A manual of the Ohio school system : consisting of an historical view of its progress, and a republication of the school laws in force

Front matter

EX LIBRIS

Educational Research Library

National Institute of Education

Introduction

The Common School System of Ohio* has attained such proportions, and has assumed such features, as render it not only an object of vital importance to citizens of this State, but of interest scarcely inferior to the intelligent friends of education in other States.

An investment of upward of three millions of dollars in permanent structures, and an annual expenditure of nearly three millions of dollars — nine tenths of which sum last named is produced by taxation — is a financial fact of great significance; while the application of so munificent a provision, under the administration of thirty thousand school officers and twenty thousand teachers, to the education of eight hundred thousand youth, is a fact transcending all material considerations by its relation to the moral and political welfare of the people.

Ohio, on the subject of education, is, in a peculiar sense, a Middle State — holding a golden mean between the prejudices which incumber and obstruct the progress of the Atlantic States and the unavoidable privation or postponement of school advantages which the more Western States must sustain. Thus, while

*For the following introductory and explanatory remarks the Publishers are indebted to the late active and efficient Commissioner of Common Schools, at whose suggestion the work was undertaken.

IV INTRODUCTION.

the attempt in New York to establish schools exclusively free, nearly produced a civil convulsion, Ohio, under the Constitution of 1851 and the Revised Act of 1853, quietly and without apparent opposition, abolished the collection of tuition fees, and rendered free every public school of the State — a reform from which no step backward need be apprehended.

The following pages from the pen of the State Librarian, purport to trace from its feeble beginnings, the successive steps of this imposing crusade against ignorance, whose host of directors, teachers and pupils are now marshaled within the limits of Ohio. Our legislation has been voluminous — presenting a proof of the solicitude of the people to frame the best system of measures for the great object of popular instruction. In its progress, a great variety of methods have been tried ; and it is desirable that the present generation should be informed, not only of what the law is, but of the nature and results of former experiments. The latter are often brought forward, as proposed amendments, and consume the time and distract the attention of the General Assembly, when the fact of a previous trial and abandonment, if known, would be promptly decisive of their fate. The Historical Outline of School Legislation, now presented, will probably prove advantageous in the future discussion of the School Act — and, if so, it will be in the manner above indicated.

An attempt has also been made to preserve the recollection of those services to the cause of education by the early men of the State, which, in the natural course of events, have become unfamiliar to the younger portion of the community. It is high time that some effort was made to redeem our Ohio Biography, especially of the founders of our State institutions, from the obscurity of neglect.

A republication, in a separate form, of all the general laws relating to education, follows the Historical Narrative. This embraces every statute, which controls the organization of Special

INTRODUCTION. V

School Districts in cities, towns, etc. The people have been furnished with the General Act of 1853, but not with those enactments " for the better regulation of schools in cities and incorporated villages," which powerfully influence the School System of the State — constituting, as they do, the models for the imitation and emulation of the townships.

It is hoped that this history of the origin, progress and present condition of the School System of Ohio, may serve the two-fold purpose of preventing hasty and inconsiderate legislation, effecting radical changes in the system, and of indicating the educational spirit and tendency of the age. By exhibiting, in a condensed form, those enactments in relation to schools which have been fully and fairly tried and then repealed because they failed to accomplish what was designed, this compilation, it is believed, will tend to prevent the re-enactment of those provisions in former school laws, which, for the want of efficiency, have been thus rejected.

It will also tend to satisfy the public mind that the idea of universal, free education, is fast becoming the grand central idea of the age ; that our System of Common Schools, to succeed in accomplishing its full and perfect mission, must be open and free to all the youth of the State, without distinction or discrimination ; and that wherever an individual exists with capacities and faculties to be developed, trained, improved and directed, the avenues to knowledge should be freely opened, and every facility afforded to an unrestricted entrance.

