives a total of 
two and a half mills in 1880 for a complete public school establishment, of seven high 
schools, two Latin schools, one normal school, forty-nine grammar schools, and four 
hundred and eight primary schools. The city of Charleston gives in proportion nearly 
half as much again as Boston for her primary schools alone, and gives, in addition, 
annual appropriations to the high school and Charleston College. 

We must remember, also, that this is done under a very heavy debt of the city, the 
interest of which requires ten mills of annual taxation. Again, consider that, besides 
the State tax, the total tax of Charleston City is 2^ per cent., while that of Boston is 
only 1^ per cent. 

Let us consider briefly whether the Southern States, with less than 
half the resources of 1860, are now able to educate far more (counting 
the increased population, three times more) than double the number of 
children then knocking at their doors. Brief statements will suffice for 
men who are informed on these subjects. Take Georgia, more pros- 
perous than the average of Southern States. In 1860 Georgia's taxable 
4 ED 586 i»5 



50 CIRCULARS OF INFORMATION FOR 1883. 

property was, in round numbers, $750,000,0^0 ; in 1880, $238,000,000. 
In 1860 the wealth of Georgia, exclusive of the value of slaves, was 
over $500 per capita; in 1880, about $150. In 1881 Georgia paid for 
her schools within less than $1,500 of $500,000. At the same rate on 
her ante bellum property her school fund would have reached $1,500,000. 
The taxable property of Virginia in 1860 was $585,099,382.77; in 
1880, $324,955,980. Yet, in 1881, Virginia expended upon her schools 
$1,100,239 ; at the same rate upon her ante bellum property the school 
fund in 1881 would have yielded nearly $2,000,000. 

Dexter A. Hawkins, esq., of jS'ew York City, in an address before the 
Social Science Association, at the meeting held in Saratoga, September, 
1877, stated the case thus : 

The assessed valuation for the taxation of property, real and personal, in North Car- 
olina, South Carolina, Florida, Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, and Texas 
in 1860 was $3,244,239,406; in 1870, $1,883,863,180 — a shrinkage in ten years of 43i 
per cent. 

In some of these States it is less in 1880 than in 1870. 

When the civil war was ended these States were crushed. They were 
utterly disorganized in all their industries ; the investments that repre- 
sented the savings of their past history were swept away. They were 
poor beyond conception to those not having that bitter experience. 

What has been their history for nearly twenty years t A constant 
struggle with poverty. Embarrassed by new and strange conditions 
entering into, complicating, hindering all their industries, overweighted 
in every effort to get on their feet, loaded down with burdens and re- 
sponsibilities, these States have done what they could to bear and to 
meet them. Hope and life* would have died out of the hearts of people 
with less fortitude, courage, and endurance. They deserve respect, at 
least, that they did not utterly despair of themselves. We cannot com- 
pare the history of the past twenty years in the Southern States with 
any oth.er history 5 that history stands alone. 

What has been achieved in reorganizing society, in building up the 
-country and its institutions, has been accomplished only by prodigious 
effort. These people have been lifting an increasing weight witk a 
shortening lever 5 for, while there has been true progress and real growth 
in the industries of the South, the responsibilities of taking care of the 
ignorant population have grown faster than the ability of these State* 
to meet them. If any doubt, let them compare the increase of the non- 
taxpaying population (over 34 per cent, in ten years was the increase 
of the negro population) with the meagre increase of taxable property 
in these States and with its actual decrease in others. 

The plain truth is, the taxpaying people of the South have, as a 
whole, not been able to educate their own children ; nevertheless, with 
the exception of two or three States (and these States are nearest the 
border), they have expended what school funds they had without dis- 
tinction as to races. 

126 



DEPARTMENT OP SUPERIKTENDENCE. 51 

As to the colleges and higher grade schools of the South, many of 
them, during this long period of storm and stress, have died utterly; 
all that survived were crippled; all are crippled now, with the excep- 
tion of some of the State institutions and one or two others, helped 
mostly by the generosity of a few northern patriots and friends of their 
race. I^one of them have had the best facilities for doing their work. 
At every step in her efforts to do her educational work during this 
troubled period the South has worked at % disadvantage. The South 
has been under a grievous burden since the spring of 1861. 

If it be demanded of me, let it be admitted that there is not so great 
an interest in popular education in the Southern States as in some others. 
But this only increases the force of the argument; for it increases the 
peril that is in our huge mass of illiteracy and diminishes the ability 
to meet it of those who are awake to the fact>s of the case. Beyond aU 
question, thousands of the best people in the South are as fully awake 
to the truth of things and to the needs of the hour as men can be. But, 
for the most part, these men who do see and who do feel on this subject 
of education for the masses are poor — poorer than any other men of 
coltore and character in the United States. They have done their best, 
lamenting their inability to do more. 

Nothing is more certain than that the South cannot, unaided, meet 
the emergency that is now upon her. 

We are told that northern charity is sending hundreds of thousands 
every year^nto the South to help do this work of education. That is true; 
and this patriotic and Christian benevolence is appreciated to the fullest 
by the best people. Heaven reward them, the Peabodys, the Slaters, 
Vanderbilts, Seneys, Stones, and others as generous though not so rich. 
They have done a good work indeed. Children's children will have them 
in everlasting remembrance, 

Bnt this should not be considered as entering into the question of the 
ability of the southern whites to do the work that is upon them, and it 
is the ability of the white people that is to be inquired into, since they 
pay the taxes. Nearly all the money sent South since 1865 for educa- 
tional purposes has been devoted to the education of the negroes, espe- 
cially the great sums expended by the churches and benevolent societies 
of the North. This is not regretted; we do not envy the negroes the 
help that Providence sent them. They needed it sorely, and we rejoice 
with them. But this method of help, good as it has been, left the white 
people, thousands of them as poor as the negroes, to struggle with their 
own burdens without the help the negroes had, and left to the white 
people who were a little better off the burden of their own responsi- 
bilities in the matter of education and the payment of the taxes for such 
public schools as they had, dividing«it with the negroes who paid next 
to no taxes, and yet had help that they had not. 

Nothing less^needs proving than this: There must be more schools 

127 



62 CIRCULARS OF INFORMATION FOR 1883. 

and better; more teaching and better teaching. This will cost money, a 
great deal of money, more than these impoverished States can raise. 

Where is it to come from? From individuals? But a nation cannot 
depend on individuals to do a work almost too great for the whole 
people. 

From churches and other benevolent societies? They are but aggre- 
gations of individuals, and societies representing but a part of the 
I)eople cannot do a work that belongs to all. 

It is the duty of the whole nation to help, for a time, the States with ^ 
their heavy burdens. Is it better for this nation to leave these millions 
of illiterate people, with ballots in their hands, untaught, than to help 
the States carry a load that is crushing them? Is it better for this 
nation to endure these evils that are now upon us and to brave the 
greater evils into which they are growing day by day than to spend a 
few millions, paid into its treasury by the people, and to do this for the 
benefit of the people, that is, for its own benefit? 

This duty of helping the States to educate these millions of illiterate 
people is a national duty, for national interests are involved in it. It 
is a national duty, for it must be done; the States most deeply involved 
cannot do it and the nation can. It is a national duty for the plain, 
historical reason that the nation, as such, made these millions of negroes 
citizens and voters before they were prepared for their new duties and 
relations, and in the very act of doing it and by the very method of 
doing it largely took from those who are now called on to prepare them 
for their new duties and relations the ability to do it. 

The men of the South who have accepted the issues of the war in 
good faith may well use the language of Hon. W. E. Forster, of the 
English Parliament, in reply to the radical wing of his party: " You 
demand universal suffrage; I demand universal education to go along 
with ity 

Universal suffrage we have, and in the South, as to the large major- 
ity, illiterate suffrage. There is no remedy for the evils of this state of 
things, whether by repression within the States where the trouble is, 
whether from force of any sort without these States. There is no rem- 
edy that leaves out the school-house and the schoolmaster. Ethical 
education is sorely needed; but ethical education will make slow prog- 
ress without the education of good schools. 

Sensible and just men are not now discussing slavery; that is passed 
out of the argument. They are not discussing the relative blame- 
worthiness of the sections. Doctrinaires and narrow and bitter men 
do that. Sensible and jus b men say: 

"See here, this multitude must be educated; it concerns us all; the 
nation is endangered by this ignorant ballot; these Southern States 
cannot carry this tremendous weight, this burden no longer theirs in 
any exclusive sense, but now the burden of us all. The nation can bear 
it and bear it easily. Let the nation forthwith get about it.'' 

128 



DEPARTMENT OF SUPERINTENDENCE. 53 

We bear somewhat about the right of Government to do this work. 

(1) It is now too late to raise this question. From the time of Wash- 
ington the General Government has been doing things that involved the 
principle and asserted the right to extend aid from the public funds for 
the work of education. Time and again the Congress has set aside 
public lands or the proceeds of the public lands for the uses of educa- 
tion in the different States. 

(2) When a nation sets its heart on doing a great and good thing it 
can find a legal way to do it. 

(3) As to this call for national aid, so far as the South is concerned in 
it, there is one fact lying right in the heart of the question that no con- 
stitutional metaphysics or legal sophistries can dispose of or make other 
than it is. This nation asserted and exercised the right to emancipate 
and to enfranchise several millions of people, to make men citizens and 
voters by proclamations and acts of Congress before they could read 
or write, before they were prepared for the duties, responsibilities, bur- 
dens, and dangers that were thrust upon them. The time has fully 
come when the nation should exercise the right — seeing that it has 
ample ability — to do what can be done, and as soon as it can be done, 
to prepare them to be what they are not — intelligent citizens. If the 
nation owes nothing to its own safety ; if it owes nothing to the 
taxpayers of the South, charged by the nation with responsibilities 
they cannot meet, the nation, by every consideration of justice and 
humanity, owes it to the helpless negroes that it set free and gave bal- 
lots to, to now do what it can to help them get ready to be free indeed, 
and to vote as freemen, and not simply as " freedmen.'' 

Some in the South seem somewhat troubled about a sort of drift 
towards "centralization" that may be lurking in this proposed national 
aid to education. It seems reasonable that the nation should meet an 
emergency that its own act created. Moreover, if the nation should 
give this aid — cooperating, as it is most natural that it should do, with 
the State school authorities — there is no danger of centralization. 

