The Parents' Review

A Monthly Magazine of Home-Training and Culture

Notes on Secular Education in the United States, 1889.

During my stay in the United States of America I visited several schools in different cities, such as New York, Brooklyn, Philadelphia and Boston. Of these some were schools for girls corresponding in a measure to our High Schools, others were somewhat similar to our Elementary Schools. One was a mixed High School, others were Industrial, or Manual Training Schools, either mixed, or for boys only. Some of these schools were Public, or Free Schools, others were Private, or Paying Schools.

I must not fail to mention the extreme kindness and courtesy with which I was treated wherever I went. In every case I was invited to come as early and to stay as late as I could, seeing as much as possible of the working of the schools. Both head and assistant teachers gave me whatever information I desired.

I. EXTERNALS OF EDUCATION.

Considering first the External Aids to Education.

(I) The School Buildings. These I found to be very fine. In the cities they are built of brick or stone, and are generally commodious. The class-rooms are large, and, as a rule, not over-crowded. Every arrangement seems made for health, cleanliness and comfort. It would not be American otherwise. In one school catalogue I find these words: "The building is adapted to the wants of a throughly graded school. Besides the chapel, the studios, the laboratory, the library and the gymnasium, it has thirty study and recitation rooms, which are used solely for the convenience of graded classes. Its halls are spacious, its ceilings are high, its main stairways rise but six inches at a step, its rooms are large and airy. The chapel has sittings for 800 students."

In every school I found that there were separate class-rooms. There was always either a large hall or chapel where the whole school assembled for the morning exercises, but with the exception of singing, each study was conducted in its own proper class-room.

(2) The class-rooms were light and spacious, and not over-crowded. In one room I counted sixty-three desks and only thirty-four pupils.

(3) As regards the furniture of the school I found some important differences between the American desks and ours. There was a general absence of our wooden seats. In some schools there were chairs, cane or leather-seated, before a fixed wooden desk. In some rooms there were leather chairs forming semi-circular benches round the teacher's desk. Another plan was to rest a book when written notes were required. Where desks were used they were separate: I never saw two together.

The black-boards were fixed against the wall all round the room. This was the case without exception in every school and college I visited. The plan has obvious advantages:--(I) it doesn't to take up room on the floor. (2) It gives space for more diagrams, etc. (3) It enables children to work at the board under the teacher's eye, giving variety to the lesson, and enabling the teacher to correct class-work at a glance. In a class of thirty-four children, twenty-six were set to work at the board at once. (4) It gives a chance of repeating writing, etc., when there is a large short-sighted community, such as the German population, in the States. (5) In younger classes a portion of the board can be kept to register the children's progress. (6) Diagrams etc., can be left.

Maps are more abundant than in our secondary schools. Each class-room is provided with the maps required, which are fixed like a roller blind to a frame above the teacher's desk, and pulled up or down as occasion requires. In most public schools there are zinc tables for the teacher to make a model relief map in clay.

The text-books are provided by the school, not by the parents, and are chosen by the school superintendent. Books are much more used than in English schools, and the textbooks are, in many instances, better than ours. In the Packer Institute there is a library of 5,000 vols. to which the pupils of the upper school have access. In the Normal School, New York, the students have been encouraged to form a library of their own, containing 4,000 vols.

The arrangements for teaching Natural Science are generally very good. In the Packer Institute they are most admirable. There is a laboratory, spacious, light and well fitted, with benches for twenty-four students; more could be accommodated, if necessary for experiments, such as chemical balances, etc., and well-filled bottles of re-agents for analysis and other work.

There are two museums at the Packer, one for plants and zoological specimens, and one for minerals, both well-filled and complete enough for the study of science courses.

Physiological models and all botanical specimens are provided by the school. I might here mention the beautiful glass models of sea-anemones, silk-worms and other objects, by Professor Blashka of Berlin, which I saw in the museum of Vassar College, Poughkeepsie. In other schools and colleges there are also excellent arrangements for science teaching.

The system of Art teaching in most American schools is excellent. Drawing is compulsory in the public and in many of the private schools, and all the apparatus necessary is provided. In some schools there are special studios; in all there are good collection software casts and models. In order to give drawing more educational and refining value, teaching is supplemented by the example which is better than precept, of placing before the children's eyes reproductions of the great masterpieces of the world. In one school there was a splendid collection of photographs, illustrative of the great foreign schools of painting, such as the Venetian, Italian and Dutch. At the Lincoln School, Brookline, Boston, there was a replica of the Frieze of the Parthenon in bas-relief, running round the school hall, while two splendid statues, taken from the antique, more than life size, stood beside the teacher's desk.

