Part 57 (1/2)

THE PRUSSIAN EXAMPLE FOLLOWED IN OTHER GERMAN STATES The exaer Ger issued a new School Code in 1792, which rehout the eighteenth century The Saxon King, Augustus the Just, inspired by the exa parents as to their duty to send children to school, and in 1773 issued a new Regulation, filled with ”generous enthusias-school was founded at Dresden, in 1788, and four others before the close of the century In 1805 a comprehensive Code was issued This required that every child must be able to read, write, count, and know the truths of religion to receive the sacraymen were ordered to supervise the schools; school attendance was required froovernment appropriations for schools were increased; and a series of fines were imposed for violations of the Code Bavaria issued new school Codes in 1770 and 1778, and additional schoolhouses were built and new textbooks written After the suppression of the Jesuits (1773) a new progressive spirit animated the Catholic States, and Austria in particular, under the leadershi+p of Maria Theresa and Joseph II (p 475), anization and educational reform

In 1770 Maria Theresa appointed a School Coe of education in Lower Austria; in 1771 established the first Austrian norated a General School Code (R 276), drawn up by the Abbot Felbiger, who had been anization in Silesia This Code provided for School Commissions in all provinces [6] ordered the establishes and parishes, a ”principal” or higher elementary school in the principal city of every canton, and a normal school in every province; laid down the course of study for each; and gave details as to teachers, instruction, compulsory attendance, support, and inspection similar to Frederick's Silesian Code (R 275) Continuation instruction up to twenty years of age also was ordered That such demands were much in advance of as possible is evident, and it is not surprising that, in the reaction under Francis I, following the outburst of the French Revolution, we find a decree (1805) that the elementary school shall be curtailed to ”absolutely necessary liet in elementary school only such ideas as will not trouble them in their work, and which will not ence shall be directed toward the fulfillent fulfillations”

THE BEGINNINGS OF TEACHER-TRAINING The beginning of teacher-training in German lands was the _Seminarium Praceptorum_ of Francke, established at Halle (p 419), in 1697 In 1738 Johann Julius Hecker (1707-68), one of Francke's former students and teachers, and the author of the Prussian Code of 1763, established the first regular seical students for the te in the Latin schools In 1747 he established a private _Lehrerseminar_ in Berlin, in connection with his celebrated Realschule (p 420), and there de Frederick the Great was so pleased with the result that, in 1753, he gave the school a subsidy and changed it into a royal institution, and on every fitting occasion recommended school authorities to it for teachers Similar institutions were opened in Hanover, in 1751; Wolfenbuttel, in 1753; in the county of Glatz in Silesia, in 1764 (R

275); in Breslau, in 1765 and 1767; and in Carlsruhe, in 1768 In the Silesian Code of 1765 Frederick specified (R 275 a, -- 2) six institutions which he had designated as teacher-training schools

These early Prussian institutions laid the foundations upon which the normal-school system of the nineteenth century has been built In Prussia first, but soon thereafter in other German States (Austria, at Vienna, 1771; Saxe-Weimar, at Eisenach, in 1783; and Saxony, at Dresden, 1788) the Teachers' Seminary was erected into an important institution of the State, and the idea has since been copied by almost all modern nations This early development in Prussia was influential in both France and the United States, as we shall point out further on

Despite these h, the type and the work of teachers rehteenth century In the rural and village schools the teachers continued to be deficient in nu in preparation Often the pastors had first to give to invalids, cripples, shoemakers, tailors, watche they in turn imparted to the children

In the towns of fair size the conditions were not es The eleenerally had but one class, coistrates did little to improve the condition of the schools or the teachers In the larger cities, and even in Berlin, the number of elementary schools was insufficient, the schools were crowded, and many children had no opportunity to attend schools [7] In Leipzig there was no public school until 1792, in which year the city free school was established Even Sunday schools, supported by subscription, had been resorted to by Berlin, after 1798, to provide journeymen and apprentices with some of the rudiments of an education The creation of a state school systeious schools proved a task of large dimensions, in Prussia as in other lands Even as late as 1819 Dinter found discouraging conditions (R 279) a the teachers of East Prussia

[Illustration: FIG 170 A GERMAN LATE EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY SCHOOL (After a picture in the German School Museum in Berlin)]

FURTHER LATE EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY PROGRESS Frederick the Great died in 1786 In the reign of his successors his work bore fruit in a complete transfer of all schools froanization of the strongest system of state schools the world had ever known The year following the death of Frederick the Great (1787), and largely as an outgrowth of the preceding centralizing ith reference to eleium_) Board was established to exercise a siher schools of Prussia Secondary and higher education were now severed from church control, in principle at least, as eleulations” of 1763 and 1765 The year following (1788) ”Leaving Exa_) were instituted to deteryely ineffective, due to clerical opposition, but the centralizing work of this Superior School Board for the supervision of higher education, and the state exa the instruction of the secondary schools, were fro influences

