Education

THE political changes wrought in the Southern States of the Union by the late war affect not only the condition of the colored population and the system of labor on plantations, but the occupation, habits, and economical interests of all classes They reach to the very foundations of

society, and remodel its whole structure. They introduce a kind of civilization totally incompatible with a state of servitude. The respectability of labor, the union of intelligence with industry, the application of the results of modern science to all the arts of life, and the conversion of men of leisure into men of business, serve to create a large and influential middle class which has never before existed in these States. This new class of citizens will form the key-stone of the arch in the social fabric, resting on the two extremes of the rich and the poor. Stretching its strong arm towards both, and mediating between them in all cases of collision or conflict, this rising power will have a molding influence upon society, and give a new direction to legislation and a new form to public institutions. Nowhere will it be sooner or more widely felt than in the provisions made for public instruction. If any proof of so obvious a truth were necessary, it would be found by the most casual observer in what would meet his eye on every side. Within a period of about seven years, a new system of free schools has sprung up in every one of these States. The history of this grand movement is both interesting and instructive. At first, only one political party adopted public schools as a part of its platform. In a short time, the other party did the same, and thus the subject of education was taken out of the sphere of politics. At present, it makes no material difference in this respect what party has the control of a State ; public schools are secure in either case. There was in the beginning quite generally, and there is now to a considerable extent, a natural prejudice against so great an innovation upon the traditions and usages of a whole people. But the obvious necessity of educating in some way all those who enjoy the right of suffrage, and the vast superiority of public over private schools, and other similar considerations of utility, have already done much in the way of modifying these hereditary opinions.

The greatest obstacle now to be overcome in maintaining free schools is the deep-seated aversion to taxation prevalent among the people. They have been educated to look with jealousy upon all im provements made at their expense for the public good. The domain of individual rights has been made as wide, and that of public interests as narrow, as possible. Taxes for promoting the general good, which are borne cheerfully in some parts of the country, would be regarded as oppressive here. In addition to this, the people of the South are in an extremely impoverished condition, with a crushing weight of State debts hanging over them ; and the very idea of an increase of taxes is almost enough to drive them to madness. Now it is very well known by men of intelligence that the present rate of expenditure is not sufficient to carry out the design of the school law; that the system of instruction is to grow from year to year, and with it the funds for their support.

Notwithstanding all these hindrances and embarrassments, the advocates and friends of free schools have been able to make progress. They have been steadily gaining ground every year. In their arduous work they have been aided somewhat in various ways from abroad. That the Trustees of the Peabody Education Fund have had a share in this noble enterprise, and have done their part in effecting a favorable change in the public sentiment, is generally acknowledged. Their policy has been to aid cities and large towns in the support of model schools, partly in order that the experiment might be tried under advantageous circumstances, and partly that the impulse first given to the public mind might proceed from these centres of influence. With the support of the cities and of the press at their command, added to that of the State Teachers’ Associations, which has always been given them, the trustees believed they could go before State legislatures and ask for the establishment and support of a system of public schools with reasonable hopes of success. Nor were they disappointed in their expectations. A plan of cooperation was devised and proposed, which was adopted in every State but one; and there a substitute has been provided. The trustees aid the State by contributing liberally to the support of graded schools, in important localities, throughout the year; and the State in turn gives the services of all its school officers to aid in the economical and safe distribution of the fund. In this way much is gained by securing harmony of action and effective mutual assistance. The result is all that was anticipated.

To those who have seen what were called the “ Old-field Schools,” which were anything but what schools should be, there can scarcely be a more pleasing spectacle than the admirable school organizations and splendid houses which have sprung up, as if by magic, in the large cities of the South. It is no exaggeration to say that a single visit to these schools by intelligent men, both in public and in private life, has produced an impression which no amount of argument could have done. This has been especially the case in those cities where legislative bodies assemble.

While we contemplate with great satisfaction these encouraging facts, we must not forget that only a beginning has been made in the great work to be performed. In some of the States, Virginia, West Virginia, and Tennessee, for example, considerable progress has been made. In others, especially in Georgia and Texas, little has been actually accomplished beyond the passage of a school law, and a preparation for carrying it into execution. In Georgia, however, the large cities have maintained good schools without much aid from the State. The other States hold, with various degrees of success, an intermediate place between the two classes just named. In the rural districts, even of those most advanced, what has been done is little, compared with what remains to be done.

