conditions

Northwest

This growth of a 'common schools consciousness' was destined, as the result of a great educational awakening, to increase rapidly during the second quarter of the nineteenth century in the Middle and Southern, as well as the New England, states. But before describing this development further, it is important to see the effect of the ideals of these three sections of the country when introduced into a new part of the United States by emigrants from the older commonwealths. The new domain Effect of these referred to was those large tracts of unsettled territory, upon the belonging, according to claims more or less overlapping, Territory. to six or seven of the original states, and finally (1781), in settlement of these disputes, ceded to the federal government, with the understanding that the territory should be formed into distinct republican States.' After much discussion and various acts of Congress for half a dozen years, the famous 'Ordinance of 1787' was The Ordinance of 1787, and its passed for the government of this 'Northwest Territory.' provisions for An earlier act (1785) had divided the entire territory into townships, six miles square, after the New England system, and of the thirty-six sections into which each township was subdivided, section sixteen was reserved for the support of public schools. A special contract also started the practice of providing two townships for the establishment of a university in each state. These provisions were later extended to the vast territory purchased from France in 1803 and known as 'Louisiana,' and to all the other territory afterward annexed to the United States. This federal land endowment gave an additional stimulus to the establishment of public education in the four commonwealths-Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, and Michigan-that were admitted from the Northwest Territory

education.

educational de

before 1840. But the final system of public education in these new states took form slowly for various reasons. Hindrances to The settlers were poor; incessant Indian wars, the wildervelopment. ness, wretched roads, and lack of transportation facilities tended to repel immigrants and leave the country sparsely settled; the large tracts of school land were slow in acquiring value, and, to attract settlers, were often leased at nominal rates or sacrificed at a small price; and social distinctions and sectarian jealousies persisted among the immigrants. As a whole, immigration from the earlier commonwealths had followed parallels of latitude, and the northern parts of Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois were occupied mostly by people from New England and New York, and the southern by former inhabitants of Virginia, Kentucky, Tennessee, Louisiana, and other states where the public school system was not yet as well developed. In Michigan, however, because of its northerly location, the great influx throughout the state had come from New York, New England, and Northern Ohio.

Struggle to

school sys

tem,

Consequently, the history of public education in the first three of the new states seems to be in each case secure public largely a record of a prolonged struggle to introduce common schools among those of the people who had come from states not yet committed to this ideal, but Michigan, whose inhabitants had migrated from states where public education was in vogue, showed the germs of a public system even before statehood was conferred. The history of the common schools in Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois is very similar in general outline. Each one

Ohio,

Indiana, and
Illinois;

started off by claiming two townships of land for a university and the sixteenth section for schools, and the

state constitution committed it to equal school opportunities for all. But not until the close of the first quarter of the nineteenth century was a system of common schools, with the organization of districts, appointment of school officers, and local taxation provided by the legislature. Even then the acts were largely 'permissive,' the tax was not exacted from anyone who objected, and for some time various laws allowed public funds to be paid to existing private schools for the tuition of the poor. The complete system with a state superintendent was first organized in Ohio by 1836, but a similar stage of development was not reached by the other two states until after the great wave of common school development (1835-1860) had passed over the country. Michigan, Michigan. on the other hand, as early as 1817 established a 'catholepistemiad,' which was to include a university and a system of schools of all grades, and a dozen years later in its revision of the school laws provided for a department of Education at the university and a territorial superintendency of schools. While under this law of 1829 tuition fees were to be required, except from the poor, by the first state constitution in 1837 the school lands were taken over from the wasteful management of the towns, and a public school was required to be open for three months in every district. The state superintendency was also established, and before 1840 Michigan was well started with a complete system of common schools.

Condition of the Common Schools Prior to the Awakening. Thus, while some of the New England states, New York, and Ohio possessed the only definitely organized systems of public education, the movement for common schools had made some progress in all sections

sections of the

country.

Progress in all of the country even before the educational awakening spread through the land. A radical modification had taken place in the European institutions with which education in the United States began. To meet the demands of the new environment, education had become more democratic and less religious and sectarian. Wealth had become much greater and material interests had met with a marked growth. The old aristocratic institutions had begun to disappear. Town and district schools had been taking the place of the old church, private, and 'field' schools, and in some of the cities the foundation for public education was being laid by quasipublic societies or even through local taxation. The academies (Fig. 32) had replaced the 'grammar' schools, and the colleges had lost their distinctly ecclesiastical character. State universities were starting in the South and Northwest. All these evidences of the growth of democracy, nonsectarianism, and popular training in education were destined to be greatly multiplied and spread before long. Such an awakening will be found to be characteristic of the great development of common schools that took place in the decades around the middle of the nineteenth century. But, before pursuing the subject further, we must direct our attention to some new reforms in method and content that were being introduced by Pestalozzi into education in Europe and were destined to produce a great stimulus in the public systems of the United States.

SUPPLEMENTARY READING

Graves, In Modern Times (Macmillan, 1913), chap. IV; Parker, Modern Elementary Education (Ginn, 1912), chap. XII. A general,

but not always accurate account of the period has been contributed by Mayo, A. D., to the Report of the U. S. Commissioner of Education, 1893–94, XVI; 1894–95, XXVIII; 1895–96, VI and VII; 1897-98, XI; and 1898-99, VIII. For the special states, see Adams, H. B., Thomas Jefferson and the University of Virginia (United States Bureau of Education, Circular of Information, 1888, no. 1); Boone, R. G., History of Education in Indiana (Appleton, 1892), chaps. I-III, and V-VII; Johnston, R. M., Early Educational Life in Middle Georgia (Report of the U. S. Commissioner of Education, 1894-95, XVI, and 1895-96, VII); Martin, G. H., Evolution of the Massachusetts Public School System (Appleton, 1894), lect. III; Palmer, A. E., The New York Public School (Macmillan, 1905); Randall, S. S., History of the Common School System of the State of New York (Ivison, Blakeman, Taylor, New York, 1871) Second Period; Smith, C. L., History of Education in North Carolina (U. S. Bureau of Education, Circular of Information, no. 2, 1888); Smith, W. L., Historical Sketch of Education in Michigan (Lansing, 1881), pp. 1-7, 39-49, and 57-78; Steiner, B. C., History of Education in Connecticut (U. S. Bureau, Circular of Information, no. 2, 1893), and History of Education in Maryland (U. S. Bureau, Circular of Information, no. 2, 1894), chaps. II–IV; Stockwell, T. B., History of Public Education in Rhode Island (Providence Press Co., Providence, 1876), chaps. II-V; Updegraff, H., The Origin of the Moving School in Massachusetts (Columbia University, Teachers College Contributions, no. 17, 1907), chaps. V-X; Wickersham, J. P., History of Education in Pennsylvania (Lancaster, Pennsylvania, 1886), chaps. XIII-XVII.