II. SYSTEMS OF EDUCATION.

In order to understand the system of American education, I must here remind you of the double system at present existing in England.

(I) There is first what is called Elementary education--including that given in the Board schools, Voluntary schools, and Pauper or District schools. These schools have all certain points in common, viz.--(a) The education given in them is on the lines laid down by the Government code. (b) They are examined by H.M. Inspector. (c) They are intended for the children of the working-classes only, and bear but little relation to any other kind of education. (d) Attendance is compulsory. (e) The teachers are trained. (f) But little, if any, home-work is expected.

(2) Secondary Education. Side by side with this, but managed in an entirely different way, there is Secondary Education, which may be public or private. It is paid for by the parents or by endowments, it is not examined by government from a Central Education Department, it does not necessarily follow any prescribed course of instruction, its teachers are sometimes, but only rarely, prepared for their work by any definite training, home work is expected to be done by the pupils.

In the United States there are not these two kinds of education intended for two different classes of children, and so different from one another that a pupil can only, with advantage, be transferred from one to the other at a very early age. There is no Central Authority like our Education Department, but each State has reserved to itself the right of controlling the education in that State. "The practical working of the school system is left to the School Boards,--of the county or township." The school-boards are differently constituted and differently chosen, but there is a certain general plan of Education throughout the Republic.

There is an officer, unknown in our system, viz: the school superintendent, whose onerous duties are to appoint teachers, choose school books, examine the scholars, etc. Education, whether for rich or poor, begins in the grammar schools, and is thoroughly graded.

In grammar schools there are two departments:--
(1) Primary, containing four (or more) grades.
(2) Grammar

The average age for a boy or girl to leave the highest grade of the grammar schools is about 15 to 15 1/2 years. "It is said that the grades might be so arranged that no more than four or five subjects could be taught in the same class. History and Geography need not be studied together except in so far as maps may be necessary for purposes of illustration.

For example, Geography might be taken in three years. It should be begun in the first grade primary, and finished in the fourth grade grammar. History might be begun in the fourth grade, and finished in the second. (Grammar?)

If the children have been properly instructed, sufficient of the salient facts will remain in the mind for future use. If more minute knowledge is needed, the children ought to know where and how to get it.

In the last grade of the grammar school the subjects might be arranged as follows:--

In the morning:--Arithmetic, Algebra, English, Geometry, four subjects which should cultivate reason, judgment, and language, and which would give practical knowledge useful to the pupils in after life.

In the afternoon:--Drawing, Manual Training, and Book-keeping.

It is a great deal better for the whole system that the different departments should fit into each other like the steps of a flight of stairs. Thorough grading, thorough classification, and thorough instruction make an excellent school, even if the first class by only of the third or fourth grade."

Succeeding the Grammar Schools are other institutions for more advanced, or different kind of instruction--such as the High Schools. For more advanced literary and scientific studies there are schools like the Packer Institute, Brooklyn, and other private schools, such as Dr. Croswell's school for girls, and no doubt others for boys. Beyond these there are the Colleges, such as Vassar, Wellesley, Bryn Mawr, for women, and the Universities for men, while Swarthmore College, Pa. is mixed.

There are numerous colleges for women in the United States. Higher education is more general there, or rather I should say that more women take a college course than in England. There are, however, some striking points of difference between the American and the English colleges for women.

(1) In America each college gives its own degrees. (2) Degrees are not the same for men and women. (3) Degrees are given on work done in comparatively short intervals of time. For example, in one college, a subject is studied for six months or a year--an examination is held upon it, and then it is dropped--and so on with others. At the end of a four year's course degrees are given upon the result of examinations held on a year's, or perhaps only six months' work on separate subjects. (4) The college life of women students seems to resemble a very advanced school. It is not University life.

Among the colleges for women I visited are Wellesley, Vassar, Bryn Mawr, and the Harvard Annex. Of these, Bryn Mawr is conducted on principles most resembling the English plan.

Of colleges for men, I had not sufficient opportunity of judging to speak with any confidence.

For those who do not wish or cannot go in for higher literary culture, there are the Technical Schools, sometimes called Industrial or Manual Training Schools. Manual training forms, or should form, a very important part of present education. It is not enough to know something, but in the struggle for existence people have to do something, and to do it well. But apart from "doing" as a means of subsistence, there is "doing" as a means of education. We all know the old proverb about idle hands. "The mind and the hand," it is said, "are natural allies, the mind speculates, the hand test the speculations of the mind by law of practical application--the hand is scarcely less than guide than the agent of the mind. It is the mind's moral rudder, its balance wheel--it is the mind's monitor." Some even go so far as to say that spiritual health and manual activity are in some way co-related.