Formerly, it was believed that the cost of education should be regarded as a personal expense, to be defrayed by rate bills assessed upon those whose children attended school. This principle virtually excluded the children of the poor. To obviate this defect, the education of the children of those whose pecuniary means did not enable them to incur the expense of it themselves, was made to depend either upon public charity, or upon the

Vi INTRODUCTION.

power of school officers to exempt the indigent from the payment of tuition fees. Such exemptions, rendered the Common Schools, to some extent, charity schools, or schools for the poor, a feature which will disparage every system of public instruction, into which it is incorporated, because it is repugnant to the feelings of American citizens. Experience has abundantly demonstrated the fact, that a System of Common Schools, with the charity principle engrafted upon it, will prove inefficient, and fail to accomplish the object at which it aims, because it tends to create distinctions hostile to the character and spirit of our institutions.

Every where, the conviction seems to be settling down upon the public mind, that the free school principle should be engrafted upon our educational systems, and that the funds necessary for their purpose, should be provided by a combination of State and county, or township tax, to be equitably levied on real and personal property, according to a fixed and uniform standard of valuation; and distributed, in both cases, according to the enumeration of youth of school age.

In short, the modern educational doctrine is : " That the property of the State ought to educate the youth of the State." This is regarded as a sound principle, having the value of a golden maxim.

It is a principle which the people have, in effect, incorporated into the Constitution of the State. In Art. VI, Sec. 2, it is expressly required, that "the General Assembly shall make such provisions by taxation or otherwise, as, with the interest arising from the the School Trust Fund, will secure a thorough and efficient system of Common Schools throughout the State."

This language is too plain to be misunderstood. No feeble system, or half-way work, will comply with this wise and noble requisition. But how is such a system to be maintained ? The constitution replies, by "taxation," to be levied by "uniform rule." The Legislature has, therefore, enacted a school law establishing

INTRODUCTION. Vli

a general system of free schools, and imposing for their support, upon all the taxable property of the State, a State School Tax, on the broad principle, that the property of the State should be charged with the responsibility of educating the youth of the State. This system is based upon the principle, that there is no security for a Republic, but in the intelligence, wisdom, and virtue of the people ; that " the power of self-defense, and selfprotection, the power to cultivate and strengthen the powers of its own being, to improve its own nature, belongs as much to every government as to every man," and that the State is even more deeply and permanently interested in the education of its children than their parents.

But it is sometimes urged by those who do not seem inclined to take a very comprehensive view of this matter, that the property of the State ought to be no more bound to educate the youth of the State than to clothe and feed them. This assertion embraces a sentiment, which, if not traceable to selfishness or an unphilanthrophic disposition, is, at least, as unpatriotic as it is inconsistent with the best interests of the State, and the rising generation. It is mind that makes the man, and not dollars. And hence there is a wide difference between the mental and physical wants of our children. They have not the ability to judge of their mental needs, nor have they the power or the disposition, if left to themselves, to provide for such needs.

It is not denied that every parent is under obligation to provide, according to his means, for the education of his children; but since all have not the means, and some have not the disposition, the State should provide a system of free Common Schools, and declare that the expense of it shall be borne by the aggre gate of taxable property within its limits.

In many instances, parents regard the mental culture of their children as a matter of but secondary importance, if they do not treat it with total neglect. What would soon be the mental and

Vlll INTRODUCTION.

moral condition of our population, were the State to discontinue her parental care and guardianship of our free Common Schools ? This question is sufficiently answered by referring to the benighted condition of the masses in those States and countries where no system of free schools has, as yet, been established.

The truth is, the State, as such, has a vital interest in this matter of popular education ; and is bound in her sovereign capacity, to look to it. All her youth have a God-given right to an education — to such an education, moral, and mental, as constitutes a perfect manhood ; and, therefore, they have a claim, not only upon their parents, and the State, but upon the entire property of the State, to furnish them with all the requisite facilities for attaining to such a degree of intellectual culture as will enable them rightly to comprehend their duties and relations to God, to the State, and to their fellow-men.

