CHAPTER XII

ELEMENTARY EDUCATION

The Foundation of the Educational System. — The elementary school, or, as it has long been termed, in discussion and in law, the common school, constitutes the foundation of the educational system of the state. The several groups of selections classified in this chapter are intended to reflect the essential characteristics of the elementary school as the chief determinant of general social advance and as the first object of educational concern to the mass of the people.

I. CONSTITUTIONAL PRESCRIPTIONS

[From the Constitution of the State of Oklahoma, 1907.]

ARTICLE XIII — EDUCATION

"SECTION 1. The legislature shall establish and maintain a system of free public schools wherein all the children of the State may be educated.

SEC. 2. The legislature shall provide for the establishment and support of institutions for the care and education of the deaf, dumb, and blind of the State.

"SEC. 3. Separate schools for white and colored children with like accommodations shall be provided by the legislature and impartially maintained. The term colored children,' as used in this section, shall be construed to mean children of African descent. The term 'white children' shall include all other children.

"SEC. 4. The legislature shall provide for the compulsory attendance at some public or other school, unless other means of education are provided, of all the children in the State who are sound in mind and body, between the ages of eight and sixteen years, for at least three months in each year.

"SEC. 5. The supervision of instruction in the public schools shall be vested in a board of education, whose powers and duties shall be prescribed by law. The superintendent of public instruction shall be president of the board. Until otherwise provided by law, the governor, secretary of state, and attorney general shall be ex-officio members, and with the superintendent, compose said board of education.

"SEC. 6. The legislature shall provide for a uniform system of text books for the common schools of the State.

"SEC. 7. The legislature shall provide for the teaching of the elements of agriculture, horticulture, stock feeding, and domestic science in the common schools of the State."

II. STATUTORY REQUIREMENTS

1. California

[From School Code of California (1912), Article X-Primary and Grammar Schools.]

SECTION 1662. 1. The courses of study for the day elementary schools of California shall embrace eight years of instruction; and such courses must allot eight years for instruction in subjects required to be taught in such schools and may allot not more than two years for kindergarten instruction.

2. The day elementary schools of each school district of California shall be open for the admission of all children between six and twenty-one years of age residing in the district, and may be open for the admission of adults if the governing body of the district deem such admission advisable; provided, that where kindergarten instruction is given in the schools of a district, such school shall admit children to the kindergarten classes at four years of age; and the reports for the kindergarten classes shall be kept and shall be made separate from other school reports; and provided, further, that wherever a school is established for the instruction of the deaf, such children may be admitted to such school at three years of age; provided, that the average daily attendance of deaf children who are six years of age or older shall be counted as part of the average daily attendance in the day elementary schools.

3. The governing body of the school district shall have power to exclude children of filthy or vicious habits, or children suffering from contagious or infectious diseases, and also to establish separate schools for Indian children and for children of Chinese or

Mongolian descent. When such separate schools are established, Indian, Mongolian, or Chinese children must not be admitted into any other school.

4. The courses of study for the evening elementary schools of California shall embrace eight years of instruction in the subjects permitted to be taught in such schools.

5. The evening elementary schools of any school district shall be open for the admission of all children over the age of fourteen years, residing in the district, and for the admission of adults; provided, that children under fourteen years of age who have been given permits to work in accordance with the provisions of an act to enforce the educational rights of children may be admitted to the evening elementary schools.

SECTION 1663. 1. The public schools of California, other than those supported exclusively by the state, shall be classed as day and evening elementary, and day and evening secondary schools.

The day and evening elementary schools of California shall be designated as primary and grammar schools.

The day and evening secondary schools of California shall be designated as high schools and technical schools, and either class may include a portion of the other class.

No teacher shall be employed to teach in any way, in any schools, if the certificate held by the teacher is of a grade below that of the school or class to be taught; provided, that the holders of existing primary certificates or of the same when hereafter renewed or made permanent shall be eligible to teach in any of the grades of a day or evening elementary school below the sixth year and not including the kindergarten grades; and in any day or evening elementary school of the county, or city and county, which the county or city and county superintendent shall designate as primary day or evening elementary school; and provided, further, that the holder of any valid special certificate for kindergarten work, or of any kindergarten-primary certificate, shall be eligible to teach in the kindergarten grades of day elementary schools.

