Page:American Journal of Sociology Volume 10.djvu/399

 EDUCATION IN THE SOUTH 385

ating and developing of a common-school system, outside some of the larger cities, was impossible at that time. The sharp divi- sion of society into separate economic classes worked against the educating of the children of all people together and produced a distinct form of class education. This system of education, it is evident, gave to the young of the wealthy the best schooling the times afforded, while it condemned the larger part of the popula- tion to a condition of practical illiteracy.

It has frequently been stated that the system of schooling in the South was due to the fact that the English ideas of educa- tion that is to say, the aversion to public schools had been transplanted to the South, and that it was these ideas that worked against the early establishment of the American common school in which the central point is "that the whole people educate all children." It must be borne in mind, however, that something more fundamental than ideas was transplanted. The primary fact is that there was the possibility for the growth in the South of an organization of industrial society in many respects closely resembling that of England a century and a half ago; hence the similarity in the educational institution. Those of the same blood and descent settled likewise in New England, but the great landed estate was there an impossibility; the town became the unit in society, and the common school took form sooner. Efforts to further the growth of education were not turned mainly in the direction of elementary schools. In fact, almost all of the southern states began by first founding a university. This was a logical outcome of the existing social organization. They started at the top and worked down in education, so that Dr. Charles Dabney's characterization of the school system of the South today is true of its early years :

Our present educational system, as far as we have any at all, is a column with a beautifully carved capitol upon its top which is altogether too large for the base and shaft. 4

Numerous colleges, academies, and seminaries were established; but necessarily the mass of the population was excluded from both these secondary and higher institutions, owing to lack of funds.


 * CHARLES W. DABNEY, Report of Department of Interior, p. 513.