It is not territory, or wealth, that constitutes a great and powerful State. It is well educated men ; a population, honest, industrious, intelligent. Is it not, then, as much the duty of the State to establish a general system of free schools, as it is to establish courts of justice ? As a matter of public policy, the one is as necessary as the other. Yet, it is not contended that free schools should be made a branch of the government ; but it is maintained that a republican form of government can not long be sustained without them. This important fact has been, within a few years, sufficiently illustrated in France. All true patriotism, and all true civil and religious liberty, must be based upon popular intelligence and virtue.

Ignorance, superstition, and oppression, whose elements of power enable the few to "lord it over the many," are old associates, and the implacable enemies of free institutions. But in this country, as long as the governed are their own governors, and free Common Schools are maintained by State authority, and rendered accessible to the children of the poor as well as of the rich, there can be no

INTRODUCTION. IX

danger of a concentration of power in the hands of irresponsible persons, nor will corrupt influences creep into the Republic and control its destinies. Let our Common Schools be free, and the people will be free.

What is the object of government, but the benefit of the governed ? What is the true, legitimate motive for imposing taxes of any kind, but the security, the prosperity, and the happiness of the people? Why should a State School Tax, then, be regarded as burdensome ?

Will not a thorough and efficient system of Free Schools, subserve these important ends ? Who pays this tax ? Those who reap the benefit of it. Who reap the benefit of it? Those whose lives are protected by the virtue and regard to law which a good education always inspires, — those whose property is rendered more valuable by the industry and skill which a good education always imparts, — those who sleep in peace, because education and the virtues of which it is the handmaid, have extinguished the torch of the incendiary, — those who enjoy quiet and security, because education has disarmed the robber and assassin.

And who are those that are thus protected in the peaceable enjoyments of their possessions? All. The benefits of education are not confined, like the waters of our rivers, within certain narrow channels ; but they are like those waters changed into vapors, which a Beneficient Power diffuses far and wide. The objection sometimes urged against a State School Tax seems to arise from the narrow view taken of Education, and of the relation which educated men sustain to the State. The important fact is too often overlooked, that disorder and misery in one part bring disorder and misery upon every part; that the prosperity of one communicates itself to all; that the strength, wealth, intelligence and happiness of each, are entwined with the vigor, and prosperity and security of all. In a Republic, all are elevated in the elevation of one, and all are depressed in the depression of one.

X INTRODUCTION.

•Surely no tax should be regarded as burdensome which yields a greater and more substantial return than the tax itself. And what branch of the public revenue is there whose disbursement yields so many, so certain, and such invaluable returns as this? Or in what department of the public service does the amount of labor for the same amount of money compare with that in our Common Schools ? "What has produced the remarkable development of power and activity exhibited within the last twenty years ? The answer is, that better and more efficient systems of Education have exerted an important agency in producing these grand results. The mind of the masses has been stimulated by the animating power of Education, and the benefits are hourly being unfolded before us. Good schools not only increase the value of property, but the value of human life. And although their agency in enhancing the value of property and in developing the physical resources of the country may not be so visible as that of turnpikes, plank-roads, and canals, yet it is even greater and far more certain.

Their influence is like that of the dew, and the shower, and the sunshine, quiet and almost imperceptible ; but let them cease to diffuse their benefits and their blessings, and devouring famine would not more surely come in the one case, than would a deadly blight upon our prosperity and happiness follow in the other. To abandon, then, the idea of free schools, is to turn back half a century to that crude system of education which every step of modern progress, and every result of modern improvement unite in condemning as unsuited to the times in which we live. We might almost as well recall from the past its obsolete system of finance, its iron forms of government, its slow modes of commerce, and its bloody

superstitions.

H. H. BARNEY.

Contents

CHAPTER I. — A General View of European Systems op Public Instruction, 17 — Early Movements, 18 — Germany, 20 — Prussia, 21 — France, 22 — Russia, 24 — Denmark, 24 — Norway, 25 — Sweden, 26— England, 26— Scotland, 28.