Some say this theory of a "paternal government" — this call upon 
Congress for help to educate — involves the right to call for other help, 
as, for instance, for "shoes for the children to wear to school." 

If it shall appear upon inquiry that wearing shoes enters into the 
very essence of the qualifications of a voter and voters cannot by any 
means procure shoes, why, in the name of common sense, let the nation 
buy them shoes or have done with the farce of voting. But a man may 
be ^qualified voter without wearing shoes. One may conceive of a bare- 
foot philosopher voting wisely ; no man can conceive of a philosopher 
who is also an ignoramus ; no more can he conceive of a citizen quail* 
fied as an elector who does not know what he is doing. 

If the nation, through its Congress, grants this petition for aid the 
money will be wisely and honestly used 5 for the best people in the 
South will be vitally concerned in its proper use, and the whole people — 

129 



54 CIRCULARS OF INFORMATION FOR 1883. 

the rich, the poor, the white and the black people — will all feel a per- 
sonal interest in it. Every father will feel himself bound to watch with 
ceaseless vigilance that this precious money —.the gift of his country for 
educating his children — be wisely, faithfully, economically used. 

Judge William Lawrence, First Comptroller of the Treasury^ 
was then introduced, and addressed the meeting as follows: 

CONSTITUTIONALITY OF NATIONAL AID TO EDUCATION. 

Ladies and Gentlemen : The remarks of the distinguished gentle- 
man who has just taken his seat and the revelations of the census of 
1880 demonstrate, among other things, two principal facts, which it is 
now proper to notice : 

(1) That in all the States of our Nation illiteracy exists to an extent 
far greater than has been generally supposed, and that in some of them 
it is so overwhelming and appalling as to endanger the existence of re- 
publican government 5 and, 

(2) That in a few of the States of the South in which illiteracy in 
some measure predominates the limited property resources of the people 
are wholly inadequate, by any system of taxation that can be devised^ 
to supply the requisite number of teachers and other needed facilities 
for common schools. 

We are therefore confronted with the question whether Congress can . 
in this emergency furnish any or adequate relief. I propose to demon- 
strate that the Congress of the United States has ample power, with 
the assent of any State to aid common schools therein established or 
authorized; and that, without such assent. Congress has power to or- 
ganize and conduct schools in any State in which there is no system of 
schools adequately provided and supported. 

In order to demonstrate these propositions it is necessary to define 
a republican government and to state one condition essential to its 
existence : 

(I) A republican government is one in which the sovereign legislative 
power is exercised by representatives elected by qualified voters who 
include substantially the entire adult male population. This is the ! 
American definition. I do not now consider the question so much 
mooted, whether the true republic should extend suffrage regardless 
of sex. 

However that may be, a government which excludes from the privi- 
lege of exercising suffrage any portion of the adult male citizens sulfject 
to its jurisdiction, who are not guilty of crime and who comply with the 
just requirements of reasonable laws, is not republican. 

(II) It may be assumed, that a republican government cannot be 
maintained without a substantially universal secular common school 
education for all children of proper school age. 

130 



DEPARTMENT OF SUPERINTENDENCE. 55 

On this subject it cannot be necessary at this late day to quote the 
opinions of statesmen, or to add proof by reference to the dead and 
buried republics of other, ages or to the utter failure of those which at 
this day are denominated republics, but which in fact are mere military 
despotisms in a chronic state of revolution. 

(Ill) Assuming that the education to which reference has been made 
is essential to the existence of republican government, the real question 
is whether the National Government has power to preserve its own 
existence by providing such education. 

I affirm that it has such power (1) by express provision of the Con- 
stitution, and, (2) even without this, as a necessary incident of the sov- 
ereignty with which it is invested. 

The express power is found in article IV, section 4, of the Constitu- 
tion, as follows: 

The United States shall (1) guarantee to every State in this Union a Repuhlican 
Form of Government, and (2) shall protect each of them against Invasion ; and, (3) on 
Application of the Legislature, or of the Executive (when the Legislature cannot be 
convened) against domestic Violence. 

So far as the exercise of legislative power is necessary to perform the 
duties required of the United States by this section, it of course be- 
longs to Congress. Thus Chief Justice Taney said in Luther v, Borden 
(7 Howard, 42), that— 

It rests with Congress to decide what government is the estahlished one in a State. 
For, as the United States guarantee to each State a republican government, Congress 
must necessarily decide yrhsbt government is established in the State before it can 
determine whether it is republican or not. 

It will be noticed that Chief Justice Taney says "the United States 
guarantee to each State a republican government.'' The words of the 
Constitution are '^ a republican form of government.'' This manifestly 
was intended to secure the substance as well as.the /or»t, since the mere 
form without the substance would be vox etprceterea nihil. 

It is clear, then, that Congress has power by legislation to guarantee 
to each State a republican government. . 

To guarantee, says an eminent author, is " to become responsible for ; 
to warrant ; to undertake for another that, if that other does not do 
the thing, the party guaranteeing will himself do it." (Paschal's 
Annotated Constitution, third edition, section 233.) 

If Congress shall by law decide that a State has not the means to pro- 
vide adequate education or has failed to do so, and that aid to such 
State is essential to preserve in it a republican government and pro- 
Tide for such aid accordingly, this is an exercise of power which is war- 
ranted by the Constitution and cannot be questioned in any form. 

The same may be said of the exercise of power by Congress to estab* 
lish and control schools requisite to fulfil the duty to guarantee. 

All this must be manifest from several considerations. 

(1) The provision of the Constitution which gives the power to make 

131 



56 CIRCULARS OF INFORMATION FOR 1883. 

the guarantee is coupled with clauses giving two other powers, one to 
protect each State against invasion, the other to protect it against 
domestic violence. From this it is clear that the framers of the Constitu- 
tion were dealing with the general subject of perpetuating the existence 
of a republican government in each geographical State. With this pur- 
l)Ose in view, the Constitution gives power to Congress to save each 
State from destruction by foreign invasion or from domestic violence. 
One danger of domestic violence was slavery, but all forms of domestic 
violence are comprehended. In considering the power to guarantee a 
republican government, the maxim of construction is to be kept in mind, 
nosoitur a sociis. The Constitution, upon this maxim, no less than by 
ita own j)lain words, gives to Congress the power to save each State 
ft'om destruction, from whatever source the danger may arise or be 
threatened. 

UuiverHal illiteracy is more dangerous than foreign invasion or 
doincHtio violence. Such illiteracy may indeed be a source or cause of 
douieHtio violence. 

When invasion is threatened. Congress may act. When domestic 
violence may be reasonably apprehended. Congress may act. 

When apjjalling illiteracy is not only prospective, but is already upon 
any Htate, threatening the overthrow of a republican government there- 
in, tht^n CongrcHH can Intervene, is bound to perform the obligation im- 
ptiHod on the United States to guarantee the existence of a republican 
g4)verninent. 

(13) The ^^xlHtence of the power of Congress, as stated, is fully proved 
iu priudpU* by high authority. Thus, it is said : 

U' lluno lio miy goiu'ral principle which is inherent in the very definition of gov- 
iuimuuit uiui iiHttoiiiliil to every step of the progress to be made by that of the United 
HUUiw, a i», (hul awry power Vested in a government is in its nature sovereign and includes^ 
hy J'otiHi u/ tlm hna^ a right to employ all the means requisite and fairly applicable to th^ 
HiUunimmt q/" th» pnU i\f auvh power^ unless they are excepted in the Constitution, or 
w\\\ iiuiuiUHl, (u* un» rontrary to the essential objects of political society. (Story on 
(UiiiuliiiiMuu, 1,U10.) 

Iu oilier wonU, (he Constitution, in giving to Congress the power to 
KUunuiUui a republicMin government to each State, gives also to Con- 
gveHH \\\K\ Int^ldcutal power to employ the necessary means to do so, in- 
t^liuliuK the eHtabiiHlnnent of or aid to common schools. This mode of 
lumHlruiuK the (\)nH(itution is sanctioned by principles as old as the 
i'luuuuiu law. ThuH It is hiid down among the maxims of Dwarris for 
(he otuiHlniethui of Htatutes that — 

luHla(ut(w,tiHtldtMitM art* ttlways supplied by intendments; in other words, when- 
itvtn a piiv^wr Uulvim liy antatute, everythingnecessary to the making of it effectual, 
U glvtm b.Y luiiillrMtiuu ; for the maxim is quando lex aliquid concedit, concedere videtur 
o( id ppr auwl d¥V0Hilur ad iUud, (Potter's Dwarris on Statutes, 123.) 

ThlH rule lHO<iually ai)plicable in the construction of the Constitution. 
The application of it now is that the Constitution, in giving to Congress 
the power to guarantee to each State a republican government, gives 



DEPARTMENT OF SUPERINTENDENCE. 57 

also the incidental power to use the means by which the guaputee can 
be made eflfectual, including the right to aid or establish common schools 
as a means to that end. 

In those cases in which Congress is authorized to exercise powers of 
this character, the propriety of the means employed cannot be called 
in question. 

Thus it has been held by the Supreme Court of the United States 
that — 

If a certain means to carry into effect any of the powers, expressly given by the 
Oonstitntion to the Grovernment of the Union, be an appropriate measure, not prohibited 
by the Constitution, the degree of its necessity is a question of legislative discretion, 
not of judicial cognizance. (McCulloch v. Maryland, 4 Wheaton, 316 ; United States y. 
Marigold, 9 Howard, 567.) 

It is thus shown that the Constitution gives to Congress express 
power to guarantee to each State a republican government, and that 
Congress may aid or establish schools as a means of securing the per- 
manent existence of republican governments in the States. 

(TV) The power of Congress to aid schools in the States exists as a 
necessity, as a part of the means of preserving national existence. 

But it cannot be necessary to argue this branch of the subject. 

(V) This power of Congress has been asserted and exercised from 
the foundation of our republican system of government. Immense 
grants of lands have been made by Congress in aid of common schools 
and colleges. If Congress has no power to aid schools and colleges, 
these grants are void. But the power to make them has been settled 
by long continued usage, which is said to be ^'the best interpreter of 
things, ^^optimus interpres rerum usus.^ (Broom, Legal Maxims, 917.) 

