EDUCATION, AMERICAN

The American educational system shares a common parentage with that of other countries in having been inherited from the spread of knowledge estimated by Protestant ism, and, further back, by the Italian Renai ance and Grecian culture. Modern Democracy, broadening the scope of that inheritance, affirmed that it was the duty of society not only to educate all the people, but to break down the barriers that reserved higher culture for the well-placed and restricted the education of the poorer elements of the population to elementary knowledge. The United States has been the most forward-looking of all countries in democratizing education by discarding standards that measured the quality and extent of education according to a pupil’s social grade and family resources. The wealth of many succe ful Americans has been poured into college endowments to enable the people at large to have the best that scholarship can offer. Public and collegiate schools opened the way to all culture for every student disposed to pursue learning. The beginning of American public education reflected the influence of European institutions. The apprenticeship system reigned in early colonial days, and the conception of education by the public authorities was largely confined to a_ half-hearted effort to teach poor boys and orphans a trade. The system, supported by taxation was disliked by aristocratic Virginia, and did not prosper in that colony; even an attempt to found a college in 1622 failed. Ma achusetts, more progre ive, not only required neglected children to learn an occupation, but decreed that they should know how to read and write and be instructed in religion and in the country’s laws. ‘Townships were called upon to establish grammar schools to qualify boys for Harvard, which had been founded in 1636, and voluntary contributions paid the fees of poor pupils, to be later replaced by the provision of education funds from taxation and public moneys. In Ma achusetts, as elsewhere, the Church was a foremost influence in public education. In New Amsterdam (New York) a school—the first of record there—was opened by the West India Company, but under church control. Maryland established free schools, supported by public taxes, in 1695, and South Carolina in 1712. New England followed the Ma achusetts system. The Southern colonies retained the cla instincts of the mother country and only recognized education for the well-to-do through tutors and private schools, while the church and civil authorities combined to direct public instruction in New Amsterdam and Pennsylvania. The elementary schools that sprang up were taught by women. Only reading and writing were imparted as a rule; sometimes arithmetic was included, and later sewing in New England, girls being admitted. These dame schools were the lower rung for the grammar schools, where instruction in the cla ics The eighteenth century brought new immigration, a religious revival, an expansion of commerce, the birth of the American pre and scientific development. All were influences that gave an impetus to education and produced the establishment of academies, with a more advanced curriculum than the grammar schools. Franklin stre ed the need of such institutions to bring education into line with progre in other directions. Among the establishments formed were the Phillips Academies at Exeter. and And over, Groton, Erasmus Hall, Nazareth Hall at Bethlehem, and the Philadelphia Public Academy, the last, opened in 1749, being the forerunner of them all. A feature they developed from the dame schools was co-education, many of them admitting both sexes, while others were solely for girls. But it was the nineteenth century that really started female education on the lines known today. After the Revolution the States set themselves the task of fostering education, they were mainly interested in the higher branches. Washington, as did al university, but none was established, and there is no such institution today. Elementary instruction remained confined to private or local effort. The establishment of public systems of education that fitted the times began in 1837-8 in Ma achusetts and Connecticut where state board of elections were organized through the efforts of two pioneers of modern education, Horace Mann and Henry Barnard. Cities began to appoint superintendents of schools, beginning with Buffalo and Louisville. The conception of educational functions and service widened, bringing about compulsory attendance, additional subjects, such as manual training, kinderarten, the founding of training schools ‘or teachers, and, notably, the establishment of the U. 8. Bureau of Education in 1867 with Barnard as its first commi ioner. This body is a clearing house for information. It has no authority over educational institutions, which are the State’s affair, but the country’s educational system is neverthele national in character, due largely to bodies like the National Education A ociation, teachers’ colleges, educational periodicals, standardized college entrance requirements and the influence and benefactions of the General Education Board (which dispenses large sums for educae tion donated by John D. Rockefeller), and the Sage and Carnegie Foundations (aq. v.) All that the federal government does directly for education relates to supplying funds for land grant colleges and agricultural experiment stations and to developing vocational education. The State boards of education formulate educational requirements, such as compulsory attendance and teachers’ qualifications. They also apportion funds levied for education equipment, exercise supervision of schools, including buildings and equipment, supervise the training of teachers, and provide in some cases for the higher education of adults through extension courses. Local authorities are charged by the State with the responsibility for providing schools. Towns, townships, counties and cities are thus the agencies through which the State pursues its educational policy. The modern: tendency in rural districts | is for the counties through a board to a ume the burden of establishing and maintaining schools, employing and paying teachers and deciding the school tax rate. In the cities, where education has naturally made the greatest strides, public instruction is in the hands of similar boards, whose functions are wide and complex, with the superintendent of schools becoming an increasingly important official. In some cities