CHAPTER II. — Educational Systems of the Atlantic States and British Possessions, 32 — Massachusetts, 32 — Maine, 35 — Rhode Island, 36 — Connecticut, 36 — New York, 38 — Pennsylvania, 43 — New Jersey, 45 — Maryland, 45 — Delaware, 46 — Virginia, 46 — North and South Carolina, 46 — Georgia, 47 — Nova Scotia, 49 — Upper Canada, 50 — Canada West, 52 — New York City, 54.

CHAPTER III. — School Systems of the Western States, 62 — Congressional and Territorial Legislation, 62 — Michigan, 65 — Wisconsin, 66 — Indiana, 66 — Illinois, 67 — Missouri, 67 — Mississippi, 68 — Alabama, 69 — Florida, 69 — Arkansas, 69 — Louisiana, 70 — Texas, 70— California, 71.

Chapter I. A General View Of European Systems Of Public Instruction

No system of public instruction was recognized by the ancients. Common schools are of comparatively recent date, and their benefits are mostly confined to Europeans and their descendants. Prior to Grecian civilization, education was the privilege of those who were designed for official or ecclesiastical stations. Moses was educated in a priestly school in Egypt ; Cyrus at a seminary connected with the Persian court; the Indian Brahmins imparted instruction in secret schools ; in Palestine, those conversant with the Scriptures taught in the schools of the prophets ; at later periods in the synagogues, and in the schools of the rabbis. The advantages of these schools were accessible to few ; the means of learning were limited to conversation, reading, committing to memory, and hearing explanations of the sacred books.

Sparta may be regarded as an exception to the invariable practice among the ancients, to leave the education of children exclusively to parents or special classes ; but the system of Lycurgus was more intended for the development of the physical powers than the intellect. Still, the Greeks were not without conceptions of the great value to a commonwealth of

2 ( 17 )

18 EURO PEAK SYSTEMS OF

education. The philosophers were surrounded by ardent disciples ; and the popular discussions of the people afforded a superior culture. Nevertheless, even at the most enlightened period of Greece, the mass of freemen were enveloped in profound ignorance.

The Komans, also, from 300 B. C, had schools for boys in the cities, and from the age of Caesar, who conferred the rights of citizenship on teachers, possessed the higher institutions of the grammarians. In these, Latin and Greek were taught scientifically, and young men of talent went from the grammarians to the rhetoricians, who, like Quintilian, prepared them, by exercises in declamation, for speaking in public. But a regular school system had no existence among the Romans. Schools were institutions confined to particular classes, or were the fruit of private enterprise. Many of these, under the patronage of the emperors, were well adapted to train young men for the public service.

Christianity, by degrees, succeeded to the entire control of education. During the middle ages, the monastic orders sustained schools, whose chief merit consisted in the preservation, to our times, of what survived of ancient literature ; but while these conventual schools rivaled the episcopal and cathedral schools of an earlier epoch, yet they were always directed more to the advantage of the priesthood than to purposes of general instruction. That such was the fact is apparent from the traditional designation of the " Dark Ages," which has not been misapplied to that period.

Charlemagne had in view a system of national instruction, when he issued, in 789, his decree for the improvement of the schools of his empire. Not only every bishop's see, and every convent, but every parish was to have its schools ; the two former, for the instruction of clergymen and public officers, the latter for the commonalty. At his court, Charlemagne established an academy of distinguished scholars, to whom he himself resorted for instruction, and whom he employed to educate his children, and capable boys belonging to the nobility and other classes, in the court school. The ladies of his court also partook in the benefits of instruction ; and some nunneries, in their institutions for female education, rivaled the seminaries in the monasteries. The ladies learned Latin, which was then the common medium of communication between persons of different countries, as French is at present. Charlemagne took upon himself the superintendence of the schools in his empire, had reports sent to him, made examinations, and delivered addresses to the pupils of the school at his court. These schools often enabled him to discover the talents of young men, whom he appointed to high offices in the Church and State. It is one of the noblest traits in his character, that, in that age of gross ignorance, he labored with zeal for the instruction of the nations under his sway. But Charlemagne's decrees were forgotten during the disputes of his grandsons about the government, under whom, also, the above-mentioned court school was abandoned ; and his great establishment declined, like the school establishment of the great Alfred, in England, which was begun with equal zeal and on an equal scale, in the ninth century, and was destroyed by the invasions of the Danes ; though Edward the Confessor, endeavored to restore it.