It would be interesting to present the number and dates of the acts 
of Congress making these grants and to state the amount of land 
granted to the States respectively, but time will not now permit. 

(YI) For two years past Congress has been discussing the proper 
mode of reducing our superabundant revenues. This is well. A reduc- 
tion is demanded by the best interests of the people. While internal 
revenue taxes are permitted to remain on spirits and fermented liquors, 
I would, if I could, distribute the annual revenue derived therefrom — 
amounting to an average of $65,000,000 — in just proportions to the 
several States. This would give to each State a sum sufficient to make 
a large reduction in the taxes of the overburdened taxpayers. It would 
enable the States to pay better wages to the teachers in our common 
schools, who richly deserve better compensation for the highly merito. 
nous services they are rendering all over the Eepublic. 

By this policy the number of common schools in some of the States 
would be multiplied, the neglected children of the colored people who 
have so recently emerged from bondage be cared for and educated, and 
the means of ample education be secured for all the children of the 
land, the poor and the rich alike. 

133 



58 CIRCULARS OF INFORMATION FOR 1883. 

With universal education the Eepublic will live to bless the ages of the 
future. 

Hon. Jos. Desha Pickett, State superintendent of public instruc- 
tion of Kentucky, followed Judge Lawrence. The stenographer's notes 
of his remarks were submitted to him for revision before publication, 
but have not been returned. Mr. Pickett explained that he was reared 
in the Jeffersonian and Jacksonian school of politics and was taught 
to have confidence in the rights of the States ; he therefore took excep- 
tion to the statement that Congress has authority to establish school 
systems irrespective of the States. But that is not the question which 
is presented here. The real question is, Shall the Congress of the 
United States assist the States in carrying out their systems of educa- 
tion! Tbe speaker referred to the grants of land made by the I^ational 
Government in aid of education, and, concluding, said : 

Let us then come together with a generous, fraternal spirit, and let 
ufi try to devise some ways and means whereby we may present this 
great question to the consideration of the Committees on Education 
and Labor of the Congress of the United States; and may we be 
blessed in this effort. 



FOUETH SESSION — THURSDAY MORNING. 

Washington, February 22, 1883. 

Mr. Calkins, the president, called the meeting to order, and prayer 
was offered by Rev. B. G. Northrop. 

Mr. Northrop, from the committee on national aid to education, 
presented the following resolution : 

Jieaolvedj Tliat in view of the Decessity of education to the perpetuity of free insti- 
.tutiouR and of the great and disproportionate hurden which adequate provision for 
uuivorsal education would impose on some of the Southern States, this association 
expresses its conviction tliat it is alike the duty and thfe interest of the National Gov- 
ernment to extend to the several States, especially to those in which the burden and 
danger of illiteracy are greatest, such pecuniary aid as shall enable them to provide 
that all the children and youth within their borders shall receive at least an ele- 
mentary education. "We also express our conviction that such direct appropriations 
from the National Treasury should be made to the several States in proportion to 
illiteracy, and distributed under proper conditions and safeguards, through existing 
local ofOcors. We believe that the emergency is so urgent as to demand immediate 
action by tlio present Congress, and that ten millions appropriated at once will avoid 
more than twenty times that amount twenty years hence ; for universal education, 
when oiice fairly tried, will be continued without national aid. 

On motion of Mr. Newbll, of Maryland, the resolution was adopted. 
Mr. EiOKOFF, of Yonkera, N. Y., moved that the subject of Indian 
education be called up. Carried. 

INDIAN EDUCATION. 

The time for remarks from General Armstrong not having yet arrived, 
the president called upon Hon. B. G. Northrop, ex-secretary of the 

134 



DEPARTMENT OF SUPERINTENDENCE. 59 

State board of education of Connecticut, to speak upon this topic, with 
spe'cial reference to his recent visits to the Indian school at Carlisle 
Barracks, Pa., in charge of Capt. E. H. Pratt. 

ADDRESS OF HON. B. G. NORTHORP. 

Mr. ^Northrop said that he had not expected to open the discussion^ 
but to follow General Armstrong and Miss Fletcher with such sugges- 
tions as his three visits to Carlisle had brought out. He then spoke 
as follows : 

In one of these visits I spent a week in lecturing to the teachers on 
the improved methods of instruction, and also occupied the school hours 
of each day in drilling the different classes in their school rooms. 
Their interest, attention, and prompt response in every exercise, their 
eagerness to learn, and their hearty appreciation of the efforts made in 
their behalf, were a welcome surprise. Before describing the grand re- 
sults accomplished at Carlisle, a word is needed in regard to the start- 
ing of this project. 

In 1875, Captain Pratt, who had been long occupied in frontier 
service and had had a long and varied experience in Indian border 
wars, was directed to take charge of seventy -four prisoners — murder- 
ers, the worst class of criminals — to be imprisoned for three years at 
Fort Marion, St. Augustine, Fla. He early saw the need of occupatioQ 
for these prisoners and at once started plans for educating them ki 
trades and industries as well as in books. The sleepy old Spanish 
town furnished few facilities for industrial occupation. All opportuni- 
ties, such as working as hostlers or in saw-mills, picking oranges, and 
grubbing the land, were eagerly seized, and the work was well done* 
It illustrates the ingenuity of Captain Pratt in devising employment for 
them that they were enabled to earn in a single year $12 by polishing 
sea-beans. Twice they floated pine logs from a distance and built log 
houses within the fort, simply as a lesson in carpentry. They split the 
clapboards, made stick chimneys, chinking and daubing them, that they 
might learn to build houses on their return. They were taught many 
other industries, as well as the English rudiments, and such were the 
happy results that at the expiration of the time of their imprisonment 
twenty-one were inspired with the hope of a better education and de- 
clined to return to their tribes. Seventeen of these were taken to 
Hampton and the remainder were placed in families. 

Captain Pratt early fixed his thoughts on educating the Indians in 
the East, where they would be removed from the debasing associations 
of the tribes and where they might be brought at once into a Christian 
atmosphere and surrounded by the conditions most favorable to their 
education and development in the trades. 

Three years ago he succeeded in securing the consent, not only of 
the Interior and War Departments, but of Congress, to his use of the 
Carlisle Barracks for an Indian school. 

135 



60 CIECULAE8 OF INFORMATION FOE 1883. 

In September, 1879, Captain Pratt was sent to Dakota, and then to 
the Indian Territory, to seek the boys and girls whose parents would 
commit them to his charge to be educated. So successful were these 
efforts that the school at Carlisle was opened on the 1st of November 
following with 147 students. The school is no longer an experiment. 
Its results have greatly exceeded the expectations of its friends. There 
are now 379 Indians in attendance, and a more interesting and happy 
company of youth I have seldom met. 

There is a great and growing interest on the part of the chiefs in In- 
dian education. This is evident from their readiness to send boys and 
girls so far from home for their schooling. A few years ago they would 
have rejected such an offer with scorn. The change in this respect is 
great and most hopeful, and should meet a hearty response from our 
Oovernment. Captain Pratt says that such has been the result of this 
-experiment and such is the tone of the numerous letters sent every 
week by these students to their parents and to the chiefs of their 
tribes that he would guarantee that he could start to-morrow and in 
four weeks, with the cordial approval of their parents, bring 1,000 
Indian youth East to be educated 5 he would guarantee that within 
one year he could bring 10,000 Indians to attend kindred schools in the 
East, if they were open to them. This is one of many proofs of the 
faith and confidence which the Indians have learned to repose in this 
man, who is so widely and justly recognized as their benefactor and 
friend. The Indians are now brought East for schooling during a 
period of five years, instead of three as at first. One fact of great en- 
couragement in this work is the new ¥iew of the Indian chiefs and the 
more educated in the tribes, that the alternative before them is educa- 
tion or extermination. They have come to feel — it is a lesson they have 
been long in learning — that they must understand the white man's 
ways as a matter of self defence and as the condition of their future 
prosperity. 

The common feeling has been that the Indians are not educable 5 that 
they are a doomed race and must soon pass away, and the sooner the 
better, and that you might as well undertake to educate wolves or wild 
buffaloes. Such are the sentiments most frequently and harshly ex- 
pressed on the frontier. But the Indians are here to stay. According to 
the Census there are nearly 300,000 Indians in the United States. We 
have spent over $500,000,000 in Indian wars. We find that it costs, on 
an average, $100,000 to kill an Indian; that one Indian killed has cost, 
by exposure as well as the incidents of war, the lives of ten white men. 
In reference to the practicability of educating them. Bishop Whipple 
says, after long association with them, that they are the noblest type 
of heathen on the face of the globe, and he gives strong expression to 
his views of the desirability and necessity of educating them. After 
a careftil inspection of all the rooms and examination of all the classes, 
these youth seem to me to be remarkably keen-eyed and quick in obser- 

136 



DEPARTMENT OF SUPERINTENDENCE. 61 

yatioD, docile and tractable, though not excelling in the mastery of the 
English language. One hindrance to their progress in English is the 
very limited linguistic training they have had in their own tongues. 
Tliere are at Carlisle representatives from 34 different tribes, speaking 
different dialects. These languages are said to be exceedingly meagre. 
The number of words they have used in their own vernacular is small. 
This difficulty will be appreciated by all who remember that language 
is the chief instrument of human investigation and progress, the means 
and measure of any one's growth and culture. 

The question has been whether the Indians shall be educated near 
the reservations or far away. Captain Pratt's experience proves that 
the further they can be removed from their tribal associations and 
influences the better for them. 

In Carlisle all the boys attend the Sunday schools connected with 
the different churches of that town. Great interest in their welfare is 
manifested by the good people of this place. Their pastors frequently 
address them in their school chapel, where the fine singing of these 
Indian youth is a surprise to every visitor. The kindness and sympathy 
shown them on every hand is in striking contrast with the influences 
which have met the Indian on the fix)ntier, where the white man has so 
long been viewed with suspicion and dread. 

In the "reservation schools," the savage influences of the camp or the 
visits of parents have often neutralized the lessons of their teachers. 

