Page:History of Southeast Missouri 1912 Volume 1.djvu/467

 HISTORY OP SOUTHEAST MISSOURI 407 lias been pointed out by competent students of the educational history of the state that the great defect in all of this legislation was the failure to provide for a direct tax on property for school purposes. Such a tax could be levied provided it received a two- tliirds vote in the entire county. This pro- vision made it practically impossible to levy such a tax. Provisions of 187-1 Soon after the constitution was adopted for Missouri in 1865, it was foimd necessary to re- construct the school system which had fallen to pieces during the Civil war. An elaborate system was worked out and embodied in the constitution adopted in that year. This sys- tem, while commendable in many ways, had what was practically a fatal defect in that it did not put the responsibility for the con- duct of the schools and their support directly upon the people in the several districts. It was not until the year 1874 that the present system of Missouri schools was finally worked out. The legislature recognized the impor- tance of thrusting the responsibility of the schools upon the people themselves. The school district was made the unit and to the people in the district was committed the power to vote taxes and to carry on the schools. With some modifications this system survives to the pre.sent day. It has its de- fects and the time has possibly come when a larger unit than the present school district is both desirable and necessary. Growth of the System Since 1875, when the .system was outlined, there has been a very great change in the educational situation in Southeast Missouri. All territory has been organized into school districts and in practically every district a school house has been built and a school is maintained for at least six months in every year. The people no longer depend upon subscription schools, the wealth of the entire community is taxed to support a school open to all the children of the district. The teachers are no longer selected in a haphazard way, but are required to secure a license to teach from the state before being permitted to give instruction in the public schools. The first great work of this period was the organi- zation and development of a system of ele- mentary schools all over this section of the state ; the past fifteen years have seen the development of secondary education in a manner commensurate with the growth of elementary schools before that time. Up till about 1895, very little attention was paid in Southeast Missouri to public high schools; they were practically unknown here. Since that time high schools have been developed in all the larger towns, well equipped and pro- viding a good secondary education for those who attend them. Even the smaller towns are doing some high school work so that there is to be found scarcely a single community with a population of as many as 300 that does not carry on from one to three years of high school work. These high schools are exerting as great influence as almost any other single thing for the improvement of the graded schools. At the present time there are four- teen schools in Southeast Missouri which have been classified as first class, and there are thirty-six other schools doing high school work. In 1908 the general assembly passed two laws which are exerting a great influence upon tlie school .system. One of these provided that in every county there should be elected a county superintendent of schools, to whom was to be given general supervision of the