Thus the year 1827 "marks the culmination of a process which had been going on for more than a century,the high-water mark of modern democracy, and the low-water mark of the Massachusetts school system." The district system did in its earlier stages bind the families of a neighborhood into a corporation whose intent was the most vital of human needs,-education, and the people came to feel the necessity of supporting Degeneracy of it by their own generous contributions. But in the

the district

system.

course of time the districts became involved in private and petty political interests, and had but little consideration for the public good. The choice of the committeeman, the site, and the teacher caused much unseemly wrangling, and as each received only what it paid in, the poor district obtained only a weak school and that for but a short term. The increasing expense of the district system had also made it impossible for any except the larger towns to support the old-time 'grammar' school, and this part of the old school requirements had fallen into disuse before the close of the eighteenth century. To meet the needs of secondary educaacademies with tion, the policy of endowing 'academies' (Fig. 32) with wild lands in Maine had gradually grown up, and this custom was legalized in 1797. Seven academies,—four in Massachusetts proper and three in the province of Maine, had originally been endowed with a township apiece, and some fourteen more had been chartered by towns at an early date, and empowered by the state to hold educational funds. By the time of the educational awakening there were some fifty of these private secondHigh schools ary institutions subsidized by the state, although managed by a close corporation. The first public high school

Endowment of

public lands.

not yet influential.

(Fig. 41) had been established in Boston (1821), but this type of secondary school had not begun to have any influence as yet. Into such a decadence had the liberally supported system of public education fallen, before the rapid development in common schools began and the influence of Horace Mann and other reformers was felt.

Developments in the Other New England States.The development of common schools in Massachusetts may be considered typical of New England in general, except Rhode Island. Connecticut similarly degenerated Connecticut, into a district system, which was recognized by law in 1794, and was destined later to constitute one of the greatest problems during the period of educational development (see pp.313 and 320). Vermont likewise made Vermont, provision for town and district schools, and eventually established a state school fund and school commissioners, but this legislation was soon repealed, and the schools of the state were in a parlous condition when the awakening found them. New Hampshire and Maine also present New Hampvery similar features. In Rhode Island the voluntary Rhode Island. organization of education continued throughout the eighteenth century. In 1800 a law permitting each town to maintain 'one or more free schools' was passed, but no municipality availed itself of this permission, except Providence, and the act was repealed in 1803. The basal state law for common schools was not passed until 1828, when at length $10,000 was appropriated, and each town was required to supplement its share by such an amount as should annually be fixed in town meeting.

The Extension of Educational Organization to the Northwest. It is thus evident that by the close of the first half century of the republic, there was everywhere

shire, and

Conditions at

tion period in

and Middle states,

slowly growing up a sentiment for public education. close of transi- The development of common schools had, however, been the Southern greatly hindered in the Southern states by the separation of classes in an aristocratic organization of society. Yet the superior class had shown no lack of educational interest in their own behalf and had through the facilities offered reared a group of intellectual leaders, some of whom, like the far-sighted Jefferson, had caught the vision of universal education. The great diversity of nationality and creed in the Middle states, on the other hand, had fostered sectarian jealousies and the traditional practice of the maintenance of its own school by each congregation. This had proved almost as disastrous to the rise of a system of public schools, although Pennsylvania, and even more New York, had well begun the establishment of a public system. In both sections of ! the country public education was at first viewed as a species of poor relief, and the wealthy were unable to see any justice in being required to educate the children of others. As a result, the young 'paupers' at times had their tuition paid in private schools, and these institutions were not infrequently allowed to share in public funds. The New England states, however, as a result as opposed to of the homogeneity of their citizens, had early adhered to a system of public schools for all, organized, sup- ! ported, and supervised by the people. While the efficiency of their common schools was eventually crippled by the grant of autonomy to local districts and the arising of petty private and political interests, they had initiated this unique American product,-a public sys-i tem for all, dependent upon local support and responsive to local wishes.

those in New

England.