REPORT. DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR, BUREAU OF EDUCATION, Washington, D. C., November, 1877. SIR: I have the honor to submit my eighth annual report, covering the year 1877. During the year, education, in connection with other great interests, has continued to suffer from the hard times. The depreciation in the value of investments has reduced the income of even the best endowed institutions. Poverty has rendered it impossible for many young persons to pay tuition or other expenses at school and has compelled them to finish their studies prematurely. The appropriations for public schools have been decreased in many directions, sometimes to the great injury of their efficiency, as when the reduction of teachers' salaries has put poor teachers in the place of good ones, or when the school year has been shortened or the course of study abridged; but, on the whole, the systems of free public instruction in the different States have given new proof of their fitness to our wants as a people by what they have accomplished, in spite of the present financial distress and widespread unrest. CONFLICT OF CAPITAL AND LABOR. In my last report I noted the occasion we had, as a people, to congratulate ourselves that the first century of our national history was closing with so great freedom from the evils that have arisen in older civilizations from the conflicts between capital and labor. Unfortunately, the possibilities of these evils pointed out by eminent educators and other students of social science have become realities as never before among us. Singularly enough, the lesson taught by these outbreaks has apparently in some cases stopped short of tracing them to their source in individual character, and has failed also to discover the part to be performed by education as a means of protection against their recurrence. In some communities where mob violence became most destructive, we have witnessed the surprising spectacle of unusual efforts, sometimes aided by thoughtful persons, to cripple or paralyze the local public school system. We cannot review these events without reaching the conviction that capital, patriotism, and statesmanship, each and all, should be more far-sighted. In the shadow of these untoward events we may fitly recall the great Stein, amid the evils under which Prussia was struggling, when enumerating in his political testament the considerations fitted to elevate and preserve the state. He says: Most is to be expected from the education and instruction of youth. Could we by a method grounded on the internal nature of man develop from within every spiritual gift, rouse and nourish every noble principle of life, carefully avoiding one sided culture; could we diligently nurse those instincts, hitherto so often disregarded with shallow indifference, on which the force and dignity of man rest, ** then might we hope to see a generation grow up vigorous both in body and soul, and a better prospect for the future unfold itself. Some speak of our liberty and the institutions fostered by it as in their very nature a sufficient guarantee of the perpetuity of our blessings and an ample guard against all the ills incident to other forms of government. The experience of this year should VII suffice to dissipate this idea, and to bring us back to the conviction that our safety is only in the most vigilant use of every instrumentality fitted to assure the training of each child in the land in virtue and intelligence and in the pursuit of some useful and honorable vocation. The evils here recalled are not limited to the action of great mobs; they are found also in some form in the path of the thousands of "nomadic paupers" who wander about the country. It will not be amiss for the educator to recall the conditions which have attended the growth of these evils elsewhere. We are glad to believe that the horrors of the French revolution of 1793 would be impossible among us; but it should be remembered that there has been no lack of bread in our land while we have witnessed these crimes of the mob and the "tramp." Indeed, it may be doubted whether we have sufficiently reflected upon the enormities possible in our communities if the systematic vagrancy of the ignorant, vicious, and criminal classes should continue to increase; since the great size of our country and its facilities for travel will afford to any who choose to leave their own neighborhoods for such evil purposes unusual opportunities for committing crime and mischief unrecognized. There is, no doubt, a lesson for us in the statement made by the famous Fletcher of Saltoun and used by Lecky,' to the effect that in 1698 there were in the little country of Scotland two hundred thousand people begging from door to door, besides a great many poor families, very meanly provided for by the church boxes, with others who by living upon bad food fell victims to various diseases. A similar lesson may be learned from a similar condition of affairs in the other small country of Ireland. Arthur Dobbs, in 1731, computed the number of strolling beggars in a single year at thirtyfour thousand." Do not the warnings which we may derive from such experiences in other countries emphasize the conclusion that all interests require such a training for every child in the community as to turn him aside from the current which bears on to these evils? How can we resist the conclusion that his physical, intellectual, moral, and industrial training should be most efficiently arranged and carried forward to establish for him safeguards against a life of idleness, vice, or crime? Moreover, even if it be granted that we have never suffered, as did the French before 1793, from royal