he is aided by a busine manager, school architec medical inspector, instructors in spec i subjects, and by directors of playgrounds, physical development and evening cla es. The universality of American education of today as an integral part of the upbringing of youth embraces a fleld that far surpa es the earlier system of come mon and high schools. It seeks to meet the educational needs of everybody without restriction as to age or subjects, and includes physical and mental defectives and the delinquent. The adult with a neglected education is as much its concern as the uninstructed young. Nearly all the states require school attendance from the ages of six to thirteen or fourteen—in New York sixteen; but compulsory attendances is not every= where enforced, or in some localities, way for a tuition which should be ample, if followed, for the education of most citizens, including, as it does, re: writing, arithmetic, geography, Am can history, music, drawing, physiology, hygiene, civics, domestic science and manual training. For secondary educae tion, there are high schools that offer courses in established subjects with Ii liberty of seiection by the student,. x others that teach a variety of eclectic subjects, such as English and modern languages, cla ics, science, and commercial education. For higher education _ there are all the famous colleges, beginning with Harvard, William and Mary and Yale; the State universities, and women colleges. Vocational education, a recent development, became sponsored by the national government through a federal board whom Congre authorized to co-operate with the State in establishing and maintaining industrial cla es throughout the country. These cla es are held at evening, part-time, all-day, or part-time continuation schools. The schools in 1920 numbered 3,859 and aided in the vocational training of 305,224 pupils of both sexes with the employment of 9,906 teachers. The courses include agriculture, trades, home economics and teaching. The growth of busine colleges and of busine training in the secondary and higher seats of learning is another indication of educational progre . The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania was an early pioneer in introducing commercial education into the college curriculum, and the establishment of such courses or departments in high schools and colleges soon became general. Leading universities include commerce in the tuition of their colleges of liberal arts and a number confer the degree of commerce. °s The general spread of knowledge in the United States can best be visualized by the statement that in 1922 there were 277,609 educational establishments, composed of 271,319 public-school buildings, 618 colleges, universities and profe ional schools, 92 junior colleges, 449 normal schools, 2,093 private secondary schools, 10,283 private commercial schools, and 1,755 nurse training schools. There were 14,000 high schools, but out of 1,000 students only 418 graduate. Most of them stay into the second year, and only half survive the third year. More girls than boys enter high school. Out of 665,000 secondary students enrolling for the first year, only 45% were boys and the proportion declined still further by the fourth year to 38%. In private high schools the boys retain their ratio (about the same as in the public schools) from enrollment to the fourth year. The average daily attendance in United States public schools was determined by the census of 1919 at 2,940,540, with a total current expense of $222,157,- 892, or an average annual cost per pupil of $75.55. The census also showed that of 15,306,793 children between the ages of seven and thirteen, 13,869,010 attended school; 3,907,710 between fourteen and fifteen, 3,134,129 attended; of 3,828,131 between sixteen and seventeen, 1,644,061 attended; and of 5,522,- 082 between eighteen and twenty, 214,651 attended school. As to illiteracy in the forty eight states, and the District of Columbia, containing $2,739,815 persons of ten years of age and over, only 4,931,905 jwere illiterate, including 1,242,572 native whites, 1,763,- 740 foreign-born whites, and 1,842,161 negroes. The twentieth century brought marked changes in American economic and social life which reacted in diminishing the influence of the home upon many children and enlarging the functions of the public school. The American teacher has become social guide to her charges as well as an instructor of knowledge. Millions of parents, largely dwelling in city tenements, which are mere conveniences for eating and sleeping, are unable to exercise the old-time home supervision over their children, vast numbers of whom find their interests on the street when not in school. Lack of home training in conduct and manners has accordingly thrown an additional burden on public schools. Teachers are confronting every day the nece ity of remedying the adsence of home guidance in preparing children for life. Moral training being recognized as the true and first aim of education, it is becoming more and more the duty of the public schools to teach their pupils the fundamentals of good citizenship as a part of their curriculum. Social influence s are strongly manifested in colleges and universities. There is a decided disposition among man students to regard the social attractions of a collegiat e environment as of more importance than the opportunity it presents for acquirin g scholarship. Study is often an obligati on underta ken only as_a conditio n precedent to their being able to particip ate in recreational activ ties and other diversions. The senior cla , rather than the faculty, dominate the student morale and determin e standards that inspire emulation. It has been observed that high scholars hip does not of itself command great prestige, but must be conjoine d with social prominence or personal popularity, with the important addition of active participation in the more conspicuous athletic and other undergraduate pursuits. Relatively few students become distinguished both in scholarship and sports. The conclusion drawn is that while students | d 0 not generally count scholastic distinction as the chief end of a college career, their interacting influence on one another in their social activities Is an important factor in character development, which may be deemed to be some compensation for their lack of interest in learning for itself. See Co-mpucaTION; ELECTIVE CoursEs; HiegH-ScHOOLS UNIVERSITIES AND COLLEGES, AMERICAN.