Imágenes de páginas
PDF
EPUB

weeks of Nancy May's blossom time had all at once become unbearable. Nancy May? Why she had been a part of his life ever since he was a boy. His fancy had gone straying after pretty milliners but his faith had been anchored fast to Nancy May. She had been his refuge in all sorts of troubles. Whatever happened he had been sure of the friendship and help of his home ally. He had never imagined himself trying to do without Nancy May, only he had hankered for the social prestige which an alliance. with the milliner could give himthe open sesame and the kind of distinction which the companionship of an attractive woman always gives a man. Now Nancy May herself had all these things to give and the unfailing good temper and comfortable qualities of the perfect homemaker as well. Without losing the old life he could have had the new if-well if he, like Than, could have got in ahead of Hamilton. But what chance had either of them against a widower with an automobile?

Henry had never felt so desolate in his life as he felt driving home in the falling rain. It was as if he had seen a vision of perfect happiness that beckoned, but retreated when he would have come nearer. Old Hi Ball was strangely silent, too, as the ancient horse stumbled with them along the wet, black road. They got into the dark house stealthily like thieves; "ma" was long since asleep under the care of her nurse.. Henry found a match and lighted the tallow dip on the table. Nancy May's neat kitchen looked forlorn by its flickering light as if its cheerful occupant had already left it forever.

The two men looked at each other, crestfallen and awkward, the shadow of a coming loneliness settling gruesomely upon them. Visions of home without the homemaker, of the house as it had been once when Nancy May went away for a month, loomed with dismal reality in their thoughts.

Uncle Hi startled the echoes by a sudden wrathful rap of his cane on the floor.

"We'd better go ter bed," he snapped; "it's the safest place fer two sich fools as we be!"

The outer door clanged suddenly, there was a quick step, the rustle of a dress, the gleam of a hand that lighted the big hanging lamp, and Nancy May in a flood of light stood before them, radiant in her pretty evening dress. Her pleasant shrewd eyes went quickly from one glum face to the other. They looked like two gawky children too big to cry but suffering the dumb heartache that only mother love can comfort. Nancy May might have been their mother as she smiled at them.

"I guess you heard what that old simpleton said," she remarked, “but I hope you ain't been worrying about my takin' up with any sich offers. I've no thoughts o' leavin' the home where I've been contented 'most all my life to go off in a bubble with a bald-headed man. Don't carry on like that, Henry Ball, you're a-crumpling my lace. La, you needn't worry about losin' your frumpy old pie-maker that's too homely ever to git-there, there, let me go; Uncle Hi thinks you're crazy an' I don' know but you be. Let me git on my big apron an' I'll make us all a good cup o' coffee an' I guess there's the most of a punkin pie in the cellarway."

[graphic][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][merged small][merged small][subsumed][graphic]

M

The Early Evolution of the Public School in Massachusetts

By F. SPENCER BALDWIN, PH. D.

ASSACHUSETTS has led the way and set the pace for the American States in providing for popular education. There is nothing in the history of this commonwealth to which the citizen may point with more justifiable pride than to the development of the public school system. Dr. W. T. Harris, United States Commissioner of Education, has remarked that "by common consent the teachers of the United States would choose Massachusetts as the state having the most interesting educational history." Its claims to preeminent interest "are based on the fact that it offers the completest exhibition of the Puritan ideal of education that is to be found." It will be worth while to notice in passing what that ideal implies.

The Puritan ideal of popular education in its highest development implies three things, mainly: education shall be universal, fee, and compulsory.

First of all, then, education is to be universal; that is, each child shall have at least enough instruction to prepare him to discharge intelligently the duties of democratic citizenship. But, in order that it may be universal, education must be free. There must be no fee for school attendance; the expenses of school maintenance must be met by

general taxation. Otherwise not all parents could afford to educate their children.

In the second place, therefore, education is to be free. This means that the property of all the citizens shall be collectively assessed for the education of all the children. This principle of free education was not established at once. The first schools in Massachusetts were not free. They were supported by fees, subscriptions, income from lands and funds, supplemented by taxes. In time, however, all the schools were made free, and were supported by general taxation. During the last century this principle has been extended to include free provision of text books as well as instruction. In 1826 a law was passed obliging towns to furnish books free to the children of the poor. Next, in 1873, the state authorized the towns to own books and lend them to the pupils. Finally, in 1884, this was made obligatory, and all books and supplies became free in the public schools.