and aristocratic oppression, and that we possess and enjoy the largest reasonable liberty for all classes, still the educator, in reasoning upon the acts of violence which have occurred among us during the year, may well ask what the consequences might have been had these disturbances been preceded here, as they were in France, by a series of dry seasons and bad crops, and these poor crops themselves injured or destroyed. Indeed, for the instruction of all patriotic teachers, M. Taine's picture of these events may well be contrasted with what has actually occurred here. In each event we must come back from the mass to the individual, and from the adult to the child, in order to do the work of preventing such evils. Here our most common maxims are eloquent: 'Tis education forms the common mind: Just as the twig is bent the tree's inclined. The mind of every child must be formed for all that is good before him and armed against all that is evil. All his powers must be developed to resist misfortune and wrong. Capital, therefore, should weigh the cost of the mob and the tramp against the expense of universal and sufficient education. History of England in the Eighteenth Century, vol. ii, p. 43. CORRESPONDENTS OF THE OFFICE. The following summary gives the number of the correspondents of the Office, showing the sources of the information contained in these reports: Statement of educational systems and institutions in correspondence with the Bureau of Education in the years named. It will be observed that all the systems and institutions here included publish either reports or catalogues or both. A complete list of the American correspondents of this Office would embrace two important additions to the foregoing summary, viz: (1) many thousand county superintendents and members of school boards and of collegiate and scholastic faculties who do not issue separate printed publications, but who correspond with the Office and desire its publications; and (2) a large number of writers and students who often assist the Office without expecting other remuneration than its publications. Mail matter. The following table shows the amount of mail matter handled during the year: Mail matter sent. EXPECTATIONS IN REGARD TO THE OFFICE. Those correspondents who indulge special expectations in regard to the Office should not forget the terms of the law under which it was organized. It requires the collecting of "such statistics and facts as shall show the condition and progress of education in the several States and Territories, and the diffusion of such information respecting the organization and management of school systems and methods of teaching as shall aid the people of the United States in the establishment and maintenance of efficient school systems, and otherwise promote the cause of education throughout the country." As has been well said, "the Office may be termed a clearing house of educational information." But, however comprehensive its duty in regard to collecting and disseminating information, it provides for no exercise of authority and none should be expected from it. It may be reasonably anticipated that its plans will be comprehensive and its methods characterized by the utmost fairness. However great the interest of the Office in any one part of its duty, it must have greater concern for the whole. The guide to its conclusions must be the light that shines from the lamp of our entire educational experience as a people. To the ardor of enthusiasts in different departments of educational labor this light may not always be characterized by the heat they would desire, but it is, on that account, the safer. When this Office commenced its work there was before the country no standard for a national educational report. These reports, made from year to year, furnish the facts upon which there may hereafter be formed a fair judgment of what such a report should be; made under all the embarrassments of the past, they have demonstrated the possibility of a national report. They show how the light from all phases and conditions of education may be gathered up and reflected for the benefit of the whole country. Some results are already very apparent. 1. The remarkable unanimity of cooperation received by the Office from those engaged in every grade of our educational work, shows how universal is the conviction that such an Office is desired. 2. It indicates that, according to the judgment of our educators, the present plan of work is, in the main, the right one. 3. There has been a gratifying progress in simplifying and systematizing the nomenclature used in educational publications, but this makes what is yet needed in this direction still more apparent. 4. It moreover disposes of the fallacy that the gathering of information is a grasping after power. 5. The improvement in our educational nomenclature and in other conditions of statistics most essential to their value affords ground for hope that our teachers and educational officers may anticipate in the near future such clear and full demonstration of some of the leading principles in the establishment and conduct of institutions and systems of education, by the people and for the people, as to relieve themselves of the uncertainties which often embarrass them now and well-nigh defeat their efforts. In these valuable contributions of data essential to the formation of a science of education among us, each contributor, unmoved by any authority or expectation of pecuniary reward, may fairly adopt the language of Bacon, when he says, "I hold every man a debtor to his profession; from the which, as men of course do seek to receive countenance and profit, so ought they of duty to endeavor themselves, by