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boards which have grown out of the conference: (1) The Southern Education Board, an agitating and "preaching" agency, a central propaganda; and (2) the General Education Board, for administering funds contributed for educational purposes and disbursing them so as to secure the largest return. In addition to campaign work in the field the Southern Education Board conducts a "bureau of investigation and information," located at Knoxville, under the directorship of Dr. Charles W. Dabney. It issues a weekly publication in magazine form called "Southern Education," intended to furnish matter in convenient form for the newspaper and periodical press, as well as for the reading public; also a series of bulletins designed to give out the results of mature study of educational conditions and problems.
The conference has no formal organization, no constitution, by-laws, dues, treasury, or even a definite membership. This lack of fixity has permitted more freedom of action and contributed to the expansion of the movement. The meetings are open to all in sympathy with their object, and are attended by representatives of those interested or engaged in educational work from all sections.
The agitation set on foot by the conference has resulted in a general quickening of interest in public schools, which often manifests itself in the most unexpected places and in the most unaccountable fashion, as Professor Rose illustrates by an example. Those who have been caught up in the inspiration of the large assemblies, at Athens, perhaps, or Richmond, have returned home to communicate their enthusiasm to their associates in all parts of the South and give direction to their work. Educational mass meetings are being held, teachers are organizing, schools being consolidated, houses built, rural libraries established, and manual training introduced.
These lines of development indicate the character of the reforms which occupy chiefly the attention of the conference. The removal of the constitutional limitations upon local taxation, which exist in most Southern States, is another and important part of the general programme, but this will require time to accomplish. A number of consolidated rural schools of agriculture and industry have been established (in Washington County, Ga., Concord, Tenn., and elsewhere) as types or models of what is considered the school needed to meet the requirements of the agricultural South. These schools are designed also to be centers of community life. The practical side of education will be made prominent in them, but at the same time the scholastic branches will not be neglected.
There could not be a lack, on the part of those directing the movement, of a keen appreciation of the fact that one of the fundamental conditions of success was a supply of duly qualified teachers. But the existing facilities for the professional training of teachers, including normal schools and collegiate departments of education, were
altogether inadequate to satisfy the demand for new teachers, to say nothing of the better preparation of those already engaged in the work. To remedy in some measure this situation of affairs, a great summer school for teachers was projected, and eventually held under the name of the "Summer School of the South," at Knoxville in 1902 at the University of Tennessee, that institution, at the suggestion of President Dabney, having offered its entire plant for the object in view free of charge, and the general education board, in cooperation with other agencies, having provided the necessary funds. This school remained in session six weeks, with a faculty of distinguished instructors from all parts of the country and an enrollment of 2,000 students. The members of the Southern Education Board, while having no official connection with the school, lent their aid in promoting it and took part in the proceedings. The result showed that a demand existed for such an agency, and the friends of the cause determined to continue it in operation indefinitely. Accordingly in 1903 a second session was held, at which 91 instructors gave 149 courses to 2,150 students from 31 States and Territories, Canada, Porto Rico, India, and Japan. The programme covered all the phases and grades of educational activity, making the school a "campaign" in itself. During the same summer schools similar in spirit and aims, but not on so large a scale, were held at half a dozen different State universities, ranging from Virginia to Texas, and at other points. These schools had no official connection with the conference or with each other, but were so many individual manifestations of the new interest in popular education which has been awakened in the South.
Professor Rose notes, in concluding, some of the more intangible, but not less real, results of the conference, especially its effect as a liberalizing and unifying force in our national life.
Common school enrollment and expenditure in the sixteen former slare States and the District of Columbia.
The public schools of West Virginia and other Southern States.-In Chapter IX (pp. 391-462) Dr. A. D. Mayo has given a historical sketch of the progress of popular education in West Virginia, Maryland, Virginia, and Delaware, covering the period from the close of the civil war to the beginning of the present century. In each of these States a system of public schools, free to all children of both races, was established within a few years after the return of peace. These tentative efforts, representing the then existing state of public opinion, were of great significance in that they indicated the formal recognition. by the States in question of the principle of universal education, and formed the starting point for further development. But, considered as school systems, they were in many respects defective, particularly through failure to provide sufficient means of support. Their slow elaboration during the closing years of the century, often in the face of an adverse public sentiment and hampered by hostile legislation, is fully described by Doctor Mayo. He particularly distinguishes the services of Doctor Newell in Maryland, Superintendent Ruffner in Virginia (whose noble work forms an epoch in the history of his State), and other able and devoted school officials and friends of popular education, who labored effectively for the upbuilding of the schools. Their efforts, together with the lapse of time and improved economic conditions, have brought about a change in the attitude of the public mind, a breaking away from old traditions and habits of thought, and paved the way for the new educational movement recorded in the preceding chapter of this Report.