The system of manual training is carried out to a certain extent in the Primary and Grammar Schools, but particularly so in the Manual Training or Industrial Schools. In the North Bennett St. School (for boys) Boston, printing, shoemaking, carpentering, and sloyd were taught. In some girls' schools dress-making and cooking were taught. But the best technical school that I saw was certainly the Manual Training School, Philadelphia. This school is for boys leaving the Grammar Schools.

MANUAL TRAINING SCHOOL, PHILADELPHIA.

The course here lasts for three years. "The object of the teaching is the education of all the faculties. The boy is trained mentally, physically and ethically, and is fitted to enter upon his life-work without loss of time, and without error in the choice of occupation. It fosters a high appreciation of the value of dignity of intelligent labour."

The studies are divided as follows: one hour per day drawing; two hours per day, shop-work; three hours per day, class-work. Total, fifteen hours per week class-work; fifteen hours per week manual-work. Manual work of first year,--drawing, mechanical and free-hand, carpentry and joinery. Second year,--pattern-making, turning, smithing, brazing, moulding, casting. Third year,--mechanical construction.

All these subjects are taught by a master-workman. The boys are happy in their work, each at his bench with his own set of tools. The whole school went to the shop in turns, so that three boys had to use the same set of things; but there was not confusion. When the bell rang at the end of the two hours' shop-work, the boys put away their tools, took off their aprons, and had a general wash-up. Seven minutes was allowed for this.

"We have order," said the master, "but no discipline. The boys graduating from this school get excellent positions. Some become engineers, others art-workmen. Two got places direct at Tiffany's."

TRAINING OF TEACHERS.

For those who wish to take up teaching rather than manual work there are the Normal Schools. I only visited the Normal School, 67th Street, New York. This is a Day training College for women, with Practising School attached, and is built to accommodate 1600 students. The course lasts four years, students entering from the highest grade of the Grammar Schools.

NORMAL COURSE.

(1) Introductory, average age, fifteen and a half years. (2) Freshman, average age, sixteen to seventeen years. (3) Sophomore, average age, seventeen and a half years; (4) Pedagogic, average age, eighteen to nineteen years.

In accordance with this plan the teacher herself is first developed. Pedagogy begins only in the third year. Self-reliance is much fostered,--the students must be self-governing. "We train an army of teachers," said President Hunter, "rather than an army of soldiers." Refined, cultivated and intelligent teachers of high moral character, are perhaps the greatest blessing a community can enjoy, and such teachers a preparation for the work of instruction a thorough education without Normal Training is much better than inferior education with Normal Training."

With this system of grading an American child can pass right on from the Primary to the Grammar School, and thence to College, to Manual Training School, or to Normal School. I have no information as to Schools of Music and Art.

III. METHODS OF TEACHING.

In all schools I visited all the lessons were given by fully qualified teachers. I neither saw nor heard any pupil or student teachers. American women begin to teach at the age of nineteen, by this time they are adults.

The methods of teaching in America are rather different to those in use in our Elementary schools, and very different indeed from those now prevalent in our Secondary ones.

(1) Reading and writing are taught by specialists. (2) Books are more used in Class subjects, such as History, Geography, Botany. Good text-books are provided by the school, and these are studied by the pupils who are questioned upon them in their recitations, the answers being supplemented by a few notes only, given by the teacher. The verbal answers given by the children seem much fuller and more intelligent than is often the case in our schools. there is not nearly so much written work as in our Secondary schools, where the Lecture System has been so largely adopted. In some lessons marks were given for each answer, in others no marks were given for verbal answers, but about every three weeks written reviews were set and marked. The tendency seems to be to encourage the reproduction of knowledge in the graphic form of maps, charts, diagrams and pictures, rather than much written work. (3) English.--English Language and Literature are thought much of, and a great deal of time is devoted to this study. The following is a scheme of how English is taught in the Manual Training School, Philadelphia. "Rhetoric. The mother tongue is taught by: (a) Conversations.--Subjects from daily life, occupations of men, travels, invention, general information. (b) Use of texts.--English and American classics. Synonyms, prefixes, suffixes, roots, word building, analysis of thought. (c) Writing.--Dictations, punctuation and composition, analysis, order, form. (d) Short essays--outlines set by the instructor, descriptions, the concrete before the abstract. Complete works from Addison, Chaucer, Tennyson, Scott, Whittier, Longfellow. Bryant, Lowell, Coleridge and others. The Classic selected is made the basis of instruction in the history and social life of the times. Essays by the student. Shakespeare.--Lectures, criticisms, classical readings, comparisons, style. Essays by the student." In the study of literature, numerous charts are constructed, each student selecting his own method of presentation of the subject. Biography, the growth of opinions, characteristics of periods of time, causes and consequences of literary activity are among the themes illustrated. Reading and Elocution are subjects to which a good deal of time and attention are devoted. Composition and writing taught by specialists.

