Part 52 (1/2)

The Revolutionary enthusiasts had stated clearly their theory of republican education, but had failed to establish a per to their plans This now became the work of the nineteenth century In the meantime, in the new United States of A expression, and to the developments there we next turn

III THE NEW STATE THEORY IN AMERICA

WANING OF THE OLD RELIGIOUS INTEREST As early as 1647 Rhode Island Colony had enacted the first law providing for freedo people, and two years later Maryland enacted a sih the Maryland laas later repealed, and a rigid Church-of-England rule established there, these laere indicative of the new spirit arising in the New World By the beginning of the eighteenth century a change in attitude toward the old problem of personal salvation had becoradual rise of a civil as opposed to a religious for interests in trade and shi+pping; the beginnings of the breakdown of the old aristocratic traditions and custo individualism in both Europe and America--these all helped to weaken the hold on the people of the old religious doctrines

By 1750 the change in religious thinking in the American Colonies had becoe evidenced in the dying-out of the old religious fervor and intolerance, and the breaking-up of the old religious solidarity While most of the Colonies continued to maintain an ”established Church,” other sects had to be adiven freedoland was broken, as was also that of the Anglican faith in the central Colonies The day of the monopoly of any sect in a Colony was over New secular interests began to take the place of religion as the chief topic of thought and conversation, and secular books began to dispute the earlier predoun (seven by 1750), and these became expressive of the new colony interests

CHANGING CHARACTER OF THE SCHOOLS These changes in attitude toward the old religious problems materially affected both the support and the character of the education provided in the Colonies The Law of 1647, requiring the raly difficult of enforcement, not only in Massachusetts, but in all the other New England Colonies which had followed the Massachusetts exa attitude of the people, which had become clearly manifest by 1750, the demand for relief from the maintenance of this school in favor of a her school, if higher school were needed at all, became marked By the close of the colonial period the new American Acadeun to supersede the old Latin gra of the same difficulties Many of the parochial schools died out, while others declined in character and iland Colonies all elementary education was left to private initiative and philanthropic and religious effort (p

373) In the southern Colonies the classes in society and the character of the plantation lifeof any need for eleland the eighteenth century was a continual struggle on the one hand to prevent the original religious town school fro, and on the other to establish in its place a series of scattered and inferior district schools, while either church or town support and tuition fees becaes of i school now became definitely united, in all the smaller places and in the rural districts, as a measure of economy, to form the A less of the glooland Priious in character (p 443), appeared after 1750 and began to be used in the schools After 1750, too, it was increasingly evident that the old religious enthusiasely died out; that European traditions and ways and types of schools no longer co of European educational ideas and schools and types of instruction was co to an end Instead, the evolution of a public or state school out of the original religious school, and the beginnings of the evolution of distinctly American types of schools, better adapted to Aly evident in the Colonies as the eighteenth century progressed

RISE OF THE CIVIL OF STATE SCHOOL As has been stated earlier, the school everywhere in America arose as a child of the Church In the Middle Colonies, where the parochial-school conception of education was the prevailing type, the school remained under church control until after the foundation of our national governland evolution in ti Ah a very interesting develop colonial tiland toas originally established as a little religious republic, with the Church in co authorities for church and civil affairs wereas church officers they were known as Elders and Deacons; when acting as civil or town officers they were known as Selectislature or the town , was clearly the servant of the Church, and existed in large part for religious ends It was the State acting as the servant of the Church which enacted the Massachusetts laws of 1642 and 1647 (Rs 190, 19l), requiring the towns to ious ends Now, so close was the connection between the religious tohich controlled church affairs, and the civil tohich looked after roads, fences, taxes, and defense--the constituency of both being one and the sa held at first in the -house--that when the schools were established the colony legislature placed the a public service--rather than under the religious town The interests of one were the interests of both, and, being the same in constituency and territorial boundaries, there seeinning the civil school and the civil school-town and school-townshi+p, with all their elaborate school administrative machinery, were later evolved

The erection of a town hall, separate fro-house, was a first step in the process School affairs noere discussed at the town hall, instead of in the church The town authorities now appointed committees to locate and build schoolhouses, select and certificate the teachers, and visit and exaular town school coement of the town school, and town taxes, instead of church taxes, were voted for buildings and rammar-school master until the close of the colonial period, but the power to certificate the elementary-school teachers passed to the town authorities early in the eighteenth century By the close of the century all that therepresentative of church control--had left to hiht to accompany the town authorities in the visitation of schools Thus gradually but certainly did the earlier religious school in America pass out from under the control of the Church and coovernovernments were established, the States were ready to accept, in principle at least, the theory gradually worked out in New England that schools are state institutions, and should be under the control of the State

THE EARLY STATE CONStitUTIONS AND LAWS In fra the Federal Constitution, in 1787, education, then being regarded largely as a local matter, was left to the States to handle as they saw fit; so we turn to the early state constitutions and laws to see how far the new Ahteenth century, advanced toward the conception of education as an affair of the State

