Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 14.djvu/313

* NATIONAL EDUCATION. 271 NATIONAL EDUCATION. For the elementary sehools three systems of con- trol exist. The iirst of thesc is the district systAn. iiccordiiig to wliieh the control of each school is left in the hands of a board elected by the people of the district in which it is placed. Vnder the township system all schools that are located within the region of a township are placed under one board. According to the county s.ys- tcni, the schools of a whole county are under the control of county boards or school commis- sions. The district system was developed in New Kngland after the scattering of the pojiula- tion, due to the cessation of the early Indian wars. It spread to the States of the West. Later, owing largely to the opposition of re- formers, like Horace Mann, who maintained that the district system meant insuflicient support and inexpert supervision for the common schools, Xcw England came to adopt the township sys- tem. The county system has been peculiar to the Southern States from the first, and to-day it exists in nine States, all of which except Utah are Soulliern. The township .system exists wholly or partially in eighteen States, and the district system in thirty-three. WiVn the development of more elaborate school systems, the supervision of the State became a more and more prominent feature. Xew York, in 1812, created a superintendent of common schools. This example was followed by others, and to-day there are State superintendents in all States. In most of thciii there is also a. State board of edu- cation, which usually manages State school funds, and either directl.v or indirectly determines the qualilications of teachers. For more minute su- pervision, there is inspection either by a county superintendent or by the township or district eonimittees. In thirty-five States the county su- pervision prevails. In New England the town- ship school committees do the supervising. In addition, at least 835 cities have superintendents lor their public sehools. The demand for greater uniformity and effectiveness in the schools, as a whole, has led not only to the creation of larger units for the control or supervision of schools, but also to the establishment of Stale funds, and the levying of State taxes to supplement local contributions to the cause of education. The State taxes arc relied on to raise as much as three-fourths of the school money in some States, and the amount is largest in the Southeni States anil those of the far West. The North Central and North Atlantic States generally rely more on local taxes. Massachusetts having no regular State tax. The local taxes are raised either in the township or, as in the far West and South, in the county. Where there is a county tax, this may usually be supplemented by a district tax levied by local vote. Tlje levying of this tax is in the hands of the legislative bodies of State, county, or local division, although sometimes the educational bodies have the power of determining the amount to be raised. Frequently State law determines the minimum amount to be raised by local taxation. In (he earlier colonial period secondary in- struction was given in what were called grnmmar schools. These institutions admitted children who had mastered merely the rudiments of English, and prepared them for college. The high schools were, however, preceded by acade- mies. They were introduced into the United States as a substitute for both the grammar schools and the colleges. Many of these acade- mics received, in addition to private endow- ments, large grants from the States. Some of them grew into colleges anil later into univer- sities. Academies for girls were established, and thus the way was paved for the higher education of women. The' academics olTered a somewhat wider and more liberal course of study than the older grammar schools and colleges, which were concerned mainly with the classics. In this way I hey led to the more liberal high schools and tc the extension of the college curriculum. The high school sprang up in response to a demand felt in the early part of the nineteenth century for the secularization and State control of secondary education. The English Classical School, later calleil the English High School, was founded in Boston in 1821. To-day a free public high school has to be maintained in every town- ship in Massachusetts. New York, Maryland, Wisconsin, Jlinnesota, California, and other States have elaborate State laws governing high schools. In a great number of States their crea- tion and control is left to localities, the actions of which in the matter are not regulated by the State. They are found, however, in all im- portant cities. The free elementary sehool may be said to exist in every locality of the United States, how- ever sparsely inhabited. In the W'estern and Southern States the remoter districts are gi"eatly helped by the contributions from the State funds, which are distributed in such a manner as to favor especially the smaller schools. The high schools, on the other hand, the existence of which is left almost universally to local initia- tive, are dependent largely on local support. Outlying districts are, in consequence, frequ<'ntly without them, and when they exist there, the territory that they supply includes ordinarily a number of elementary school districts. Such divisions are either townships, as in New Eng- land, or counties, as in Maryland, the South, and occasionally in the West, or simply a con- venient grouping of districts into what is called a union high school district. The board gov- erning such schools is usually a specially created one, except where the township or county system prevails. In these cases, as with the district high school, the elementary and secondary sehools are both managed by the same board. The teachers in elementary schools, up to the time of the establishment of county and State supervision, were selected by the school boards at their discretion. To-day, licenses or certificates are universally required before one can be elected to a teacher's position. In New England, however, these are granted by the school committees of the township, and so teachers are licensed by the same board by wdiich they are elected to office. Elsewhere, throughout the Union, the certification is in the hands of city or county superintendents or boards of educa- tion, or State superintendents or boards of edu- cation. Certificates of various grades are issued in the several States. High school certificates are universallv distinct from those for elementary te:yhing. All are granted either upon examina- tion or upon credentials. T;ocal certificates are valid only in the specific division where they are granted, but are frequently accepted ns adequate credentials in other localities. State certificates are for longer periods, or even for