In looking over the report of the Indian Commissioner, which gives 
the statements and expenences of the agents and teachers, I find the 
great embarrassment in the organization of schools has been the irregu- 
larity of attendance. That difficulty is entirely overcome by bringing 
them far from the tribes. Of course, the matter of attendance is easily 
regulated while they are at such a school as that at Hampton, or Forest 
Grove, or Carlisle. The last is much larger than any other supported 
by the Government. The matter of discipline is here very simple. I 
have in hand an account of the instances "reported" to the head 
teacher — all the teachers are ladies — for any form of misconduct during 
the last year; in five months there was not a single case reported. 

As an illustration of their facility in learniag, I may mention that I 
saw a class of thirty draw from memory a very excellent map of South 
America on the blackboard in four minutes. They drew a map of the 
United States in about five minutes. I have a letter written by a 
grandson of Ked Cloud, who entered the school on th6 4th of December 
last, a dictation exercise, but a very good specimen of writing for so 
brief a time of schooling. I have another from the daughter of Spotted 
Tail, who entered at the same time, which is a copy of a letter she wrote 
to her mother, and many others, which, under the circumstances, are 
fine specimens of handwriting and composition. 

I saw the strongest indication of the pupils' desire to master the 
English language, and very commendable indications of their progress 

137 



62 CIRCULARS OF INFORMATION FOR 1883. 

iu all the eoinmou English studies. They are occupied half a day in 
the shops, learuiug industrial trades, and half a day at school; and 
there is an evening school of an hour or an hour and a half, in which 
all the shop boys and girls, as well as any who have not yet found 
oi>portunities for industrial training, are occupied. They are doing 
admirable work iu carpentry, joinery, harness making, the making of 
boots and shoes, blacksmithing, the manufacture of carriages, tinsmith- 
ing, and iu baking. The Indian Office purchases of them a large supply 
of coffee-pots for the Indian service. The girJs are learning the use of 
the sewing machine, even the more difficult work of making button 
Uolci* and cutting and making dresses; and in the laundry the girls 
waiih and Iron some 2,500 pieces a week; in summer they are occupied, 
us much as can be arranged for, in learning domestic work in families, 
the boys being iuigaged in farm work. There is already a good sized 
fuiiu belonging to the institution^ and the expectation is that a much 
larger taruv will be secured at an early day. To give the boys the 
desired training and experience in farming, there ought to be not less 
thaii 500 i^ereM connected with the school. No other training would be 
1^0 uselXil to them on their return to their old homes, where agricultural 
«kill In little known and greatly needed. The farm work is done with- 
out machinery, that is, they do not use the mowing machine nor reaper, 
m^ that the boys may be trained in the hand work that may be of most 
pi'uctical beuetlt when they return to their tribes. 

IHie census tells us that there are about 50,000 Indian youth of school 
age. 'KU^iV ttlHi 476 la Hamptim, Forest Grove, and Carlisle, nearly 
1,UUU lii veseivt^tion day schools, and 3,999 in boarding schools near the 
leMiU'VivtUms, so thtit the demand, which is immediate and urgent, is only 
|iai-tUll.Y uii^t. 

It seems Ui me tht^t Captain Pratt, from his long and varied experi- 
uiiiHS 1^^'*^^ ids natui'til tact, quick perception and discernment of human 
uatuiet i^uil iutpeeially of Indian character, his patience, broad Christian 
«,V mtiivtlUitSt UU enthusiasm, and magnetic power, is marvellously adapted 
iur bis tHOiUUMi. i think he has done more for the solution of the Indian 
qm^stum than any other man for the last fifty years. 

'l^iiV^ sehiml governs itnelf ; I mean there is a spirit of order and deT«- 
tlim Ui eduei^ttiM^ developed among the boys and girls that leads them 
to leiuess au.Y giuiss Impropriety or disorder. In any serious case dis- 
(apliue U euUuHHHl by oourtinartial, and some of the older boys consti- 
tute tiie eiMU'tt Tliey are sure to make a just and fair decision, and a 
dei^isiim glveu by thom Is accepted as right and proper by the boys. 

Tluue ivie alumt liU> girls at Carlisle. The ages of the pupils range 
ivoii^ ^due i»v ten to thirty or more. 

Nevec bel'oiH^ In iiur history have the American people had such an 
opiMiitiudly of beh'iending a long injured race as now. The exigency 
IS ucgent. A llbiM'al expenditure for Indian education will prove a wise 
luvi^tuient. One million expended for this purpose now will be worth 



DEPARTMENT OF SUPERINTENDENCE. 63 

more than twenty millions twenty years hence. Let the Indian be once 
educated, made a citizen and a landholder, and he will never again go 
on the war path. 

ADDRESS OF GENERAL S. C. ARMSTRONG. 

* 

The work now being done at Hami)ton we feel to be of especial inter- 
est, including, as it does, experiments on a large scale with representa- 
tives of two races, the Negro- and the Indian. These people, who are 
with us and with whom we share a common fate, are a thousand years 
behind us in moral and mental development. Substantially the two 
races are in the same condition, and the question as to what education 
is best for them, and how such education is to be put within their reach, 
is pressing itself closely upon all thinking men and women. •Something 
more than ordinary school training is required for them, and it is evi- 
dent to us that power lies not so much in what is taught as in the 
tea>chers and the surrounding conditions. Eace education must be rec- 
ognized as demanding thorough study and involving many factors. It 
is not tuition from books so much as a massing of all the Ikifluences 
of civilization. Our pupils are clay in the hands of the potter j they 
strive to live as they see us live ; our responsibility is tremendous and 
our interest proportionate. Nothing short of the best teachers, with 
the best methods, can do justice to the work, for they must l>egin ab 
ovo and build up the individual. 

In teaching language, we have one of the best graduates of Wellesley 
College, thoroughly trained in methods, but depending mainly upon 
her own inspiration. In the industrial system our pupils find a reve- 
lation. We preach a gospel of work to those whose misconception of 
the value of work is shown in the low standard of the southern negr« 
laborer and the enforced and despised toil of the Indian woman. Our 
students work as hard during the last month of their stay in school bm 
daring the first, are paid fair wages, with which they meet their school 
expenses, and now earn an aggregate of about $32,000 a year. As far 
as possible we avoid charity, and develop skill often to the extent of 
doubling or trebling a pupil's value. 

On the moral side, we ask little as to the previous life, but demand k 
sincere intention to improve, and strike lines of development of which 
very few dream. Their immorality is largely the immorality of ignorance. 
In my fourteen years of work among the negroes the finest, most hopeful 
thing I have seen is the moral rally of the women. 

Negro education is, on their side, only a question of opportunity, and 
we, who on every hand feel our limitations, are looking to Washing- 
ton to increase that opportunity. Private charity and State appro- 
priations will not take care of 25 per cent. The rest are casting ballots 
which they cannot read and stand as masses to be bought and sold by 
demagogues. Mental training helps moral development and vice versa; 
the identity of interest is beyond question. I know that expensive in- 

139 



64 CIECULARS OF INFORMATION FOR 1883. 

dustrial scliools cannot be built up everywhere, but the principle can 
be introduced into any school ; work of some kind during part of the 
session can be made essential and the main idea never lost sight of. 

The solution of the negro question, in at least one of its many phases^ 
is for the present generation, by the purchase and cultivation of land, 
to provide a substantial basis for the healthy growth and development 
of the generation to come. The hope of the race lies in their getting, 
not knowledge alone, but with it a true appreciation of the necessity 
and value of labor. It is, to those who work among them, a great 
encouragement to find that they are remarkably able to receive and 
assimilate ideas. 

The Indians are, of course, a widely different race, under widely dif- 
ferent conditions, though demanding very similar training. Five years 
ago we, at Hampton, knew nothing about them and took up the work 
as an experiment. The result in the individual is a success, our Indian 
graduates leave us strengthened and well equipped. The problem is, 
what shall be done with them f They return as educated Indians to the 
influence of agents, who are frequently incapable men, and the chance^^ 
are against them. It becomes a question of surroundings, and these are 
beyond our reach. We have demonstrated the possibility of producing 
strong and trustworthy individuals; for the conditions which alone can 
insur^ their continuous development or a field for their work, others are 
responsible, 

ADDRESS OF MISS A. C. FLETCHER. 

Two difficulties confront one who would speak of Indian education : 
(1) the variety of interests involved in the subject 5 (2) the variety of 
prejudices concerning the Indians. Before speaking of the first it may 
not be amiss to say a few words concerning the second. 

The antagonism felt toward the Indian seems to result not so much 
from conflicts incident to our possessing the land as from his sociologie 
status, which differs so widely from our own. It is a comparatively re- 
cent suggestion that a social condition similar to that of the Indian 
preceded our present advancement, and that an intelligent study of 
archaic forms of society may reveal the sources of some of the laws and 
customs which are still potent in our midst. This suggestion, however, 
has not yet aff'ected the bulk of our people, and the indiscriminate name 
of " savage '^ is still suflicient to practically cut the Indian off from 
human interest and sympathy. The potency of the name " savage,'^ 
both in the past and the present, cannot easily be overestimated. It 
Axes an estimate upon the Indian ; it biases observation of him ; it mod. 
ifies our action towards him. During the past there have been, here 
and there, students who have endeavored to search through the environ, 
ment of the Indian for an explanation of his condition 5 to investigate hi» 
language, myths, and ceremonies, to flnd the springs of his thought and 
action ; to study the Indian as a fellow man, and thus learn of his real 
140 



DEPARTMENT OF SUPERINTENDENCE. 65 

character and his every day life. The efforts of these students have not 
been without effect. Already the public conscience is awakening, and 
to-day there are many who will admit that the Government has acted 
wrongfully toward the Indians; but there are not so many ready to 
admit a personal responsibility for the prejudice and ignorance con- 
sciously or unconsciously indulged in, which have made the deplored 
governmental action possible. Since it is the people who mould and 
give force to official deeds, the public bad faith toward the Indian has 
been in accordance with the general indifference toward a " savage," 
and, while ignorance is tolerated and misstatements concerning the In- 
dian authoritatively taught, right conduct either in private or public 
capacity is not likely to be the rule. 