To form a correct general estimate of the state of education in the South, it will be necessary to keep steadily in view the fact that, while popular sentiment is, on the whole, favorable to public schools, the preponderance is so slight that it would require but a little change to turn the scale. Only about one third of the population are decidedly friendly to free schools; about one third are, at heart, as decidedly opposed to them. The remaining third are indifferent or passive, and will be influenced and governed by the dominant party. The first class are now in the ascendency. They owe their success not so much to their numbers as to their enterprising character. They are the more hopeful, energetic, and progressive portion of the community. The consciousness that they have the civilized world with it’s philosophy and literature on their side, increases their natural courage and enables them to inspire hope in others.

The second class is made up of those who take pride in the past, who look with disdain upon the present and with distrust into the future; the men of heavy mold and of phlegmatic temperament; the village philosophers and politicians; the grumblers, the penurious, and the selfish. The influence of these men of various types is not to be despised. United by some common bond of sympathy, stung by wounded pride, and aroused to a high pitch of excitement by an appeal to their prejudices and passions, they would constitute a formidable party. They only wait for an opportunity to combine their

strength. They would not, indeed, undertake to resist the Federal government; but they would find it quite practicable to get possession of the State government; and that is all they would need to crush out the school system. Such undoubtedly would be the immediate result in at least half the States; and in the others nothing would remain but a sickly system struggling for existence. Without warm public sympathy, and the cordial encouragement and support of the community, there can be no good system of public schools. Some of the Gulf States furnish a sad illustration of this truth.

The character of the third class mentioned above is just what would be desired for such an occasion. Accustomed to follow, rather than to lead, they could easily be made to swell the ranks of opposition to an alarming extent. The result of a popular uprising under such circumstances is easily foreseen. At no time since the war has the party of progress been in so critical a condition as it has been since the agitation of the question of “ mixed schools " in Congress. Even the shadow of coming events has had a disastrous influence. In two or three States contracts with mechanics for school-houses, and with teachers for opening schools, were immediately suspended ; and the highest and best school officers of the State, seeing that their fondest expectations were likely to be blasted, were looking around for other more hopeful spheres of labor. Already an amount of mischief has been done which it will take years to repair. Confidence has been shaken ; and men who stood firm before have become despondent, and are retiring from the field.

Upon no part of the community would the threatened calamity fall so heavily as upon the colored people. Others can without any personal sacrifice return to the old system of private schools. Having none but their own children to provide for, they would be relieved of the great expense of maintaining schools for the blacks. These, on the other hand, would in most places be left completely destitute of schools. Southern charity will be dried up if the negro is made the instrument of breaking up the existing systems of public instruction. Northern contributions have nearly ceased long ago. Religious societies which have founded theological schools will bare enough to do to educate ministers, without undertaking to educate the immense body of the colored people. The latter hare neither the funds nor the intelligence necessary to carry on the work successfully. Nothing but public schools maintained, organized, and controlled by the State can meet their wants.

Let us look at this question in the light of their interest simply. What advantages of education have they now in fact, or in law ? The same that the white people have. If there is, in certain localities, any difference, it is purely accidental and temporary ; and is quite as often to the prejudice of the white children as of the colored. The laws in all the States require the same provision to he made for both. Nor can any distinction be safely made in administering them. The colored people are of sufficient importance in every State to make it unsafe for men in authority to abuse their power. From the very nature of the case, the State governments must, in the end, adopt and carry out the same rule for both races. This grand provision for the education of the whole colored population, chiefly at the expense of others, is secure as long as the present school systems shall be preserved. But let them he disturbed by any unhappy excitement, and the disaffected will seize upon the opportunity to abolish the public schools and to return to their favorite plan of private schools, each man paying what he pleases for the education of his children. The colored children will, of course, be left to grow up as ignorant as the brutes. We will not speak of the political bearings of the subject, except to say that any measure, no matter how plausible in theory, which shall in tact take, the light of knowledge from the negroes of the South, will come with an ill grace from those who have given them the boon of liberty.

