Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume V.djvu/161

 COMMON SCHOOLS 157 the present title will be given only an outline of the development of the great principle of the free elementary education of every child in the community. It would naturally be sup- posed that in every well regulated state the advantage of the universal education of the community would be so obvious that measures would be taken to effect it almost from the ori- gin of the state. This, however, has been only partially the case. In Sparta under the system of Lycurgus the state undertook the education of the children, but the instruction imparted was mainly physical, and did not reach the peasant classes. In Attica there were public schools for all classes, and this had its influ- ence in making Athens the university city of the ancient world. The education of the chil- dren was a religious duty among the Jews, and after the captivity they developed an ex- cellent system of parochial schools in connec- tion with the synagogues. In Eome, while private schools were numerous, their advan- tages only accrued to the patricians and such plebeians as possessed property ; yet after the conquest of Gaul important schools were es- tablished in the imperial cities. After the introduction of Christianity and its accession to power, the duty of the authorities to edu- cate the young was speedily recognized by the bishops and clergy. The object of this edu- cation was of course their training in the doctrines of Christianity, but it was the recognition of the duty of giving instruction to the masses. In 800 a synod at Mentz or- dered that the parochial priests should have schools in the towns and villages, that "the little children of all the faithful should learn letters from them. Let them receive and teach these with the utmost charity, that they themselves may shine as the stars for ever. Let them receive no remuneration from their charity may voluntarily offer." A council at Rome in 836 ordained that there should be three kinds of schools throughout Christen- dom : episcopal, parochial in towns and vil- lages, and others wherever there could be found place and opportunity. The third Lat- eran council in 1179 ordained the establish- ment of a grammar school in every cathedral for the gratuitous instruction of the poor. The ordinance was enlarged and enforced by the council of Lyons in 1245. This idea of popular education has been carried out by the zealous efforts of the Jesuits and other religious orders. While in the large towns and cities considerable numbers of the poor thus received the rudiments of knowledge, in the more scattered population of the rural districts very few could read or write. At the era of the reformation the cause of pop- ular schools received a further impulse. In 1524 Luther wrote an ' c address to the com- mon councils of all the cities of Germany, in behalf of Christian schools ;" and in 1526 he wrote to the elector of Saxony strongly urging the application of the monastic funds to the support of schools for the poor. In 1528, with the aid of Melanchthon, he drew up the Saxon school system, as it was called, and through life the education of the young of all classes in free schools was one of the objects nearest his heart. The labors of Luther in this field were continued by his followers, and the Ger- mans seemed destined to become the best ed- ucated people in Europe; but the breaking out of the thirty years' war in 1618 arrested the progress of all educational improvements. About the middle of the 17th century several of the German states passed laws making it compulsory on parents to send their children to school during a certain age. In the latter part of that century two men appeared whose labors introduced a new era into the history of education in Germany. They were Philip Spener and August Francke. The latter gave an impulse to the cause of popular education which, through the influence of his disciples and followers, such as Zinzendorf, Steinmetz, Hecker, Basedow, Campe, Salzmann, and Pes- talozzi, has been continued to our own times. In Prussia the movement in behalf of a thor- oughly popular system of education, though more fully sustained than in any other coun- try on the continent, did not commence till the early part of the present century. Enact- ments rendering the attendance of the chil- dren at the schools compulsory had been upon the statute book since 1717, but it was not till 1809 that the habits and good will of the peo- ple were enlisted on the side of education. The Prussian schools are by law as accessible to the poorest as to the richest, and every pro- vision is made for adapting them fully to the wants of the people and the government. Scot- land is the only other country of Europe which had at an early period a system of common or popular schools. These, like those of the early church on the continent, originated with the clergy. In 1560 John Knox urged the neces- sity of schools for the children of the poor, to be sustained at the charge of the kirk. The act of 1696 established common schools in every parish, to be supported in part by the parish, and in part by rate bills. These schools, which have diffused a more general elementary edu- cation among the people of Scotland than exists in any other nation in Europe except perhaps Prussia, have always been under the charge of the kirk ; and since the secession of the Free church in 1843, schools have been organized in connection with each of its con- gregations. The fullest and most complete de- velopment of the common school system, how- ever, has taken place in America. The Puri- tan settlers of New England were fully con- vinced of the necessity of universal education ; and as soon as they had provided temporary shelter for themselves, they reared the church and the school house. But the first schools established in the country were not common or public schools. Free grammar schools, as
 * scholars, unless what the parents through