In the course of time it was natural that the function of education should enlarge. From the religious conception inevitably sprang a belief in education as a means of imparting an understanding of the principles of “right living.” The individual as a virtuous, polite, and exemplary force in the community became the objective of the lawmaker. Closely allied with this conviction was a faith in education as an instrument for teaching patriotism and for training in the fundamentals of government. Thus, in 1732, New York justified the establishment of her schools on the ground that “good Learning is not only a very great Accomplishment but the properest Means to Attain Knowledge, Improve the Mind, Morality and good Manners and to make Men better, wiser and more useful to their Country as well as to themselves.”[3]
In 1780 Massachusetts took a similar stand,[4] perceiving in her schools a method of directing the masses in the great undertaking of self-government,—a function recognized by Washington, John Adams, Jefferson and other men of the day.[5] Other commonwealths also accepted education as a means to “preserve and perfect a Republican Constitution” and to “secure the blessings of liberty.”[6]
These early laws thus paved the way for those of a later time. They laid the foundation of an education directed toward the development of civic efficiency. Yet their influence was circumscribed by the virtual absence of free, public schools. This lack, however, the second quarter of the nineteenth century was destined to remedy; for such was the democratic awakening of the ’twenties and ’thirties that nearly every field of human activity was transformed. Trade associations attested a quickened consciousness in the laboring man; reform movements bore testimony to a new social point of view; and an aroused electorate chose for the highest office of the land that exponent of democracy, Andrew Jackson.[7]
In the states outside of New England little had been accomplished in the early years of the century toward the establishment of tax-supported schools. With the extension of manhood suffrage, however, came the realization that the functions of government were safe only in the hands of an enlightened electorate—a conviction which had come only after much agitation and bitter argument. Gradually and inevitably the public school, supported by public funds, became the embodiment of the democratic ideal in which “intelligence is the grand condition.”[8]
The year 1827 signalized the entrance of United States history into the school curriculum as a study required by law. At this time both Massachusetts and Vermont made the teaching of national history compulsory. The Massachusetts law provided that “every town, containing five hundred families or householders, shall maintain a school to be kept by a master of competent ability and good morals, who shall ... give instruction in the history of the United States, book-keeping, surveying, geometry, and algebra; and such last mentioned school shall be kept for the benefit of all the inhabitants of the town, ten months at least, exclusive of vacations each year ...; and in every town containing four thousand inhabitants, the said master shall, in addition to all the branches of instruction before required in this chapter be competent to instruct in the Latin and Greek languages, and history, rhetoric and logic.”[9] The Vermont statute, designed for the elementary school, required that “each organized town in this state shall keep and support a school or schools, provided with a teacher or teachers, of good morals, for the instruction of youths in ... the history of the United States, and good behavior.”[10]
Counterparts of these laws presently appeared in other states. In 1846 New Hampshire prescribed history as a subject in high schools,[11] and shortly after it was sanctioned by Rhode Island.[12] In 1857 the Massachusetts legislature placed United States history in her elementary schools, and added general history, the “civil polity” of the commonwealth and political economy to the required subjects for high schools.[13] Three years later, she again committed herself in favor of the social studies in the curriculum. “In every town,” the law read, “there shall be kept for at least six months in each year, a sufficient number of schools for the instruction of all the children ... in orthography, reading, writing, English grammar, geography, arithmetic, the history of the United States and good behavior....” This law further required in every town of five hundred families or householders the maintenance of a school in which instruction in general history and the “civil polity” of the commonwealth and of the United States should be given,[14] and also permitted the teaching of political economy.[15]
The South did not awaken to the needs of public education at this early period because of its institutional and economic development. Virginia was the only state of that section to enact legislation relating to the teaching of history before the Civil War. In 1849 she provided that in district schools “shall be thoroughly taught, ... history, especially that of the United States and of Virginia.”[16]
None of the states of the Middle West followed the example set by Massachusetts and Vermont in 1827; but California, still in a pioneer stage of development, required instruction in the federal and state constitutions in her grammar schools, as well as political economy in the high schools.[17] This provision constitutes one of the first attempts by statute to place the subject of government in the curriculum, although several of the older states had at an early time emphasized the necessity of a knowledge of the state law.[18] In fact, such was the lack of systematic instruction in “political morals” at this time, that foreign travelers commented upon it, and Harriet Martineau stigmatized it as “an enormous deficiency in a republic,” where participation in government was a birthright of all.[19]
By 1860, only six states had passed laws requiring the teaching of the social studies. To the east lay Massachusetts, Vermont, New Hampshire, and Rhode Island; to the south, Virginia; and to the far west, California. To the first requirement of United States history had been added provisions necessitating the presentation of general history, political economy and civil government, and Virginia had prescribed a study of the history of the state.[20] It was not until after the Civil War that history acquired a real place in the public school curriculum.