2. The county, or city and county board of education must, except in incorporated cities having boards of education, on or before the first day of July of each year, prescribe the course of study in and for each grade of the day and evening elementary schools for the ensuing school year.

3. Except in city school districts having boards of education, the county or city and county board of education shall provide for the conferring of diplomas of graduation by examination or otherwise upon those pupils who have satisfactorily completed

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the course of study provided for the day or evening elementary schools of the county, or city and county.

4. Whenever necessary the county or city and county board of education may amend and change, subject to section 1665 of this code, the course of study prescribed by them for the day and evening elementary schools.

SECTION 1664. All schools must be taught in the English language. SECTION 1665. Instruction must be given in the following branches in the several grades in which they may be required, viz.: reading, writing, orthography, arithmetic, geography; nature study, with special reference to agriculture; language and grammar, with special reference to composition; history of the United States and civil government; physical culture, including the necessary elements of physiology and hygiene, with special reference to the injurious effects of tobacco, alcohol, and narcotics on the human system; morals and manners; music, drawing and elementary bookkeeping, humane education, and, when competent teachers thereof can be secured and there are sufficient funds in the district to pay their salaries, manual training and domestic science; provided, that instruction in elementary bookkeeping, humane education, elements of physiology and hygiene, music, drawing, and nature study may be oral, and no text-books on these subjects shall be required; provided, further, that county boards of education may, in districts having less than one hundred census children, confine the pupils to the studies of reading, writing, orthography, arithmetic, language and grammar, geography, history of the United States and civil government, elements of physiology and hygiene, elementary bookkeeping, until they have a practical knowledge of these subjects; and it is further provided, that no more than twenty recitations per week shall be required of pupils in secondary schools, and no pupil under the age of fifteen years in any elementary school shall be required to do any home study.

SECTION 1665 a. The board of education in every city of the first class shall establish and maintain in each of said cities of the first class at least one public school in which shall be taught the French, Italian, Spanish and German languages in conjunction with the studies in the English language prescribed to be taught by section sixteen hundred and sixty-five of the Political Code of the State of California. Such schools shall be designated as cosmopolitan schools, and shall be subject to such rules and regulations as may be prescribed by said boards of education of said cities of the first class wherein said school or schools shall be established and maintained.

SECTION 1666. Other studies may be authorized by the board of education of any county, city, or city and county, but such studies if so authorized shall be in lieu of a corresponding number of such enumerated studies specified in the preceding section, and not in addition thereto.

SECTION 1667. Instruction must be given, in all grades of school and in all classes during the entire school course, in manners and morals, and upon the nature of alcoholic drinks and narcotics and their effects upon the human system.

SECTION 1668. Attention must be given to such physical exercises for the pupils as may be conducive to health and vigor of body, as well as mind, and to the ventilation and temperature of school

rooms.

SECTION 1672. No publication of a sectarian, partisan, or denominational character must be used or distributed in any school, or be made a part of any school library; nor must any sectarian or denominational doctrine be taught therein. Any school district, town, or city, the officers of which knowingly allow any schools to be taught in violation of these provisions, forfeits all right to any state or county apportionment of school moneys; and upon satisfactory evidence of such violation, the superintendent of public instruction and school superintendent must withhold both state and county apportionments.

SECTION 1673. No school must be continued in session more than six hours a day; and no pupil under eight years of age must be kept in school more than four hours per day. Any violation of the provisions of this section must be treated in the same manner as a violation of the provisions of the preceding section.

2. Massachusetts

[From Revised Laws, Chapter 42.]

SECTION 1. (As amended by chapter 181, Acts of 1908, and chapter 524, Acts of 1910.) Every city and town shall maintain, for at least thirty-two weeks in each year, a sufficient number of schools for the instruction of all the children who may legally attend a public school therein, except that in towns whose assessed valuation is less than two hundred thousand dollars, the required period may, with the consent of the board of education, be reduced to twenty-eight weeks. Such schools shall be taught by teachers of competent ability and good morals, and shall give instruction in orthography, reading, writing, the English language and grammar, geography, arithmetic, drawing, the history of the United States,