way of amends, to be a help and ornament thereunto." It should be remembered that the Office has never had sufficient force to prepare the work expected of it under the law. In preparing its reports the only direct reward that it can promise its correspondents is a copy of the document in which their contributions are printed, but this is not always ordered by Congress in sufficient numbers for this purpose. Of late, also, its means for collecting statistics and publishing Circulars of Information have been greatly restricted. There has, however, been a 1 Elements of the Laws, preface. steady increase (1) in the value of the work prepared by its regular clerks, (2) in the value of the contributions forwarded free by its collaborators, and (3) in its collection of books and appliances illustrative of education. In the embarrassments arising from lack of means to publish needed information, all that has been possible with the force of the Office has been done to make manuscript replies to inquiries. Not a few of these have required much time and a command of material nowhere else possible in the country. Indeed, were there no work to be done on the annual report or on Circulars of Information, the current calls on the Office would now absorb the working capacities of its entire force. THE ABSTRACTS. 1 The abstracts which immediately follow this part of the Report of the Commissioner and precede the statistical tables of the appendix are prepared from the printed material furnished by the correspondents of the Office and from the numerous educational journals published in the United States. The printed matter thus examined and summarized annually is more than seventy thousand pages. It has been practicable, with the present force of the Office, to assign only two persons to this labor, a number inadequate to its preparation; especially as a very large number of inquiries demanding elaborate replies can be answered only in this division of the Office. SCHOOL REPORTS. I do not think that these documents are so carefully studied anywhere else in the country. There can be no question of their superior merit if they are compared with any other State or city documents. Often the intelligence and stability of local educational sentiment can be estimated by the strength and value of these reports. The beneficial effect upon school administration of a proper expenditure of effort and money in this way can hardly be attained by any other method of communicating the same information. It may be considered settled that in a republic school officers must promote the training of the people in sound ideas respecting educational theories and practice with as much care as they promote the instruction of the young in their schools. Careful students of school reports frequently are surprised by the total misconception and misrepresentation of many persons as to their use and value.2 1 On page 3 infra may be found the rules followed in the preparation of these abstracts. *Their use and valne have been well expressed in the following sentences, which were written by an excellent and well known teacher after a careful study of the collection for the year 1877 in this Office: "It is impossible to read the various school reports of our country without being profoundly impressed with the watchful care and intelligent forethought of those to whom these interests are committed. Especially is this the effect of the reports from the larger cities, where, as the work is most concentrated and most completely organized, there is opportunity for the most perfect supervision. While these reports indicate the fixed and enduring character of our graded school system, they show that its friends are not obstinately committed to precedents, but are ever on the alert to modify and expand the system according to the changing conditions of the communities to which it ministers. The reports of 1877 abound in evidences of this disposition. The attention given to industrial drawing, the introduction of German in the public schools of cities having large proportions of German population, the efforts made to familiarize pupils with the clements of the natural sciences, to cultivate a taste for literature while still maintaining the drill in that narrow round of studies which enter most constantly into the ordinary business by which they must live-all these are proofs of the flexibility of the American school system. These provisions for the intellectual wants of the young are not confined to the school room. In many cities public libraries exist in immediate relation to the educational department, and an important feature of their administration is their adaptation to the use and needs of students; thus, in Cincinnati, Cleveland, and St. Louis the public libraries are under the control of the board of education. The financial depression of the year has necessitated great economy in the management of school finances. In considering possible retrenchments, Mr. W. T. Harris, superintendent of schools for St. Louis, is led to propose the introduction of half time schools in the two lowest grades. This plan, it is believed, involves not economy only, but the mental and physical advantage of the pupils. It is generally admitted that from two and a half to four and a half hours' mental labor is all that should be allowed children under twelve years of age. It is also conceded that the alternation of study and work as an excellent effect upon children, increasing their interest in both and their capacity for close attention. It appears, then, that a combination of half time literary schools with industrial training would afford the best possible conditions for elementary scholars." |