Indian society is generally supposed to be without law or order, a 
sort of random life, but careful investigation is showing that most, if 
not all, the tribes are organized into gentes, the gens being based upon 
relationship; these gentes combine to form fratres, the fratres join to 
form the tribe, and tribes unite to form confederacies; and this order 
of society was in force long before the advent of our race upon this con- 
tinent. The gens is, so to speak, the social unit. It possesses a dis- 
tinctive name, significant of its religious or social ancestry; it has a 
system of names which are given to its members; it has its hereditary 
chief, elective chiefs, and soldiers; its location in the tribal circle is fixed; 
and it has its functions and duties in the religious and secular tribal 
ceremonies. It is, therefore, a little community possessed of distinct 
powers, but lacking the means of perpetuation because of the law which 
forbids a member of a gens to marry within his gens. Thus the ties of 
marriage and collateral relationship bind the gentes together. Each 
Indian, therefore, is born into his gens, where he is thenceforth fixed, 
for he may not set up his tent and establish his home except with his 
gens, where his immediate interests and responsibilities centre. The 
influence of the gens holds even when the Indians have broken up the 
tribal circle and scattered out on individual farms, and many genera- 
tions will pass before all traces of this ancient social form will ceasQ to / 
exist. The fratres are effective in certain ceremonies which concertf^ 
the gentes and tribe. The tribe thus compacted needs little expla^^- ' 
tion at present, except, perhaps, as concerns war and the office of oi||ef- 
tainship. .-'0 

War among the Indians is generally a private enterprise. When a 
man desires to avenge a wrong or wishes to wander forth iii qtieBt of 
booty, or if, in the recklessness of sorrow, he desires to ristc^ his life to 
assuage his grief, he steps forth into the tribal circle or opi^ space and 
announces his intention to go on the war path. Then, when he has ful- 
filled certain ceremonies, he departs, and is followed by those of his 
kindred or friends who care to join in the venture. Each one goes 
voluntarily ; no one is urged or forced to be of the parl^. War, there- 
fore, rarely involves any considerable part of the tribe, and there is no 
5 BD 586 141 



66 CmCULAKS OF INFORMATION FOE 1883. 

record of a war ever being the unanimous wish of the tribe. Warfare 
partaking of this private and irresponsible character is more disastrous 
than when organized and national, since it renders life and possessions 
exposed to individual caprice. This custom, so detrimental to the ad- 
vancement of a people, is in part counteracted by the authority vested 
in the chiefs. 

It is the duty of the chief to prevent quarrels, to settle those that take 
place, to preserve harmony in the tribe, and to make peace with other 
tribes. His office is semireligious, and he cannot go on the war path or 
lead his people in battle unless under the stress of defensive warfare. 
Our failure to understand the private character of war parties and the 
peaceful duties of the chiefs has led to mistakes. i^Tegotiations have 
been entered into between the Government and Indian soldiers, arid 
not with the chiefs of the tribe, who were quiet at home. The tribe, 
not being officially represented either in the war or in the settlement, 
regarded the whole transaction as a private arrangement, which oould 
not concern it as a whole. . "Paper chiefs," as the Indians often call 
these Indian soldiers whom our army has sometimes caught and nego- 
tiated with, possess much less influence in the tribe than we are wont 
to fancy, and a^e never counted as chiefs unless they are initiated into 
the office by the regular tribal form. 

Indian society has, therefore, its peculiar organization and is both 
real and eftective. The same is true of the religion of the Indian. It, 
too, binds him fast with minute observances, intricate ceremonials, 
lengthy rituals, on the exact performance of which the welfare of his 
daily life and his future depend. The Indian's religious duties begin 
in his childhood and last throughout all his days. Fixity, not freedom, 
is the characteristic of primitive forms of society. We. do not begin 
with freedom, but we may attain it if we are able. 

Incapacity and aversion to work are supposed to be characteristic of 
the Indian, and are spoken of in connection with his being a hunter, 
and, in the popular notion, to be a hunter is to live for sport and the 
pleasures of the chase. When food is dependent upon the precarious- 
ness of game, the occupation of the hunter becomes one of grave re- 
sponsibility and labor. Among many of the tribes hunting was con- 
ducted under the control of leaders, who were appointed to the office 
with certain religious ceremonies, and any person undertaking private 
hunting ventures without the knowledge and sanction of these officials 
would incur serious punishment. These rules were rigidly observed in 
the buffalo country. The life of an Indian man after reaching maturity 
was filled with activities and dangers, and it was impossible to avoid 
such a life in a land devoid of animals capable of being domesticated. 
The restless anxiety, bred of the fluctuating supply of food, was a heavy 
load of hindrance and retarded the advance of the people. Sex de- 
termined the occupation of the individual. The men composed the 
combatant force, they were the protectors and hunters; the women 
142 



DEPARTMENT OF SUPERINTENDENCE. 67 

formed the non-combatant part of the community, and were the agri- 
coltaral and industrial portion of the people. Many of the peculiarities 
of the Indian race and customs are traceable to the absence of domestic 
animals. Our more fortunate raee, being bred on a continent where 
lived the sheep and the ox, laid upon these animals the burden of food 
supply, and the mind, thus freed from its most pressing need, asserted 
its creative power and devised better modes of living, and gradually 
society developed into coordinated forms and industries. It is a sug- 
gestive speculation to consider what would have been our present con- 
dition had our immediate ancestors been forced to accept the poverty 
of this country in respect to animals, cereals, and fruits. When we 
look at the Indian mode of life, it is important to remember his environ- 
ment on this continent and its potent limitations. 

The Indian has always been a kind of artisan, and his hahd is skilled 
by long heredity to steady lines and strokes, more fine than heavy. The 
trenh of his past turns him toward the shop, where the work of the eye 
. and hand are coordinated. To prove the truth of this statement it is 
only needful to call to mind the silver work of northern and southern 
Indians, the bows and arrows and other weapons, the wrought bone im- 
plements, the pipes, both historic and prehistoric; nor should woman's 
handicraft be forgotten, her weaving, quill embroidery, the articles 
made of skin, bark, and wood, her pottery making and free hand orna- 
mentations. Our museums bear ample testimony to the industrial abil- 
ity of our native races. The Indian, therefore, is not lazy, but he does 
not labor as we labor; he has not learned the value of persistent work, 
which begets provision and care for the future; and his en\dronment in 
the past has been of such a character as to furnish no suggestion as to 
the need of such caretaktng, but rather the contrary. 

It is worth noticing that the Indians have not invented a lock and 
key, as it opens a singular vista concerning their estimate of posses- 
9ions. When about to leave their villages they cached their goods to 
prevent loss from their enemies. Thieving among them is rare. The 
chiefs enforce the return of articles stolen. It would almost drop the 
race from the list of mankind to assert that Indians never steal, but it 
may truly be stated that stealing is not a characteristic trait. The con- 
trary prejudice on our part is queerly indicated in the following quota- 
tion from an official communication: "They [the Indians spoken of] are 
honest, or, at least, as honest as it is usual for Indians to be. I have 
never known them to steal and their word can usually be relied on." 

Treachery toward a friend is almost unknown among Indians. To- 
ward an enemy it is as it is with us: "All is fair in war.'' To the out- 
side observer vengeance often seems indiscriminately practised by the 
Indians, but, according to their laws of the responsibility of kinship, the 
acts find explanation. Among the Indians kindred rise and fall together ; 
any or all can be held responsible for the act of any one of kin, whether 
all are cognizant of the act or not. According to our law innocent and 

143 



68 CIRCULARS OP INFORMATION FOR 1883. 

ignorant persons may thus be made to soffer, but, according to Indian 
law, kinship must bear the burden. It is not many centuries since a 
similar code held us in its clutch. 

When fairly dealt with the Indians are, as a rule, friendly, honest, 
and true. Truthfulness is an Indian trait. The ideal man is " straight." 
" I have talked to you without branches," said a venerable chief. The 
Indian idea of truth is simple, literal, hugging close to the fact, and 
this idea is consonant with his elaborate social and rehgious ceremo- 
nies. "It is" or '^It is not" covers all the ground to the Indian, and 
he finds it difficult to comprehend the contingencies which hedge about 
our life and thought. 

A careful study of the Indian reveals him to be a man bearing the 
marks of a common human nature. His peculiar environment has de- 
veloped him in lines that do not coincide with our lines of development. 
If his ancient environment were to continue unaltered there would be 
little hope of any speedy or great modification of his ancient social %.nd 
religious forms. But his environment has already changed, and he is 
to-day stranded upon unknown and untried circumstances. For this 
change we are directly responsible, as well as for the difficulties involved 
and their solution. We have corralled the Indian and tried by various 
expedients to postpone facing the problem of his future, until at last 
further delay is impossible. His future is indissolubly linked to our 
own, and the welfare of both races demands careful consideration of 
the question before us and the difficulties involved in it. 

According to the last report of the Indian Commissioner there are in 
the territory of the United States, exclusive of Alaska, 262,366 Indians. 
Of this number 64,393 belong to the five civilized tribes in the Indian 
Territory and the Six IfTations of Kew York State, leaving 197,973 In- 
dians whose treaties and relations place them in direct line with our 
responsibility. The amount of land held in reservations is 224,259 
square miles, covering an area of 143,525,760 acres. Deducting the 
amount belonging to the civilized tribes before mentioned, which is 
19,672,147 acres, of which only 9,500,352 are classified as tillable, there 
remain 123,853,613 acres, contained in about 124 reservations, not in- 
cluding the Pueblo villages. These reservations are under the manage- 
ment of 59 agencies and are scattered over 11 States and 9 Territories. 

144 



DEPARTMENT OF SUPEBINTENDENCE. 



69 



Distribution af uncivilized Indians in the United States, 



States and Territories. 



California 
Colorado . 



low 



Kansas 

Michigan 

Minnesota 

Nebraska 

Nevada 

Oregon - 

Wisconsin 

Texas (military control) " 

Arizona Territory 

Dakota Territory 

Idaho Territory 

Montana Territory 

New Mexico Territory 

Utah Territory 

Washington Territory 

Wyoming Territory 

Indian Territory, exclasive of civilized tribes. 