In most public schools Prang's system of form study and drawing is used.

PRANG'S COMPLETE COURSE OF FORM STUDY AND DRAWING.
(By permission of the Prang Educational Company.)

(1) The aim of this course is to develop the mind of the pupil by observation and expression, to lead it to think for itself. (2) It encourages the principle that drawing is not merely a means of training eye and hand, but is a language in itself. (3) It introduces manual training by teaching the child to make models and objects. (4) It is designed to lead the pupils to an appreciation and love of the beautiful as found in Nature and expressed in man's handiwork. (5) It is intended to make drawing an aid to other studies.

Among the general directions we find great prominence is given to observation of form. "Expression of form must of necessity be preceded by observation." Form is used as including three dimensions; shape refers to two dimensions. The former is studied by wooden models, the latter by cardboard tablets; the children have a complete set of each to use for themselves. The development of the imagination is also considered a matter of great importance.

The expression of form is carried out not only by drawing the object presented, but by making a model of it either in cardboard or clay, also by cutting out figures in coloured paper, that the children may observe figures, not lines.

Freedom of movement is cultivated, and the quality of line required is broad and soft. The aim seems to be the production of a spirited sketch rather than a finished drawing.

Optional lessons on colour are introduced early, the development of the colour-sense being deemed important, and childhood is the time when this sense is most vivid. The course is divided into six books.

In Book I. The Models studied. Solids--Sphere, Hemisphere and Cube. Tablets. Circle, Semi-circle. Square. Nat. Objects, Apple, etc.

Decorative Figures. Quatrefoil--Greek Cross, etc.

Book II. Models Solids--Cylinder, Square, Prism, Tablets, Circle, Square, Oblong,--Nat. Objects, Tumbler, Envelope, Fan.

Decorative Figures. Original design.

The four succeeding books deal with more advanced examples. The lessons in them are arranged under the heads of--(1) Construction--Facts of Form. (2) Representation--Appearance of Form (3) Decoration--Ornamentation of Form. Throughout, the feeling for beauty both in art and nature is sedulously encouraged.

IV. GENERAL RESULTS.

In summing up my impressions of American Education I find the following results:--(1) More money is spent on education, because it is looked upon as a sacred duty, not in any wise as a commercial speculation. The general public are more alive to the necessity of a good education both for rich and poor. (2) Public Education is free, but private individuals also give large sums for the endowment of schools. (3) There is more room, and a larger supply of apparatus than in most English Secondary schools. (4) The source of study is more uniformly graded. (5) There is not so much written works, but more recitation from good text-books. (6) Text-books are provided by the school. (7) English is made a more important study, and reading, both by teachers and pupils, is more encouraged. (8) Bookwork is more varied by manual and physical exercises. Knowledge is reproduced in a form which allows much play to the imagination. (9) A larger proportion of American teachers are trained than with us, they are, on the whole, better paid, and not so over-taxed as ours. "Any system of instruction that over-taxes the energies of teachers and students is absurd and criminal."

But as "the proof of the pudding is in the eating," so the proof of education is in the people themselves. Are the American people better educated than the English or other nations of Europe? My own impressions led me in 1889 to think that they were. The Americans are well-informed on general topics, their interests are wide, their conversation brilliant, their inventive genius well-known. They are eminently a smart people. Are these qualities due to natural temperament only? Some of them can, I think, be traced to a superior education.

An American leaves school not under the impression that he or she has learned everything that is worth knowing, but rather eager for more knowledge. The American not only ought to know, but practically does know where this knowledge is to be obtained, viz, by reading, by conversation, and most of all, by travel. An education that leaves the pupil still eager, still aspiring, has great claims upon our admiration.

On the other hand, however, though there is no doubt that the American system of teaching is excellent, many people question whether the results are as good as I have supposed, and in five years we have done so much ourselves that the scale may now have turned in our favour. One point, however, is incontrovertible. Every one in America shows very great interest in education; it is one of the first objects thought of and paid for. Great efforts are made to obtain it both by white and coloured people.

What we want is still further to emulate our friends on the other side by seeking to raise, as the Parents' National Education Union does, the education in the home, to eradicate that long-standing and deep-rooted fallacy that those who are not going to make education their profession do not need it. Not need education! What a sordid, preposterous, insensate idea!

Let us rather endorse the consoling words of the poet Arthur Hugh Clough:--

                                          "We
Must still believe, for still we hope
That in a world of wider scope
What here is faithfully begun
Will be completed, not undone."

Ellen Stones

Typed by Sarah Delgado, Oct. 2024