The most remarkable feature in the agitation of this question of “mixed schools " is the total difference of principle between many of the white and of the colored advocates of the measure. With the one, the co-education of the two races is fundamental; with the other, equal means of education is the only important point. If the right to the former is necessary to secure the latter, it is desired by the colored people as a means, but has no particular value as an end. It was precisely on this ground that a large petition was got up in a Southern city, and sent to Congress. The writer of this article attended a meeting of colored citizens at that place, on the occasion of the dedication of a magnificent, school-house erected for their use. In a free conversation with their leaders he asked them what was the precise object of that petition. “ Do you wish to send your children to the schools of the white people?” They replied, " No.” " What then,” he continued, “is your object?” “To have the right to send to those schools, and to use that right as the means of exacting as good schools for ourselves,” was the reply. “But what if the public schools should, by such a procedure, he broken up; what then would be the value of this right ? ” They answered the question by saying: “We had not thought of that. It was probably a mistake; but we followed the advice of our member of Congress, who said to us, ‘ That is the way to get equal schools.’” This same member of Congress afterwards admitted his mistake, and said that he would vote against mixed schools, and would induce his many friends to do the same. A colored member from South Carolina said to the writer about the same time: “ All we desire is to have equality in the schools. We do not wish to enter the white schools. We have now by our State laws the right to do so, hut do not choose to exercise it.” Other colored members made statements to the same effect. When some Northern Congressmen, who favored the mixture of the races in schools, were told of this, they were both surprised and disgusted, one of them saying that, if this were so, he would drop from the Civil Rights Bill the clause relating to schools, and another declaring that he would not, under any circumstances.

These negro petitions are of doubtful paternity, and by no means represent the sentiments of the great body of the thinking and sober-minded colored people of the South. On some public occasion a crowd of people are told that they can have their choice between colored and white schools ; but they are not told that in attempting to secure this right they will hazard all the means of education which they now enjoy, and will probably have neither a choice of schools, nor any schools at all. Wherever they have had their attention directed to this point, they have regretted having taken any action on the subject, and would recall it if they could. They see the danger the moment it is named. Others, more discreet, have seen it from the beginning, and have refused to sign petitions, well knowing that all they desire can be best secured under the present State laws.

— The results of the Harvard Examinations for Women, held at the close of the academic year in June, have just been made public. The number of candidates who finally presented themselves was seven, a smaller number than was hoped for, though not smaller than some strong advocates of the experiment had expected. The examinations covered in all six days, occupying on the average three hours in the morning and two in the afternoon, and were conducted for the most part by means of printed papers of questions, answered by the candidates in writing. Some member of the college Faculty superintended the work, with the assistance of the ladies representing the Female Education Association, and the answers were then taken to Cambridge to be examined, and to have their marks assigned by the real examiners, who were for the most part the gentlemen who had prepared the questions. The reports of the several examiners when collected were finally referred to a committee of the Faculty, who ascertained and declared the results in each case.

Of the seven candidates, all of whom offered themselves for the preliminary examination alone, four receive the certificate of the Faculty stating that they have passed and are entitled to proceed to the advanced examination ; one failed to pass, and two cases are reserved until the candidates at some future examination pass satisfactorily in certain branches in which they were found deficient.

The number of candidates who came forward this year was so small that it is dangerous to enter upon any general statements ; hut with a caution as to drawing any conclusions from a first trial made on so small a scale, it may he noted, that having their choice between elementary Botany and elementary Physics, the candidates all chose the latter, in direct contradiction of what most people would have predicted; that in electing between Greek, Latin, and German, one elected Greek, three elected Latin, and three German; and that the examiners generally remarked on the neatness and regularity of the written work, and its freedom from errors in spelling and grammar, as compared with the average of such work in college.

We understand that there is already such evidence of interest excited by this first trial as promises a largely increased number of candidates for the next year’s examinations. The preparation for the preliminary examination involves a long course of study, and but few of those who are known to have undertaken the work were ready to present themselves the first year after the announcement that the college Faculty would hold the examinations. There was also in some cases a natural reluctance to be the first to enter this new path. At all events the friends of the undertaking look forward with confidence to the coming year, as likely to show that in establishing these examinations the university has responded to a real and serious want on the part of the public. Here again, bearing in mind the limited extent of this year’s trial, it is to be remarked that some of the candidates sought for the certificate as a help in obtaining situations as teachers, while others were influenced simply by the love of study, or by ambition for academic honors.