CO 

p 
o 

•■§ 

00 

(4 



5 

1 
1 

5 
3 

9 
6 
4 
6 

7 



6 

13 

4 

3 

3 

2 

16 

1 

19 



CO 

d 
bo 



2 
2 
5 
2 



SI 





4 
9 
3 
5 
3 
2 
4 
1 
6 



11, 013 

925 

350 

633 

9,795 

4,382 

4,014 

7,831 

4,520 

7,756 

108 

14,241 

30,117 
3,652 

18, 705 

28,527 
2,371 

13, 286 
1,782 

18,531 



There are, besides, 15,434 Indians living at large without Government 
supervision or special land provision, and this does not include the 
remnants of tribes living in the Eastern States. The wide extent of 
country over which these tracts are spread, the variety of products, 
and the character of the soil should prevent too sweeping generaliza- 
tions when considering how these Indians are to become self supporting 
on these lands. 

Heretofore the question of Indian land tenure has overshadowed all 
other considerations pertaining to his welfare. Important as is this 
question, the statistics contained in the Commissioner's report show it 
to be less simple than has been supposed. Of the 123,853,813 acres 
contained in the 124 reservations and set apart for the support of the 
197,973 Indians, only 8,096,463 acres are reported as tillable, which 
would give not quite 5 acres to each Indian. This calculation, how- 
ever, is based upon an even distribution of the tillable land according 
to the location of the population, but the report shows that the till- 
able land is very unevenly distributed. 

In California the number of Indians upon reservations is 4,874 and 

145 



70 CIRCULARS OF INFORMATION FOR 1888. 

the tillable land is pat down at 5,500 acres, giving to each Indian li 
acres for his support, and that, too, in a region where irrigation is nec- 
essary to raise an adequate crop, and when we add the 6,579 Indians 
in the State who are not under any care the pro rata amount of land 
would be still less. In Michigan the 65,000 tillable acres give to each 
of the 9,795 Indians a little over 6i acres. In Wisconsin 2^ acres of 
tillable land would be the portion of each one of the 7,7^. In Nebraska 
nearly 30 acres could be allotted to each Indian. In the Indian Ter- 
ritory about 40 acres would be the share. In Few Mexico barely 5 
acres would go to each one of the 28,527 Indians. 

In view of these and similar figures which could be presented, the 
question of the Indian becoming self supporting is something more 
than giving the Indians titles and telling them " to go to work on their 
lands," even if every Indian were adapted to farming. Agriculture, 
when the land is suitable, will undoubtedly be the employment of a 
large number of Indians, but it is clearly impossible for all, since there 
does not remain enough tillable land to yield support from the soil alone. 
The inexperienced labor of the Indian adds to the difficulty, and this 
arises from his isolation and consequent lack of training by means of 
observation and contact with farmers. It may not be inopportune to 
allude here to the fact that, heretofore, tilling the land has been consid- 
ered by the Indians as woman's work, and the Indian man possesses 
the aversion, common in our own race, of one sex entering upon the 
conventional occupation of the opposite sex. 

A considerable portion of the land classed as tillable requires irriga- 
tion, and to make such land profitable capital is needed and intelligent 
labor to construct ditches, canals, flumes, &c., and to keep them in 
repair. To force a people to accept the responsibility of gaining self 
support under such circumstances involves the obligation on our part 
of providing an education adapted to the environment. 

A considerable portion of the land reserved is suitable for herding 
and there are many persons in our midst who advocate this occupation 
for the Indians as especially suitable and quote the advance of our race 
in the remote past through herding. The environment of our race was 
very different from the conditions of this continent, where the absence 
of animals capable of domestication has left the Indian without a he- 
redity which would tend to make him successful in the care of animals. 
Herding is to-day not a pastoral occupation, but a business requiring 
capital, executive ability, and a knowledge of the market. IfTone of 
these requirements are at present possible to the Indian, particularly 
with his barrier of language and ignorance of commercial methods. 
Herding for the Indian is for him to become practically a '' cow boy," 
and the value of this schooling for civilization is at least questionable. 

Looking at . the Indian tribes from a close personal knowledge and 
study of their life and customs, it seems plainly indicated that variety 
of occupation and modes of winning self support is to be the rule with 

146 



DEPARTMENT OF SUPERINTENDENCE. 71 

them as it is with us. Kor can one expect every Indian to become an 
industrioas, enterprising landholder. There will be such among the 
tribe, but there will also be the shiftless, indolent class that exists in 
every community. Heretofore this class among the Indians has been 
mainly regarded by us, and we have been inclined to gauge all Indians 
by the non-progressivcones. Our method of treating the race has been 
to level down and to attempt to make the community alike. The results 
have been unfortunate. It is the salvation of a community to permit 
those who can to advance and distance the less vigorous. It rouses 
latent forces and brings about thrift and social improvement. A mo- 
ment's reflection will suffice to convince one of the disasters sure to fol- 
low*an opposite course, and yet it is just this opposite course which has 
been enforced without exception upon the Indians until very lately. 

The industrial schools at Carlisle, Pa., Hampton, V^., and Forest 
Grove, Oreg., are movements toward recognizing the value of the indi- 
vidual Indian. At these schools he is taught trades, the value of labor, 
personal responsibility, and is thus prepared to cope with the world and 
earn his own living. If, after five years spent at either of these schools, 
he chooses to become a farmer, stock raiser, or mechanic, he enters the 
field with a wider knowledge, a shiftiness of mind, that he could never 
have gained without this industrial training received at these schools 
and direct and friendly contact with pur own race. Such training is 
the key which unlocks the prison door and sets the Indian free from 
the trammels of his own past and the white man's prejudice. Work 
makes the world akin, and the Indian can and he is willing to work, and 
eager to learn, as eager at least as it is possible for him to be, since he 
does not fully understand the benefits of knowledge. As has been re- 
marked, the heredity of the Indian man inclines him to the trades, and 
he has shown considerable adaptiveness where opportunity for such 
work has been given him. In any vocation, however, which the pres- 
ent generation may undertake, allowance should always be made for 
the Indian's previous lack of training in persistent labor ; this lack is 
perhaps the greatest drawback from which the Indian sufiers. 

The one thing imperatively needed for the Indian is industrial educa- 
tion. Educate him thus and he becomes a friendly neighbor and co- 
worker. Keep him in ignorance and isolation and he becomes danger- 
ous to his own future and to those about him. 

The Commissioner's report states that the number of Indian children 
who are of school age, exclusive of the five civilized tribes, is 34,662, 
and this is an underestimate, as several tribes are not reported. The 
number of reservation schools is given as 73 boarding, 105 day, and 
2 night schools. These schools are maintained at a cost to the Govern- 
ment of $278,733, exclusive of rations and part of the clothing. Vari- 
ous religious societies contribute $58,725, and the State of Kew York 
$17,644. The industrial schools at Carlisle, Pa., Forest Grove, Oreg., 
and the Indian department at Hampton, Va., receive from the G^vem- 

147 



72 CIKCULABS OF INFORMATION FOR 1883. 

ment $91,394, and religious societies doiiate to these institutions $49,882. 
It is not improper to state that but for the generous outside support 
the effectiveness of these schools would be seriously curtailed. 

The schools at present in operation can accommodate only 10,202 chil- 
dren, leaving a school population of 24,460 without any possible means 
of education or instruction in the ways of civiliz,ed life. 

Where is the block in the way of educating these children ? It is in 
Congress, which should appropriate the money. * It is but just to say 
that there are men in Congress who appreciate the need of education for 
the Indian, who desire to have the money appropriated ; but they are sur- 
rounded by such a dead weight of indifference and ignorance that they 
can make little headway. This year the appropriations are inadequate, 
considering the needs and just demands. Treaty obligations, the ap- 
peal of the Indians through their agents, tlie urgent request of the Com- 
missioner of Indian Affairs, and the plain setting forth of the Secretary 
of the Interior failed to move the congressmen from th^ir short-sighted 
policy and false notions of economy. 

It is cause for congratulation that the present Secretary of the In- 
terior is seriously and practically in earnest to secure education for the 
Indian. He says in his report : 

At least one-half of all, the Indian children of school age should be pat in manual 
labor schools. * * * A large number can be provided for in the several manual 
schools of the different States. The capacity of the labor schools already established 
can be increased so as to accommodate a large number. A number of United States 
military posts, no longer needed for military purposes, can be used for the purpose of 
Indian schools, the Government thereby saving the cost of erection of buildings, &c. 
With liberal appropriations it is quite possible to provide for the education of 10,000 
Indian youths in manual schools during the fiscal year 1884, and at least twice that 
number during the fiscal year 1885. * * * 

10,000 children in the fiscal year 1884, at $250 each $2, 500, 000 

20,000 children in the fiscal year 1885, at $200 each 4, 000, 000 

25,000 children in the fiscal year 1886, at $200 each 5,000,000 

30,000 children in the fiscal year 1887, at J200 each 6,000,000 

25,000 children in the fiscal year 1888, at $200 each 6,000,000 

* * * At the end of the fiscal year 1888 there will have been discharged 20,000 
children who will be able to care for and support themselves, and the total expense of 
the education of this number with those remaining in school will not exceed $22,500,000, 
or about two-thirds the amount of money expendedfor the suppression of Indian hos- 
tilities during the years 1864 and 1865. Since 1872, a period of only ten years, the 
cost of Indian hostilities and military protection against the Indian is estimated by 
the military authorities at $223,891,264.50, or an annual expense of $22,389,126.45. 
To this must be added the yearly appropriation for subsistence, which averages about 
$5,000,000 a year. * * * It is useless to attempt the civilization of the Indian 
through the agency of schools, unless a large number of children, certainly not less 
than one-half the total nuiuber, can have the benefit of such schools, and even then 
it is not wise to depend wholly on that agency. * * * It is believed that with an 
annual expenditure of lifetween $5,000,000 and $6,000,000 during the next fifteen yeara 
for educational purposes of the character herein indicated, the danger of Indian out- 
breaks may be avoided and the great mass of Indian youths at least made self sup> 
porting. 

148 



DEPABTMENT OF 8UPEEINTENDENCE. 73 

Such prudent advice falls short of practice for the lack of money, and 
the money is withheld because the people who elect the congressmen 
are indifferent and ignorant concerning the Indian and his needs. It 
is most fitting that at last this national interest and question has found 
its way before the educators of our country, for they have the power to 
spread knowledge and hasten the day of right doing toward the Indian 
race. 

