Public opinion and the teaching of history in the United States

by Bessie Louise Pierce

[318] State of New York: No. 1186, Int. 1086. In Senate, March 5, 1924. Introduced by Mr. Higgins.

[319] The New York Times, March 19, 1924.

[320] Assembly, No. 14 (with Amendments), State of New Jersey. Introduced January 8, 1924, by Mr. Williams. (For the Speaker.) The bill provided also that any forty citizens of a school district could file complaints against histories and a public hearing should be held within thirty days.

[321] The New York Times, February 12, 1924. The endorsement given this bill by patriotic and fraternal groups is treated on pages 275-276.

[322] Ibid., April 19, 1923, The Freeman, Vol. VII (May 2, 1923), p. 170. The Oklahoma legislature of 1923 forbade the use of textbooks teaching the “‘Materialistic Conception of History’ (i.e.) The Darwinian Theory of Creation vs. the Bible Account of Creation.” Approved March 24, 1923. House Bill No. 197. The use of the term “materialistic conception of history” is interesting in this connection.

[323] Among the states which have Americanization laws that have no specific statement prescribing the teaching of American citizenship are Alabama, Connecticut, Iowa, Missouri, Nevada, New Mexico, North Dakota, Oregon, South Dakota, Virginia and West Virginia. Most of these laws were enacted in 1919, some prescribing the establishment of classes for uneducated adults, others specifying Americanization courses. In North Carolina, there is a law to remove illiteracy, and in New Mexico the schools are to give “nocturnal courses of instruction.” These laws are not discussed because they do not provide for the teaching of citizenship. One of the earliest evening schools was in Massachusetts, 1886, where United States history was one of the prescribed subjects. Supplement to Public Statutes of Massachusetts, 1882-1888, ch. 174, p. 117, “An Act for the Establishment and Maintenance of Evening Schools.”

[324] Statutes of California, 1917, ch. 552, p. 742.

[325] Ibid., 1919, ch. 605, sec. 4, p. 1049.

[326] Ibid., 1921, ch. 489, p. 742. Approved May 27, 1921.

[327] Laws of New York, 1918, ch. 415, pp. 1257-1258.