In 1794 ca work in the publication of the General Civil Code (_Allgemeine Landrecht_) for the State, in which, in the section relating to schools, the following important declaration was made:

Schools and universities are state institutions, charged with the instruction of youth in useful infore

Such institutions e and consent of the State All public schools and educational institutions are under the supervision of the State, and are at all times subject to its examination and inspection

The secular authority and the clergy were still to share jointly in the control of the schools, but both according to rules laid down by the State In all cases of conflict or dispute, the secular authority was to decide This ina Charta_ for secular education in Prussia

During the decade which followed the proation of this declaration of state control but little additional progress of ih the Minister of Justice, to whom (1798) the adiven, arding ”provisions for a better education and instruction of the children of citizens and peasants,” and stated to the King that ”the object of reform is national education, and its field of operation, therefore, all provinces of the ious, and uniinative y and foresight of his predecessors, did little or nothing Under Frederick Williaained so of its former power; and the army and the civil service becaht matters to an immediate crisis and forced important action

II A STATE SCHOOL SYSTEM AT LAST CREATED

THE HUMILIATION OF PRUSSIA At the close of 1804 France, by vote, changed from the Republic to an Empire, with Napoleon Bonaparte as first Emperor of the French, and for soet ”Liberty and Equality” areat nations outside France, fearful of Napoleon's ambition and power, did not take his accession to the throne of France so coland, Sweden, Austria, and Russia forainst Napoleon in an effort to restore the balance of power in Europe Of the great powers of Europe only Prussia held aloof, refused to take sides, and in consequence enjoyed a teh, she was soon to pay a terrible price Having humiliated the Austrians and vanquished the Russians, Napoleon now goaded the Prussians into attacking him, and then utterly humiliated them in turn At the battle of Jena (October 14, 1806) the Prussian army was utterly routed, and forced back alenerals and political favorites ere no longer efficient, and backed by a state service honeycombed with inefficiency and corruption, the Prussian army that had won such victories under Frederick the Great was all but annihilated by the new and efficient fighting machine created by the Corsican who now controlled the destinies of France By the Treaty of Tilsit (July 7, 1807) Prussia lost all her lands west of the Elbe and nearly all her stealings from Poland--in all about one half her territory and population--and was almost stricken from the list of important powers in Europe In all its history Prussia had experienced no such humiliation as this In a few months the constructive work of a century had been undone

THE REGENERATION OF PRUSSIA The new national Ger for half a century, now burst forth and soon worked a regeneration of the State In the school of adversity the King and the people learned anization was entrusted to a series of ableand his capable Queen, Louise, now called into service His chiefserfdom and feudal land tenure (1807); elioverny on the educational systehts of citizenshi+p, and laid the foundations of governislative asseanized the Prussian arenerals, and introducing the principle of coovernht of the leaders being to so reorganize and revitalize the State as to enable it in tiain its national independence

Though the abolition of serfdos of local and representative govern was of secondary ianization of education which now took place The education of the people was turned to in earnest for the regeneration of the national spirit, and education was, in a decade, :

Though we have lost h the country has been robbed of its external power and splendor, yet we shall and will gain in intrinsic power and splendor, and therefore it is reatest attention be paid to public instruction The State ain in mental force what it has lost in physical force

His minister Stein said:

We proceed froious, and patriotic spirit in the nation, to instil into it again courage, self-reliance, and readiness to sacrifice everything for national honor and for independence froner To attain this end, weIf by a method founded on the true nature of man, every faculty of the mind can be developed, every noble principle of life be animated and nourished, all one-sided education avoided, and those tendencies on which the power and dignity of reatest indifference, carefully fostered--then we eneration, physically and s of a better time

FICHTE APPEALS TO THE LEADERS Still more did the philosopher Fichte (1762-1814), in a series of ”Addresses to the Ger the winter [8] of 1807-08, appeal to the leaders to turn to education to rescue the State from the miseries which had overwhelmed it

Unable forcibly to resist, and with every phase of the governn conqueror, only education had been overlooked, he said, and to this the leaders should turn for national redemption (R

277) He held that it rested with them to determine

whether you will be the end and last of a raceor the beginnings and gers, and those from whom posterity will reckon the years of their welfare A nation that is capable, if it were only in its highest representation and leaders, of fixing its eyes firmly on the vision fro possessed with a love of it, will surely prevail over a nation that is only used as a tool of foreign aggressiveness and for the subjugation of independent nations

With a fervor of ee, impelled by a conviction that the distinctive character of the Ger that as necessary also was possible, Fichte made the German leaders feel, with him, that