SCHOOL SUPERVISION. 

Mr. Smart moved that there be a recess of five minutes ; which was 
then taken. 

After this recess the president called for speakers on the subject of 
supervision in accordance with the following published programme : 

SCHOOL supervision: specific aims; methods employed; 

It is desired that each superintendent shall present a definite, brief statement as ta 
what is made the leading aim in his supervision, with a very concise description of 
the most successful methods employed, the kind of supervision to he designated as 
State or general, city or graded schools, country or ungraded schools. 

In order that there may he such unity in points considered as will allow an arrange- 
ment of the statements into topics, it is suggested that attention he given to the 
following : 

(a) Mode of licensing teachers ; (6) plan for determining.the character of teachers' 
work ; (c) number of departments in the schools ; {d) how and by whom the fitness 
of j^upils for promotion is determined ; (e) frequency of promotions from grade to 
grade or school to school ; (/) the chief means used for securing school attendance ; 
{g) the practical results of compulsory education ; (^) chief obstacles to successful 
re^sults in the schools. 

Mr. C. G. Edwabds, of Baltimore, spoke as follows in reference to the 
question 

HOW AND BY WHOM THE FITNESS OF PUPILS FOR PROMOTION IS DETERMINED. 

Mr. Pbesibent: The subject of promotions, although apparently 
simple, is in practice one of the most perplexing with which teachers 
and superintendents have to deal. There are«rarious interests at stake, 
all of which must be taken into account. The welfare of the pupil is 
of course the paramount interest; but the teacher of the lower grade 
must be considered, and the teacher of the higher grade also, as well 
as the general good of the school regarded as an organic whole. The 
parent, too, will sometimes step in to complicate a question already com- 
plicated enough. 

It would seem at first sight that the teacher who knows most about 
the pupil is the best qualified to determine his fitness for promotion, and 
this is the teacher of the lower grade. He (or shall I say shef) knows: 
the other can only guess. But in practice this opinion would undergo 
some modification. It would be found that teachers generally are apt 
to overestimate the attainments of their pupils. With the greatest 
honesty of purpose, they are apt to make mistakes, and the mistakes* 

149 



74 CIRCULARS OF INFORMATION FOR 1883. 

are almost always in the same direction. And sometimes even honesty 
of purpose is wanting. A pupil is promoted, not because he is com- 
petent, but because he is troublesome. It is the easiest way of getting 
rid of him. And he may be promoted because he has been a long time 
in the grade and the teacher is ashamed to retain him longer. Promo- 
tions determined by the teacher of the lower grade are apt to be too 
numerous or too frequent; and injudicious promotions are injurious to 
the pupil and may be ruinous. 

On the other hand, if the promotions are determined by the teacher 
of the higher grade on questions prepared by this teacher, the chances 
are that some well prepared pupils will fail. It is a curious fact, which 
I am unable to account for, though it is within the 'experience of almost 
every principal teacher, that in such an examination one or two of the 
best pupils will fail and one or two of the worst will pass. This, how- 
ever, is only a minor evil. The great objection, I might say the fatal 
objection, is that it leads to, produces, encourages, and almost necessi- 
tates cramming. The teacher below finds out or shrewdly guesses the 
line of examination and adheres closely to that line in teaching. Tou 
will say the teacher is not obliged to do so. Bat consider the circum- 
stances. A teacher's ability and success are gauged by the number of 
pupils that he can " pass'' to the grade above. This may not be fair; it 
is in many cases very unfair; but it is the fact; and as the teacher who 
studies the coming examination most closely, guesses it most accurately, 
and sticks to it most closely is sure to "pass" the greatest number of 
pupils, the temptation to "cram" is almost irresistible; and the more 
there is of cram the less there is of useful learning. 

It thus appears that neither the teacher of the lower grade nor the 
teacher of the higher can be safely intrusted with the exclusive prerog- 
ative of determining what pupils shall be promoted. The objection 
against the teacher of the higher grade applies with equal or even greater 
force against the superintendent. But it seems to me to be possible 
to combine all three in such a way as to yield better results than can 
be had from any one separately. 

The best proof of a pupil's having mastered one step in a series is his 
ability to take the next step. Indeed this is often the only genuine test. 
It is quite possible to teach one part of a subject in such a way as to 
unfit the pupil from pursuing it further. It is also possible to teach it 
in such a way as to yield no visible results on examination and yet to 
leave the pupil's mind in the best possible condition for continuing the 
study and prosecuting it successfully. It is this obligation, real or sup- 
posed, on the part of the lower teachers to produce some visible result, 
capable of being expressed in figures, that generates and perpetuates 
cram and is rapidly driving teaching from the field. 

I would suggest, then, for the best interests of the pupil, and for the 
advancement of education and the destruction of cram and the encour- 
agement of sound teaching, that promotions should be determined by 

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DEPARTMENT OF SUPERINTENDENCE. 75 

the teacher of the lower grade. I am aware that this privilege may 
be abased, and therefore some check mast be provided. If the papil 
promoted is anable to prosecate the stadies of the new grade and if 
this inability is dae to deficient preparation in the grade below, he mast 
be remanded to that grade. Bat as sach a coarse is sa^roanded with 
difficulties, it shonld not be taken except after matare deliberation. The 
two teachers shonld consult together on the matter, and if they cannot 
agree the advice of the principal or saperintendent should be asked. 
In this way we obtain the advantage of the collective wisdom of the 
three persons best qualified to make a decision. 

The great advantage of such a scheme as this is that it is a direct and 
powerftQ stimulus to the teacher, urging him to the best that is in him. 
For he will speedily discover that pupils who have learned the right 
use of their faculties can sustd>in themselves in the new grade, while 
those who have been only crammed are likely to fail. Self interest 
then works on the side of good teaching, and not, as at present, on the 
side of cramming. Some persons are afraid that, when the spur of 
examinations for promotion is removed, teachers may become careless. 
But the fear of having a pupil sent back is the strongest kind of stim- 
ulus, and it stimulates to good work and not to mere show. It is not 
necessary and would not be proper to give up the examinations. They 
would still be useful; but they would be shorn of their power to harass 
both teachers and pupils. 

I can think,' Mr. President, of no simpler or surer method of relieving 
teachers and pupils from the ill effects of our high pressure system than 
the plan I have suggested of giving to the teachers of the lower grade 
the power of making promotions at discretion, with the proviso that 
pupils may be returned if, after due trial, they are found unfit for the 
studies of the new grade. 

Mr. Sanford criticised the marking system, and believed that chil- 
dren should be examined from text books which they had not studied. 
Examinations are held periodically in Middletown, and the records are 
examined by the superintendent before promotion. It is not best to 
consign the matter of promotion to the teacher of the lower grade ; this 
should be in the hands of the superintendent or competent i)rincipals. 

General Eaton said that the method of the examination has much to 
do with the place of the examination. The English have by their use 
of examinations made them an instrumentality of cramming; so much 
so that the very distinguished German school officer. Dr. Wiese, was 
startled to find the extent to which they had been pushed, and the result. 
The Germans employ examinations, but in such a way as to promote 
healthy growth. Great care must be used in conducting these tests. 
Teachers are too apt to mark pupils zero if a slight mistake is made. 

Mr. Smart said that for six or seven years he had been a member 
of a board that has examined 120,000 teachers, 40,000 being rejected. 

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76 CIRCULARS OF INFORMATION FOR 1883. 

The same paper had been sent as a test to the ninety-two examiners 
composing the board in Indiana, and the valuation of the answers givei\ 
had varied greatly. With a large number of examiners changing office 
frequently, it is impossible to secure uniformity. This subject needs 
careful study. 

Mr. Tappan stated that the method he had adopted in examining 
teachers, and that was found to work well, was to mark those reaching 
a certain percentage as passing and those below a certain other per- 
centage as failing, while all between were to be reexamined. 

Dr. Patton said that he found that many persons have a standard 
for colored students and colored teachers entirely different from the 
standard for white students and white teachers. Teachers sometimes 
mark colored pupils too high. This gives the pupils false ideas of their 
own attainments and of perfect recitations. There are several southern 
institutions whose college course is parallelwith a normal course, save 
in a single year. These facts should be brought before the public, and 
especially the educational public, in such a manner as to secure a pop- 
ular sentiment that would rectify these great evils. 

COMPULSORY EDUCATION. 

The president called upon Hon. Joseph White, ex-secretary of the 
State board of education of Massachusetts, to speak upon the practical 
results of compulsory education. 

Mr. White stated that practically he was pretty familiar with the 
question; that he had long ago reached the conclusion that a good deal 
of money was lost to the State and much trouble caused by reason of 
the irregular attendance and the non-attendance of large numbers of 
pupils. !N"o school system can be successful which does not secure the 
regular attendance of a preponderating majority of the children. 

A law was passed in Massachusetts requiring the attendance of all 
children of school age for at least twelve weeks in the year. Afterwards 
a law was passed compelling guardians to send their children to school 
for twenty weeks in the year, each ten weeks to be continuous. Most of 
the schools are taught forty weeks in the year. In the country the aim 
has been to secure schools of thirty-six weeks in the year, divided into 
three terms ; that is as good an arrangement as can be made in the 
rural towns. The chief difficulty in the way of regular attendance occurs 
with reference to manufacturing establishments. In one town an ar- 
rangement was made with the manufacturing agents by which they 
took a number of pupils at one time and then took another class, and 
this plan worked very well. Mr. Marble is here, who devised one of 
the best systems for his own city, Worcester, and he can speak with 
accuracy on these points. 

The result of this compulsory law is that the attention of the people 
of the Commonwealth is turned to the business of educating their chil- 

152 



DEPARTMENT OF SUPERINTENDENCE. 77 

dreu, and tbey are made to feel the responsibility of it. This law applies 
to children between eight and fifteen, and is substantially carried out 
throughout the State. 

Mr. Marble said that when the law was changed copies were printed 
and sent to the various manufacturing establishments. The require- 
ment is that all children between the ages of eight and fourteen shall 
attend school twenty weeks, and that the employers of children shall 
never engage a child under ten years of age 5 also, that an employer 
shall have in his possession a certificate for every child employed stat- 
ing the amount of school attendance the preceding year, if the child is 
under fourteen, or that the child is fourteen or more years of age. In 
the larger cities truant officers are employed ; they look up children 
who are absent from school, and also examine the various manufactories 
periodically to see if children are employed contrary to law. The bare 
fact of the employment of children under 16 years of age without a cer- 
tificate of the school committee is prima facie evidence, and the employer 
can be fined $20 to $50 and costs for each case. A fine of $50 may also 
be imposed on the parent. 