Meanwhile the influence of Arabian civilization became apparent in southern Europe, by the cultivation of mathematical and medical science. Institutions, for the purpose of qualifying men for the different professions, sprung up — first, for medicine, and afterward in the learning and practice of the canon law. It was not long, however, before these fell under clerical influence.

About the beginning of the sixteenth century — full eight hundred years after the enlightened but fruitless measures of Charlemagne and Alfred — some improvement is observable. A pious fraternity of the Jeronymites was organized, consisting of clergymen and laymen, who lived together, occupied partly with mechanical arts, partly with the instruction of girls and boys, to whom they taught reading, writing, and the useful arts. For boys of talent and diligence, there were Latin classes. On the model of these schools, others were

20 EUROPEAN SYSTEMS OF

established in the Netherlands, on the Rhine, and in northern Germany. These soon came into communication with the Greeks who had fled to Italy ; and thus the study of the classics became more cultivated. Through the efforts of men like Thomas-a-Kempis, Hegius, Erasmus, Agricola, Renchlin, and Melancthon, a liberal study of the remains of classic antiquity was commenced. From such a beginning we may date that vast intellectual progress, and that effective system of popular instruction, which constitute the crowning glory of modern Germany.

The Reformation gave a forward impulse to education, in Catholic as well as Protestant States. The Jesuit schools became prominent about the close of the sixteenth century, and for a long period rivaled those of Germany. But a variety of circumstances contributed to produce degeneracy in these Catholic schools, as well as in those of the Protestants. The former became again confined to a fixed routine ; the latter passed from the strictness of the conventual schools to licentiousness, through the influence of the privileged universities. To this was added, in Germany, the Thirty Years' War, in which fanaticism on both sides destroyed what had been judiciously established.

It is within one hundred years, however, that the agency of government in the education of the people has become a powerful element of modern society; although, in some instances, the germ of a system of public instruction was deposited long previously.

Germany — comprising under that designation the heart of Europe, from the Alps to the Baltic 1 — Germany holds the

(a) The German States, although under different governments, are noted for a common nationality. This community of sentiment is doubtless produced by a common origin and language — a fact finely illustrated by a XJopular song of M. Arndt, in which occurs the following passage :

" What country does a German claim ?

His Fatherland ; know'st thou its name 1 Is it Bavaria — Saxony 1 An inland state, or on the sea ?

foremost rank in educational progress. Prussia, Saxony, Wirtemberg, Hanover, Bavaria, Baden, Switzerland, even Austria — each has established an effective system of public instruction, although, in some of these States, many provisions and features exist which are inapplicable to our republican institutious. A volume would be insufficient for such details ; but the example of Prussia may be briefly cited as an illustration of the general plan.

Prussia^ has, indeed, taken the lead of Europe (although, since 1833, the republic of Switzerland holds an equal rank) in the establishment of a complete system of national education. "With rare exceptions, every individual in the kingdom can both read and write. This happy result has been obtained, first, by establishing an adequate number of schools in all parts of the monarchy, and then enforcing attendance by a law, which provides that every child, from the age of five years, unless certified to be receiving a suitable education at home, or in a private seminary, must be in attendance at a national school, until such time as the course of instruction therein provided has been completed. This course occupies about eight years, so that it may be regarded as a general rule, that all Prussian children between the ages of six and fourteen are at school. The different classes of schools are, 1. The elementary school, at which the great majority of the people receive their education ; 2. The city school, which is always attached to a gymnasium ; 3. The gymnasium, in

There, on the Baltic's plains of sand?