Teachers' certificates.-This Office has received numerous inquiries regarding the different kinds of teachers' certificates issued in various States and the conditions upon which they may severally be obtained. Those interested in this class of inquiries will find in Chapter X (pp. 463-519) a table relating to teachers' certificates, compiled by Prof. William R. Jackson, formerly State school superintendent of Nebraska, and now principal of the normal school of the Nebraska Wesleyan University. The table furnishes complete and systematic information on several particulars concerning teachers' certificates, such as the names of the different grades of certificates in force in each State, by what authority each is issued, where and for how long valid, and the requirements as to scholarship and teaching experience necessary to secure it. Professor Jackson had, during his term of superintendency, felt the need and commenced the compilation of such a table as is here given. Several other State superintendents have published tables of similar form, but restricted to their own States. It is believed that the publication of this general table will prove especially useful to county and city superintendents, as well as to State school officers.
J. L. M. Curry. -In Chapter XI (pp. 521-552) have been collected a number of papers designed to illustrate the career and commemorate
the services rendered to education in the South by the late Hon. J. L. M. Curry, including: (1) Proceedings in his memory of the trustees of the Peabody education fund; (2) an eloquent eulogium by President E. A. Alderman, of Tulane University; (3) an account of the services of Doctor Curry in connection with the Peabody education fund, by Rev. A. D. Mayo; (4) reprint of an address by Doctor Curry on "Education in the Southern States." The position of agent of the Peabody education fund, which was filled with distinction by Doctor Curry for upward of twenty years preceding his death, placed in his charge a trust upon the execution of which he placed the broadest interpretation. It afforded him opportunities for remolding educational sentiment in the Southern States upon a democratic basis, which he utilized to the full extent of their possibilities. He realized that an efficient system of free public schools for the children of all races and creeds was the primary object of educational statesmanship, and it is largely due to his unwearied labors that the new movement in the South in favor of universal education, described in Chapter VIII, has made such substantial and encouraging progress. It is difficult to make a just estimate of the eminent worth of his character, abilities, and educational services. To his influence more than to that of any other man is due the very considerable State school funds that have stimulated so powerfully the rural schools throughout the South. (See above the statistics of the increase of enrollment, colored and white, quoted in my remarks on Chapter VIII.)
Secondary education.-In Chapter XII (pp. 553-583) Prof. Elmer E. Brown, of the University of California, gives an account of the origin and present condition of secondary education in the United States. The early colonial secondary schools were modeled after the "grammar schools" of England. As early as 1647 a Massachusetts act provided for the appointment of a grammar schoolmaster in every town of 100 families; before the end of the seventeenth century Connecticut, New Hampshire, and Maryland had also made provision in some sort for a general system of grammar schools. Colonial subsidies were granted to some of these schools. There were instances of secondary schools in other colonies, but no system had been established by law. These pioneer schools were designed primarily to prepare boys for college, generally with an ultimate view to the ministry, and their course of study was almost exclusively classical; even such pupils as were not intending to go to college pursued the same classical course. A typical grammar school course of the colonial period is given on pages 554 and 555.
During the eighteenth century forces were at work which resulted in broadening the work of the grammar schools, and which eventually brought about the establishment of a somewhat different type of secondary schools. The influence upon the composition of the cur
riculum of a continually growing body of English literature, the progress of science, the increasing commercialism and industrialism of the time, in a word, the growing practicality of life, tended to bring about the beginning of that development of education upon its "modern" side which has been more completely effected in recent years. There arose a demand for a class of schools that made some provision for continuing beyond the elementary grade the education of those not desiring an almost exclusively classical course and who were not preparing for college, a demand which was met by schools of the "academy" type. These schools date from about the middle of the eighteenth century, and during the early decades of our national existence were established in large numbers, becoming in time the prevailing type.
The academies were, in general, private incorporated schools, most commonly nonsectarian, either for boys or girls alone or coeducational, often boarding schools, supported mainly by tuition fees, but sometimes having a certain degree of State support and supervision, a large proportion of them with a college preparatory as well as a modern course. The first regularly incorporated academy seems to have been that established at Philadelphia in 1753 through the efforts of Benjamin Franklin. Other notable examples were the two Phillips academies, one at Andover, Mass., and the other at Exeter, N. H., founded in the later years of the Revolutionary war.
The curriculum of the academies, while varying much in different schools, included, besides the college preparatory studies, many subjects of study not required for entrance to college, especially in the departments of English, modern history and languages, natural science, business, etc. To meet the wants of students who wished to pursue these studies further, certain of them were from time to time taken up by the colleges into their curriculum in more advanced form, and also added by them to their entrance requirements, a step which illustrates the reaction of the secondary schools upon the colleges, thus contrasting with the relations which had existed at the beginning, when the old grammar schools received their impress from the colleges. Here is obviously the first phase of that interplay of forces, working from the colleges downward and from the secondary schools upward, which marked the educational history of the nineteenth century, and which, having contributed to bring our systems of secondary and superior instruction to their present stage of elaboration, is still actively at work.
The course of Phillips Exeter Academy in the year 1818, given on pages 561 and 562, illustrates well the character of the instruction given in the academies of that day, on both its classical and "modern" sides.