The third element in the Puritan ideal of education, compulsion, was not definitely and finally embodied. in law until 1852, when the first compulsory school attendance law in the United States was enacted by Massachusetts. In the course of time it had been found that educa

tion could not be made universal unless school attendance was made compulsory. The need of compulsion became strikingly apparent when the rise of factory industries subjected poor parents to new and strong temptations to keep their children out of school and put them to work. The state then found it necessary to step in and enforce the obligation of the parent for the education of the children. The law of 1852 required the parent to send his children between eight and fourteen years of age to school at least twelve weeks in each year, unless he was too poor to do so. By later legislation this exception was done. away, and the twelve weeks of compulsory atendance were extended to thirty.

Thus by gradual process the Puritan ideal of education-universal, free, compulsory-was completely realized.

The

The present scope of the public school system of the state may be shown by a few figures. number of pupils in the public schools is 40,820; the number in the private high schools and academies 5,766. The total enrollment in these two classes of institution-46.586— is exceeded only in three states, New York, Pennsylvania and Ohio, each of which has a much larger population than Massachusetts. The expenditures for school purposes are $15,170,070, representing a per capita outlay of $5.10. Massachusetts spends more on schools in proportion to property than any other

state.

The foundation of the public school system was laid in the early laws of 1642 and 1647, passed by the General Court of the Massachusetts Colony. The first of these

laws empowered the selectmen in every town to exercise general oversight of the education of children. The second statute, that of 1847, is so important that it deserves to be quoted in full in its quaint old-time form.

"It being one chiefe project of Yt ould deluder, Sathan, to keepe men from the knowledge of Ye Scriptures, as in former times by keeping Ym in an unknown tongue, so in these latter times by perswading from Ye use of tongues Yt so at least Ye true sence and meaning of Ye originall might be clouded by falce glosses of saint-seeming deceivers, Yt learning may not be buried in Ye grave of Or fathers in Ye church and comonwealth, the Lord assisting Or endeavors. It is herefore ordered, Yt every township in this jurisdiction, after Ye. Lord hath increased Ym to Ye number of fifty householders, shall then forthwith appoint one within their towne to teach all such children as shall resort to him to write and reade, whose wages shall be paid either by Ye parents or masters of such children, or by Ye inhabitants in generall, by way of supply, as Ye maior Pt of those Yt order Ye prudentials of Ye towne shall appoint; provided, those Yt send their children be not oppressed by paying much more Yn they can have Ym taught for in other townes; and it is further ordered, Yt where any towne shall increase to Ye number of one hundred families or househoulders they shall set up a gramer schoole, Ye master thereof being able to instruct youth so farr as they may be fitted for Ye university; provided, Yt if any towne neglect Ye performance hereof above one yeare, Yt every towne

work of reform with splendid efficiency.

The agitation for school reform was begun by Carter in 1824, when he published his "Letters on the Free Schools of New England." In these papers he described vividly the degenerate condition of the public schools and made an eloquent plea for reform. He followed up the "Letters" with a series of "Essays upon Popular Education." The immediate result of Carter's writings was the school legislation of 1824 and 1826. Each town was required to choose annually a special committee which should have charge of the schools. This was an initial blow at the pernicious district sys

tem.

Carter's plans for improving the public school system included three. important measures, all of which were eventually adopted: 1. A State school fund; 2. a State board of education; 3. a seminary for teachers.

I. In 1834 a school fund, not to exceed one million dollars, was created, to be derived chiefly from the sale of state lands in Maine. Later this fund was increased to two million dollars. The proceeds are used in part to assist the towns in supporting schools, in part to maintain. State educational institutions.

2. In 1837 a State Board of Education was established, consisting of eight members, for the purpose of collecting and diffusing information relating to the schools.

3. In 1839 and 1840 three normal schools for the training of teachers were opened at Lexington, Barre and Bridgewater. Mr. Edmund Dwight of Boston had offered ten thousand dollars to be used in the training of teachers if the state

would appropriate an equal amount. The legislature accepted this offer in 1838. The first schools were established experimentally, for three years. Then their support was permanently assumed by the state. Later the Lexington school was removed to Framingham; and the Barre school to Westfield. These institutions revolutionized the methods of teaching in the public schools. As Mr. George B. Emerson tersely puts it: They "substituted real teaching for the old way of hearing

lessons."

Horace Mann began his labor in the field made ready for him by James G. Carter's agitation in 1837. The Board of Education, created in that year, chose him as Secretary at its first meeting. It had been generally expected that Carter would be made Secretary of the Board, and the selecteion of Mann was a disappointment to many persons who had been active in the reform movement. But, whatever contemporary opinion any have thought of the wisdom of this choice, the brilliant service rendered by Mann amply justified his appointment. He possessed, indeed, unusual qualification for his position. Horace Mann was a lawyer who had been a member of the state legislature for ten years; at the time of his appointment he was president of the sen

[merged small][merged small][ocr errors]
« AnteriorContinuar »