III. THE HIGH SCHOOL MOVEMENT. THE EARLY HIGH SCHOOLS. The third well-marked type of American secondary school, the public high school, has been intimately bound up with the history of our people for the past two generations. The earlier schools of this type arose with the growth of large centers of commerce and manufactures, with the increasing sense of the importance of education to the welfare of the State, with the expanding interest in the development and administration of great, comprehensive, public, educational systems. The English Classical School, established at Boston in 1321, is generally regarded as the pioneer of the high school movement. It was intended as a school which should render the system of public education in Boston more nearly perfect by offering a finishing course of studies for boys intended for mercantile or mechanical occupations. It should give instruction in advanced English studies, mathematics, geography, natural science, history, logic, and moral and political philosophy, such as could otherwise be secured only in the English courses of distant academies, to which boys could be sent only at considerable expense. The course of study proposed for the school at the outset was, in fact, strikingly similar to the course in the English department of the Phillips Exeter Academy at about the same period. The school, organized on this basis, was successful and popular from the start. Other Massachussetts towns after a few years followed the example of Boston in the establishment of such schools, and the State law which provided for the maintenance of Latin grammar schools in the larger towns was so modified as to provide in effect for high schools in place of schools of the older type. The second high school of national importance was established at Philadelphia in 1838. Others followed in quick succession, the movement spreading from the cities to the smaller towns all over the land. The academies had begun to feel keenly the competition of the new institutions before the outbreak of the civil war, and in the forty years that have elapsed since that struggle the high schools have come more and more to be the dominant feature of our secondary education. Partial list of high schools established before the civil war. [This list is made up from that presented in the Report of the Commissioner of Education for 1900-1901, vol. 2, pp. 1912-1914, supplemented at some points from miscellaneous sources.] The academies had no organic connection with the common schools. They were managed by privately constituted boards of trustees. They depended in large measure on tuition fees for their maintenance. The high schools, on the other hand, were under public control. Their boards of management were generally the same as those of the elementary schools of the same communities. They were, in fact, an upward extension of the common schools, and they shared generally in the popularity of those schools. They were day schools, located near the main body of their constituency, and in most instances made no charge for tuition. They were "near to the people." Not infrequently, to be sure, they were opposed by advocates of the public elementary schools, who believed that the people should not be taxed for the support of schools beyond the elementary grade. In the main, however, they made their way to public favor. The question of their legality was in some States set at rest by definite statutory enactment, in others by decision of the courts in the absence of such enactment. One of the most notable of such judicial decisions was that rendered by the supreme court of Michigan in 1874, which was summed up in the words "Neither in our State policy, in our constitution, or in our laws, do we find the primary school districts restricted in the branches of knowledge which their officers may cause to be taught, or the grade of instruction that may be given, if their voters consent in regular form to bear the expense and raise the taxes for the purpose." Later decisions in other States have followed the ruling of the Michigan court. IV. CURRENT MOVEMENTS AND PROBLEMS. SCHOOLS NOT UNDER PUBLIC CONTROL. While the public high school has become the dominant type of American secondary school, the largest liberty is allowed under our American educational system in the erection and management of schools under various forms of private, corporate, and ecclesiastical control. Since the civil war there has been great activity in the building up of such schools. The following partial list of schools not under public control, established between 1865 and 1890, will give some intimation of the great variety of institutions to which this movement has given rise: [The list includes only a small proportion of the schools of this kind established within the period indicated, but it is in some measure representative. The several items are taken from Thomas, Grace Powers. Where to educate. 1898-1899. A guide to the best private schools. . . . Boston, [1898], pp. 25+379.] SOUTHBOROUGH, MASSACHUSETTS. St. Mark's School, for boys, Protestant Episcopal [1865]. FARIBAULT, MINNESOTA. St. Mary's Hall, a boarding school for girls, Protestant Episcopal, opened 1866. HIGHTSTOWN, NEW JERSEY. Peddie Institute, coeducational, incorporated 1866. HELENA, MONTANA. St. Vincent's Academy, conducted by the Sisters of Charity, established 1869. BELL BUCKLE, TENNESSEE. Webb School, founded 1870. PROVIDENCE, RHODE ISLAND. La Salle Academy, founded by the Brothers of the Christian Schools, 1871. QUINCY, MASSACHUSETTS. Adams Academy, first opened for pupils 1872; founded on a gift of President John Adams, made in 1823. HARRISBURG, PENNSYLVANIA. Harrisburg Business College, organized 1873. PRINCETON, NEW JERSEY. The Princeton Preparatory School, opened 1875; incorporated 1895. ITHACA, NEW YORK. Cascadilla School, established 1876. ORCHARD LAKE, MICHIGAN. Michigan Military Academy, organized 1877. ST. LOUIS, MISSOURI. Manual Training School, Washington University, organized 1879. EAST NORTHFIELD, MASSACHUSETTS. Northfield Seminary, for girls, founded by Mr. Dwight L. MOUNT HERMON, MASSACHUSETTS. Mount Hermon School, for boys, opened 1881; incorporated 1882. Kirkwood Military Academy and Glendale Institute, founded 1882. CHICAGO, ILLINOIS. The Chicago Manual Training School, founded 1882; presented to Chicago University 1897. NEW YORK (CITY). Hebrew Technical Institute, founded 1883, incorporated 1884. BRISTOL, VIRGINIA. Southwest Virginia Institute, for young women, a Baptist institution, organized 1884. NEW YORK (CITY). The Brearley School, for girls, founded 1884. BELMONT, CALIFORNIA. Belmont School, for boys, founded 1885. CAMBRIDGE, MASSACHUSETTS. The Cambridge School for Girls, founded 1886. BROOKLYN, NEW YORK. Pratt Institute, founded 1887, begun as a trade school and gradually extended to include many departments. MARION, ALABAMA. Marion Military Institute, founded 1887. PORTLAND, OREGON. Portland Academy, opened 1889, incorporated 1892. PORT DEPOSIT, MARYLAND. The Jacob Tome Institute, incorporated 1889, opened 1894. A school for white boys and girls, very heavily endowed (over $3,500,000). DENOMINATIONAL CHARACTER OF PRIVATE SCHOOLS. The denominational relations of the nonpublic schools of the country appears from the following table:a With all of this activity in the establishment and conduct of institutions under private control, the main tendency is still setting decisively in the direction represented by the public high school. This is apparent from the following tables and diagrams: a Report of the Commissioner of Education for 1902, v. 2, p. 1648. b Id., v. 1, pp. xciii, xciv. |