During the period frohteenth century (1776-1800), all the States, except Rhode Island and Connecticut, which considered their colonial charters as satisfactory, formulated and adopted new state constitutions Three new States--Vermont, Kentucky, and Tennessee--were admitted to the Union before 1800, and these fra the Union by 1800, seven had incorporated into their constitutions a clause setting forth the State's duty in the matter of education (R 259) As in the earlier period of Aland which incorporated into the constitutions the best provisions regarding learning In the parochial-school central Colonies the lican-Church Colonies and the new States of Kentucky and Tennessee remained silent on the subject Massachusetts, Vermont, and New Ha sections directing the encourage of school societies, and the establishment of schools The Massachusetts provision, afterwards copied by New Hampshi+re, is so explicit in thein full

Chap V, Sec 2 Wisdo the body of the people, being necessary for the preservation of their rights and liberties; and as these depend on spreading the opportunities and advantages of education in the various parts of the country, and a the different orders of the people, it shall be the duty of the legislatures and istrates, in all future periods of this Commonwealth, to cherish the interests of literature and the sciences, and all see, public schools, and grae private societies and public institutions, by rewards and iriculture, arts, sciences, commerce, trades, manufactures, and a natural history of the country; to countenance and inculcate the principles of hueneral benevolence, public and private charity, industry and frugality, honesty and punctuality in their dealings; sincerity, good hu the people

Though the Federal Constitution made no provision for education or aid to schools, when the Congress of the Confederation, in 1787, adopted the Ordinance for the organization and government of the Northwest Territory, out of which the States of Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Michigan, and Wisconsin were later carved, it prefixed to this Ordinance the following significant provision:

Art 3 Religion, overnment and the happiness of mankind, schools and the ed [in the States to be formed from this Territory]

By the time the first State formed from this western territory was ready to be admitted to the Union (Ohio, 1802), the theory that education is a function of the State had cohly accepted, in principle at least, by the new Aan a policy, ever since continued, of aiding each new State to establish and ave the new State for this purpose a generous endowment of national land, and in addition three townshi+ps of land to endow a state university We also find that the constitutions of the first States created from this new Northwest Territory (Ohio, 1802; Indiana, 1816 [12]) contain for the ti to public education The Ohio provisions (R 260) are noteworthy for the strong stand for religious freedoainst any discrimination in the schools between rich and poor, while the Indiana provisions (R 261) are enerous conception of the scope and purpose of a state system of public instruction

Many of the older States enacted general state school laws early in their history (R 262) Connecticut continued the general school laws of 1700, 1712, and 1714 unchanged, and in 1795 added 1,200,000, derived from land sales, to a permanent state school endoweneral school law in 1782 Massachusetts and New Haeneral school laws, in 1789, which restated and legalized the school develop hundred and fifty years

All these required the maintenance of schools by the towns for a definite term each year, ordered taxation, and fixed the school studies required by the State New York, in 1784, created an adanization, known as the University of the State of New York, to supervise secondary and higher education throughout the State--an institution clearlyideas of Condorcet, Rolland, and Diderot (p 477), and very similar to the ideas proposed by Talleyrand and Condorcet and later (1808) embodied in the University of France by Napoleon In 1795 New York also provided for a state systeia created a state system of academies, as early as 1783 Delaware created a state school fund, in 1796, and Virginia enacted an optional school law the same year North Carolina created a state university, as early as 1795

THE NEW POLITICAL MOTIVE FOR SCHOOLS We thus see, in the new United States, the theories of the French revolutionary thinkers and states realized in practice The constitutional provisions, and even the legislation, often were in advance of what the States, impoverished as they were by the War of Independence, could at once carry out, but they mark the evolution in America of a clearly defined state theory as to education, and the recognition of a need for general education in a governely influenced by the force of public opinion The Federal Constitution had extended the right to vote for national officers to all, and the older States soon began to re and to extend general e to all citizens

This new develop of the rule of a propertied and educated class and the establish Aeneral education as a necessity for republican safety In his Farewell Address to the Aton said:

Promote, then, as an object of prieneral diffusion of knowledge In proportion as the structure of a governives force to public opinion, it is essential that public opinion should be enlightened

Jefferson spent the years 1784 to 1789 in Paris, and becaandist in A to James Madison fros, I hope the education of the coood sense we may rely with the most security for the preservation of a due sense of liberty

[Illustration: FIG 162 THOMAS JEFFERSON (1743-1826)]

In 1779, then, as a islature, Jefferson tried unsuccessfully to secure the passage of a comprehensive bill, after the plan of the French Revolutionary proposals, for the organization of a coinia The essential features of the proposed bill (R 263) were that every county should be laid off into school districts, five to six miles square, to be known as ”hundreds,” and in each of these an elementary school was to be established to which any citizen could send his children free of charge for three years, and aspupil in each school was to be selected annually and sent to one of twenty grammar (secondary) schools to be established and maintained at various points in the State; after two years the leaders in each of these schools were to be selected and further educated free for six years, the less proraiven three years e of William and Mary, and the other half were to be employed as teachers for the schools of the State