It is proposed, we believe, as the result of this year’s experience, that the examinations shall in future cover more days, with fewer hours of work on each day, five hours being found to be too severe a strain upon the candidates. In this respect the Faculty appear to be in a dilemma, the convenience of the candidates, especially of those from a distance, requiring concentrar tion of the work. It may be doubted, too, whether the tax upon a young woman’s endurance is greater when a continuous effort for six days is required, than it would, he if the excitement and suspense were kept up for ten days or a fortnight, though with a less demand for actual work on each day. The examinations will be held next year in the latter half of May, which will he a much more favorable season than that at which they were held this year.

— We are indebted to Mrs. Clara B. Martin, Secretary of the Women’s Educational Association of Boston, for documents relating to the education of women at University College, London. This university obtained from Parliament, in 1869, a modification of its charter which removed restrictions in favor of the education of male students alone. The Ladies’ Educational Association of London began its work the same year, with lectures on English literature and experimental physics, which were given by professors of the university, but not in the lecture-rooms of the institution. Rooms were provided by the association outside the college precincts. In the second session, extending from October, 1869, to April, 1870, the association doubled the number of the lectures in each course, and increased the number of subjects of study from two to six. A course in practical chemistry was opened, and courses of twentv-four lectures were given in geometry, Latin, English literature, French literature, and experimental physics. Each course was delivered by the professor of its subject in the university. In its third session, the classes in physics and chemistry met in class-rooms of the college. In the fourth session, all the work of the association was done within the college walls by the professors of the; university. The number of the subjects of instruction was increased from six to twenty-one, and after a winter session of eighteen weeks, fresh courses were given in a summer term of eight weeks. Evening courses of lectures were also provided for ladies who were engaged in teaching. In the session of 1871-72, two hundred and seventy-seven ladies attended the lectures; in 1872-73 the number was two hundred and seventy-eight. The lecture hours for those in attendance on the ladies’ courses of instruction are not the same as those for the regular students. It is stated, however, that the presence of ladies in and about the college is taken as a matter of course, and no act of discourtesy has occurred. In the Fine Art Department ladies attend as regular students, and also in one or two of the ordinary college classes. In several instances they have distinguished themselves in competition with men.

The most popular subjects, judging from the number of students enrolled in the several courses, are English literature and history, French arid German literature, physiology and hygiene. The number attending the science courses bears but a small proportion to those in the literary courses. The committee regret the absence of a demand for mathematics, but believe that the small number in the science courses is due partly to the fact that instruction in science is given at South Kensington Museum, which is in a more central position for the West End of London. We notice that a Laboratory of Experimental Physics was opened during the session of 1872-73. Preference was given to those ladies who had attended the lectures in physics of the previous term. The fees for the literary courses vary from £1 1s. to £1 11s. 6d. In the scientific courses they are placed at £4 4s., and include the cost of apparatus and materials. The division of the college year is noteworthy; the winter session of eighteen weeks begins on Monday, the 21st of October, and ends on Saturday, the 29th of March; it is divided into two terms: Michaelmas term, of eight weeks, from Monday, the 21st of October, to Saturday, the 14th of December; Lent term, of ten weeks, from Monday, the 20th of January, to Saturday, the 29th of March. The summer session of seven weeks begins on Monday, the 23d of April, and ends on Wednesday, the 11th of June. Our American schools and colleges are destined, we believe, to undergo a reform in the matter of vacation. From the 1st of June, to the 1st of October, the work done in our higher schools and colleges is of not much value to the student, and is prejudicial to the health of the teachers. We do not believe that summer courses of instruction extending from July to October are destined to be successful, on account of climatic considerations. The summer session of the London university appears to be the best arrangement for American colleges also. It is true that the professors in our colleges are especially overburdened with work during the months of May and June, and could not attend under present arrangements to extra courses of instruction at that period of the year.

The list of professors at the London University College embraces among others the well-known names of Henry Morley, Professor of English Literature, G. C. Forster, Professor of Physics, A. W. Williamson, Professor of Chemistry. The movement which has been so quietly and steadily in progress at University College is not complicated with any of the vexed questions of woman’s rights. “ The governing body of the college has committed itself to no theoretical action. It has simply given its assent to a fair practical testing of the nature and extent of what is claimed to be one of the great educational needs of the times.”