Or 'mid the Alps of Switzerland?

Or where the Prussian eagle soars?

Or where hills covered by the vine Adorn the landscape of the Rhine ?

O no, no ! not these, alone, The land, with pride, we call our own- Not these. A German heart or mind Is to no narrow realm confined: Where'er he hears his native tongue When hymns of praise to God are sung, There is his Fatherland, and he Has but one country— Germany !"

SJ2 EUROPEAN SYSTEMS OF

which Latin and Greek are taught. In most of the small towns are normal schools for the training of teachers. Prussia also possesses the celebrated universities of Berlin, Halle, and Bonn, besides those of Breslau, Greifwald, and Konigsberg, and numerous literary and learned societies. The universities are all under the control of the Government.

The following table shows the number of schools of various kinds, and of teachers and pupils in 1849:

Number. Teachers. Pfcpils.

Middle and higher schools, . . . 505 2,269 69,302.

Upper female schools, 385 1,118 53,570.

2,605,408.

Normal seminaries, 46 2,411.

Universities, 7 4,306.

In 1849 the number of children between six and fourteen years of age, was 3,223,362, of whom, as seen in the above table, 2,605,408 were at school, leaving a balance of 617,954 to be accounted for, partly by private teaching, partly by the fact that many do not enter school until they are above six years old, and many leave before they are fourteen; and many, doubtless, received no education during the year in question.

France, prior to the revolution of 1789, had been as regardless of the intellectual welfare of the mass of her people as of their political rights. The convulsion of 1789, was an inevitable result of that neglect — so obviously, indeed, that by various orders of the Convention, a system of public schools was projected, in which primary education was to be free to all at the expense of the State. Out of these ordinances sprung the first normal school in France, and the Polytechnic School, in 1794.

But the promise of good primary schools was not realized, and the normal school was abolished in the following year. In 1802 the promise was renewed in a new ordinance ; but it was silent and inoperative in the midst of universal war.

In 1808 Napoleon organized the Imperial University, embracing under that designation the governmental control of all the educational institutions of France; primary, secondary, and superior. In one of his decrees, primary instruction (intended for the masses of society) was limited to reading, writing, and arithmetic; and the legal authorities were enjoined " to watch that the teachers did not carry their instructions beyond these limits." Under the organization established by Napoleon, and with views of primary education but little expanded beyond the imperial ordinance referred to, and with even these limited views unrealized, the Government continued to administer the system of public education until the revolution of 1830. Then some amelioration occurred under the administration of Louis Phillippe. Steps were taken to increase the number and efficiency of the schools already established, by additional appropriations for their support, and a Department of Public Instruction was re-organized. M. Victor Cousin, whose metaphysical writings are so well known to both continents, was directed to examine and report on the " condition of public instruction in Germany, and particularly in Prussia ;" and did so, demonstrating the immense superiority of all the German States, even the most .insignificant duchy, over any and every department of France in all that concerned institutions of primary and secondary education. On the experience of Prussia as a basis, a great and comprehensive measure of elementary education was framed, in 1832, by M. Guizot, and the following year it became a law. Besides the University of France, composed of twenty-six academies dispersed over the departments, with ample faculties of Theology, Law, Medicine, Science, and Letters, or Literature, the law ordains at least one elementary school in each of the 39,381 communes into which France is divided ; and these communes, where the population exceeds 6,000, are required to support one superior primary school, and are aided in opening infant primary schools, evening schools, classes for adults, and high schools. Attendance, by a law of 1841, is made obligatory;

24 EUROPEAN SYSTEMS OF

efficient supervision and inspection are provided, and normal schools to supply the annual demand for teachers of primary schools, are required to be established. In 1846 there were ninety-two normal schools, seventy-six of which were for the education of school masters, and sixteen for the education of school mistresses ; and to fifty-two of them enough land is attached to teach Agriculture and Horticulture.