Mr. Sanford asked what was done with the street hoodlums. 

Mr. Marble replied that children who are found wandering about 
the streets and public places and growing up in ignorance are regarded 
as vagrants; they are found by the truant officers and taken to school. 
If the scholar should not attend school regularly, after two or three 
days he is admonished in a solemn and impressive tone of voite; some- 
times this has to be repeated. At length, after a period which is to be 
determined by the school* authorities, the boy is arrested for truancy 
and is sent to the truant school for a term of six months to two years. 
This truant school is a wing of the almshouse. In the city of Worces- 
ter, with a population of 67,000, there are 8 boj'^s at present in the truant 
school. Very few of those inclined to truancy niBed to be sentenced to 
the truant school. 

Mr. Harrington inquired whether the boys in this school come in 
contact with the people in the almshouse. 

Mr. Marble replied, " I^ot at all. " 

Mr. Newell asked how much truth there is in Governor Butler's 
statement of the illiteracy in Massachusetts. 

Mr. White replied that it is not becoming to criticise the " supreme 
executive'^ of the Commonwealth. The amount of illiteracy had been 
found years ago to be .057, and according to some recent statement it 
is less than .060 now, just about enough to cover those who are utterly 
incapable of learning — idiots, &c. 

Mr. Smart said that, of course, a large proportion of the illiterates 
are foreigners who came to this country too late in life to derive benefit 
from the schools. 

General Baton expressed a desire to hear from Mr. Marble in refer- 

153 



78 CIRCULARS OF INFORMATION FOR 1883. 

ence to Canadian immigration to Worcester and its effect on the 
schools. 

Mr. Marble replied that there are 4,000 French Canadian residents 
in Worcester, a certain proportion of whom are permanent residents and 
good citizens, and certain others who come to the city for the summer 
and work in brickyards and similar places and as soon as they earn a 
few hundred dollars return to Canada. The French Catholic priest has 
done a great deal towards nationalizing these people. He has invited 
the superintendent of schools to visit the schools conducted for them, 
at any hour of the day. In all the parochial schools of the city there 
are 1,500 pupils, and these pupils receive certificates from the school 
committee on the same plan as the pupils of the public schools. 

CHIEF OBSTACLES TO SUCCESSFUL RESULTS IN THE SCHOOLS. 

In reference to this subject, Mr. ]N^ewell said : 

In speaking of successful results from our public school system, there 
are really two questions involved : we may consider results in quantity 
or results in quality. We may inquire, in the first place, what are the 
obstacles which have prevented the universal spread of education 
throughout the country by means of public schools ! Why is the num- 
ber of children who are not in our public schools so large ! In the next 
place, we may inquire as to results in quality. Are the pupils of the 
public schools as well educated as they ought to be ! If not, what are 
the obsta(51es that prevent the schools from doing better work ! Among 
the obstacles which impede the more general diffusion of education by 
means of our public schools, I mention, in the first place, the indiffer- 
ence of parents. The remedy in this case would seem to be what is 
termed " compulsory education,'' and it is the remedy which many edu- 
cational doctors would prescribe; but for my part I am not able to see 
this matter exactly in the same light as the " doctors." I have no con- 
fidence in law unsupported by public opinion. I have great doubts of 
the efficacy of law to make people religious, or temperate, or learned. 
There are cases where the state must intervene for the protection of 
children against their parents 5 but these are exceptions. As a rule, 
we must assume that parents do not wish to injure their children. I 
would employ the missionary before calling in the constable to school. 

Another obstacle to the universal spread of public schools is the dis- 
affection of a considerable minority of our population to the whole 
scheme of secular education. These persons think that a school system 
which is exclusively secular is dangerous, and that there must be a cer- 
tain admixture of religious instruction in order to make reading and 
writing safe acquisitions for the masses of the people. It is hardly 
worth while to dwell on this point. If the church will educate the chil- 
dren, let the church educate them. The catechism will certainly do no 
harm. If, however, the church does not educate the children, then it is 
the business of the state to step in and do the work. 

154 






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DEPARTMENT OF SUPERINTENDENCE. 79 

It is said that nothing sacceeds like success ; bat the greatest obstacle, 
in my opinion, in the way of the nniversal spread of elementary educa- 
tion is the amount of success which the public schools have already had. 
The apparent paradox can be easily explained. That which is common 
is apt to be neglected. Fifty years ago, to be able to read and write 
well was a distinction to mark a man in his community ; he was so 
much more able as a workman and so much better as a citizen that all 
men took knowledge of him that he had been to school. But education 
is a great leveller ; and it has levelled not only by filling up the valleys 
but by cutting down the hill-tops. We have more readers than any 
other country in the world and fewer thinkers in proportion to the 
number of readers. As long as it was evident that it was a great advan- 
tage to be something of a scholar, parents were anxious to send their 
children to school and to college, but education has now ceased to be a 
distinction and many wealthy parents are unwilling to send their sons 
to college, as many poor parents are indifferent about sending their 
children to the common school. 

In the next place I will say that our public school system has not 
that elasticity and that adaptability, that power to meet emergencies, 
which will produce rapid and permanent results. Go back for half a 
century and you will find that our schools were organized for the pur- 
pose of supplementing existing deficiencies. A large number of people 
who were living in comfortable circumstances sent their children to 
private schools, but there was a great mass who got no schooling at all. 
The new public schools took in these neglected masses and gave them 
an elementary education. * At first the course of instruction was very 
elementary indeed, but by degrees the standard was raised ; the public 
school tried to be as good as the private school ; it succeeded ; then it 
tried to be better than the private schools ; it succeeded ; but the very 
success tended to remove it further from the very class of children for 
whose benefit it was originally established. Theoretically, the public 
school is for all ; practically, it is conducted with less regard to the very 
lowest stratum of society than is desirable. 

Our public schools are now the best schools to be found, but they are 
surrounded by a set of rigid rules, customs, and traditions which have 
a tendency to keep out the very children that these schools were estab- 
lished to educate. Take one of our ordinary rules, that the child who 
has been absent from school two days in any week or four days in any 
month shall be suspended — that is to say, be dWven out of school. 
Because for some reason or other he has not been able to take the full 
advantage of the school, our rule says he is to have no advantage at all. 
Sorely the proper function of the school is to gather the children in 
rather than to drive them out. I say, then, in a general way, that our 
school systems need to have a little more adaptability to the conditions 
in which we are now placed. Much injury results from the dissociation 
of education and labor under our present systiem, two things which 



80 CIRCULARS OF INFORMATION FOR 1883. 

God has joined together and which man ought not to put asunder, 
believe that a child needs to learn to drive a nail just as much as 
needs to learn to read a newspaper. In some way this deficiency mns0 
be remedied, if elementary education is to be made universal. 

In the second place, looking to the quality of the education given im^ 
our public schools, the great obstacle to perfect success is the la<5k a 
trained teachers. !N"ot one in ten of the teachers of the United States 
has received any special education or training to fit him for his busi- 
ness. Those who are long enough at work learn something ; some of 
them learn very little. 

And then there is another lack, the want of skilled supervisors who 
might, to a certain extent, make up for the lack of trained teachers. 
Here and there we have a competent and well trained superintendent, 
but often that trained and competent superintendent is neutralized by 
his committee, and, instead of being able to do what he knows is right 
and good and useful, he has to spend his days and nights in trying to 
do just as little harm as possible. The very selection of our school 
books is often left to men barely capable of reading one of them from 
beginning to end. If any good results in the near future are to be 
achieved in connection with our public school work, it must be by leav- 
ing the practical management of our schools to men who are experts in 
their profession. It is as ticklish work as ballooning, and requires just 
as mujBh nerve as to attack a battery. 

I will mention only another obstacle ; it is, perhaps, not so much of 
an impediment after all, for it sometimes does as much good as harm. 
I refer to what I may call the destructive criticism that meets us in our 
newspapers and in some of our periodicals and other publications. No 
school man objects to criticism; he welcomes it. No school man objects 
very strongly even to unfair criticism; provided tkat the facts are accu- 
rately stated, we can make allowance for the wrong deductions. I refer to 
the kind of criticism which says " this is all wrong" and never gives you a 
hint as to how to make it right — the criticism of Gail Hamilton, for ex- 
ample, the criticism of Eichard Grant White, and of General Butler. 
Your high schools, they tell you, are all wrong ; but nobody has ever 
proposed to do away with the high school. You are cramming the 
children with useless technical knowledge, they ifcy 5 but they do not 
tell you how to avoid the cramming. This is the work which is good 
for pulling down and not for building up. I can say as hard things 
about our public school system as, I think, any man here, but then I 
hope I have something to suggest in place of what I have criticised. 

Having dwelt so largely on the obstacles which our public school sys- 
tem has to contend against, I may say, in conclusion, that I do not con- 
sider them, on the whole, to be very formidable. They will not stop 
the car of progress, and they can hardly retard it very much. Notwith- 
standing the indifference of parents, the opposition of the church, the 
rigidity and inelasticity of our system, notwithstanding our lack of 
156 



DEPARTMENT OF SUPERINTENDENCE. 81 

trained teachers and competent supervisors, the public schools are 
making progress and will continue to make progress. I have an abid- 
ing faith in their ultimate and permanent success. 

Mi. Pickett enforced the necessity of the proper inspection of 
schools, and Mr. White spoke of the excellent results accomplished 
by women as members of school committees in Massachusetts. 

CONCLUSION. 

Mr. Jones introduced the following, whi<5h was unanimously passed: 

Resolved, That the press of Washington be tendered the thanks of the department 
for the fhll reports given to the public. 

General Eaton called attention to the Holland Exhibition, and ex- 
pressed a hope that American education would be well represented. 

On the motion of Mr. Mabble, the department then adjourned to 
meet with the National Educational Association at Saratoga on the 9th 
of July. 

157 

6 ED 586 



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