CONTENTS PAGE INTRODUCTION THE EDITOR V CHAPTER I-UNITED STATES. BY Wм. F. RUSSELL VII. TRAINING AND STATUS OF SECONDARY TEACHERS VIII. SECONDARY EDUCATION FOR GIRLS 107 113 121 130 140 142 159 163 165 170 173 175 178 180 183 188 196 202 225 235 ENGLAND-continued VII. CONTINUATION SCHOOLS VIII. SECONDARY EDUCATION IX. TRAINING OF TEACHERS FOR SECONDARY SCHOOLS X. THE TEACHERS' REGISTER XI. CONCLUSION XII. RECENT EDUCATIONAL REFORM XIII. BIBLIOGRAPHY VIII. BIBLIOGRAPHY 343 357 402 417 430 436 439 439 443 450 459 472 483 494 496 CHAPTER I EDUCATION IN THE UNITED STATES I. DIVERSITY OF EDUCATION THE United States in 1910, not including outlying possessions, had a population of 91,972,266 persons living on an area of 3,026,789 square miles. For administrative purposes the country is divided into forty-eight states, ranging in size from Texas with 265,896 square miles to 1067 in Rhode Island; and ranging in population from New York with 9,113,614 inhabitants to 81,875 in Nevada. These states are further divided into counties (in Louisiana the parish is the equivalent of the county). These counties vary greatly in size. In Arizona the average county contains 8139 square miles, in Rhode Island but 250. In sixteen states the average area of a county exceeds the total area of the state of Rhode Island. In general the counties contain from 500 to 1000 square miles. The counties, in turn, are further subdivided. In the western states the unit is the township, a regular area of thirty-six square miles. In New England we find the town an irregular area of about the same size; in Louisiana the police jury ward. These in turn, particularly for school purposes, are further divided into districts, small areas of four or five square miles. There is no uniformity either in the form of organisation or in the relative power of these governmental units. Conditions vary from state to state and often from unit to unit within the state. The most striking characteristic of education in the United States is its great diversity. No comprehensive control is centred in the national government. The state governments in many cases have no adequate direction of their schools. Even within the smaller administrative units there is often wide variation, schools varying from district to district within the same county. There is no one state whose educational system is typical of the system of the others. No three states could fulfil this function. A complete account of education in this country would necessitate, therefore, an encyclopædic work, considering almost every school in detail. Any account short of this will be unsatisfactory. The account which follows selects but a few of the more A important features of education in the United States, choosing to deal in greater detail and with ample illustrative material with but a portion of the ground, rather than to give a series of broad generalisations without supporting data. In dealing with so vast a subject in so brief a space much has been omitted. Causes of this Diversity.-Were the United States a static nation following a well-conceived plan such chaos in its educational system would be incomprehensible. But this is not the case. No single mind planned the United States. Its ideas, its government, its laws, and its schools are the product of slow evolution, the result of the gradual amalgamation of many forces. The United States throughout its history has been changing. It is still in the process of change; and it is only by viewing its education in the light of these changes that its lack of unity can be reconciled with progress and efficiency. Three of these deserve our consideration. Colonial America was composed of many groups of peoples, differing as to race, origin, tradition, ideas, ideals, religion, and consequently as to education. Immigration has served to maintain this condition. Out of this heterogeneous mass has been gradually growing a unified American citizenship, single of purpose and like-minded in aims and ideals. Thirteen different colonies, themselves composed of many differing settlements, combined to free themselves from England, and while turning over many powers to the central government, they were jealous of their own rights and privileges. From extreme decentralisation in government, the tendency of the past two centuries has been toward increasingly greater trust in the central authorities. The third change, destined to be powerful in its effect upon our education, is the change in the theory of the state. Each of these needs consideration if we would understand this system of schools. Diversity due to Population.-During the seventeenth century the English were the main contributors to the population of Colonial North America, with the Scotch, Irish, Germans, Dutch, Huguenots, and Scandinavians following in order of importance. Massachusetts and Virginia were of almost pure English stock, while the people of the other colonies, a mixture' from the start, later became amalgamated with the English. Colonial migration had one distinctive feature; it was largely Nine men of prominence in early New York represented as many nationalities, Schuyler-Dutch, Hamilton-West India English, JayFrench, Livingston-Scotch, Clinton-Irish, Morris-Welsh, HoffmanSwedish, Herkimer-German, Steuben-Prussian. From J. R. Common's Races and Immigrants in America, p. 29. |