A student's history of education

by Frank Pierrepont Graves

National Systems of Education in Europe and Canada.—In previous chapters (XVII, XXI, XXIII) we have witnessed the gradual evolution in America of state systems of universal education out of the unorganized and rather aristocratic arrangement of schools that had first been transplanted from Europe in the seventeenth century. But development of a centralized organization of public schools has not been confined to the United States. During the past century and a half, the leading powers of Western Europe and Canada have likewise organized state systems of education, similar in some respects Elementary education free, but few cases of gratuitous secondary schools, and France alone secularized. to those of the American union. All of these states have now established universal elementary education free to all, although as yet in few instances are secondary schools also gratuitous, and only Canada has welded her elementary and secondary systems. France alone has completely secularized its system, but the public schools of the other nations, while still including religious instruction, have been emancipated from ecclesiastical control, and are responsible to the civil authorities. In all of them school attendance is compulsory. Yet the educational system in none of these countries is identical with that in the United States, but has been adapted in each case to the genius and social organization of the people concerned. Its characteristics must, therefore, be considerably modified, in order to be utilized or to prove suggestive to the United States or other nations, and can be understood only in the light of the educational history of the particular country to which it belongs. Suggestive, when understood historically. For an intelligent appreciation of these modern school systems, we must, therefore, trace the gradual development to their present form in response to the changing ideals of successive periods.

The Beginning of State Control in Prussia.—We may look first at Germany. Up to the later years of the eighteenth century all stages of education in the various German states remained almost entirely under ecclesiastical control, but during this period the schools and universities were taken over by the state from the church, although the clergy still exercised a few prerogatives, and centralized national systems were gradually organized. Among these states of Germany the first and most influential in the organization of universal education was Prussia. While each of the others is characterized by an educational history and peculiarities of its own, this state may be taken as an illustration of the Rise of Prussian education due to enlightened despots: evolution of German school systems. The rise of Prussia, educationally as well as politically, seems to have been due to the strong Hohenzollern monarchs,—despotic, but thoroughly awake to the interests of their people. Although for nearly two centuries state control of education was carried on more or less through the medium of the church, its development was well under way by the seventeenth century. While the ‘consistory,’ or board of supervision, was still composed largely of the clergy, the schools were soon (1687) declared not to be simply church organizations, but to belong to the state, and some attempt was made to extend schools to the villages as well as cities. But the first noteworthy attempt to establish compulsory attendance occurred during the reign of Frederick William I. In 1717 that (1) Decree for compulsory attendance by Frederick William I in 1717; monarch decreed that, wherever schools existed, children should be required to attend during the winter, and in the summer whenever they could be spared by their parents, which must be at least once a week. He also founded the first teachers’ seminary at Stettin from his own private means (1735), and the next year had a definite law passed, making education compulsory for children from six to twelve years of age.

Educational Achievements of Frederick the Great.—His most important contribution, however, consisted in preparing the way for an educational movement that was to be greatly developed through his more able son, Frederick the Great. Frederick began by improving the administration of secondary education, and requiring that all vacancies on crown lands be filled by graduates from Hecker’s normal school at Berlin. But the great step toward a national system was taken in 1763, (2) General School Regulations decreed by Frederick in 1763, when Frederick issued his General School Regulations for the Country. This decree required children to attend school from five until thirteen or fourteen, and until they “know not only what is necessary of Christianity, fluent reading, and writing, but can give answer in everything which they learn from the school books prescribed and approved by our consistory.” If any pupils should arrive at this state of proficiency before thirteen or fourteen, they could even then leave school only through the official certification of the teacher, minister, and inspector. Provision was also made for the attendance of children who had to herd cattle or were too poor to pay the school fees. Sunday continuation schools were to be established for young people beyond the school age. Teachers must have attended Hecker’s seminary and had to be examined and licensed by the inspector. This decree was two years later supplemented with supplemented by Regulations for Catholic Schools; similar Regulations for the Catholic Schools in Silesia, drawn up by Abbot Felbiger. The carrying out of the decree was, however, stubbornly opposed by many teachers, who could not meet the new requirements; by farmers, who objected to the loss of their children’s time; and by the nobles, who feared the discontent and uprising of the peasants, in case they were educated. The execution of the regulation was still in the power of the clergy, and for some time it proved but little more than a pious wish. But Frederick strove hard to have it enforced, and it became the foundation for the more effective laws that have since become embodied in the Prussian school system.

Educational Influence of Zedlitz.—After 1771 the educational work of Frederick was substantially aided by the appointment of Baron von Zedlitz as head of the Department of the Lutheran Church and School Affairs. This great minister had been much impressed by Basedow’s principles and experiments and by Rochow’s application of the ‘naturalistic’ training, and through him village schools were greatly strengthened and enriched, a regular normal school was opened at Halberstadt, and (3) Establishment of Central Board of Administration under Frederick William II in 1787; the humanistic ideal of secondary education revived. A year after Frederick’s death Zedlitz succeeded, even under the reactionary monarch, Frederick William II, in further developing the nationalization of education. In 1787 an Oberschulcollegium, or central board of school administration, was appointed instead of the former church consistories. However, while the organization was supposed to be made up of educational experts, and Zedlitz was actually made chairman, the membership was mostly filled from the clergy, and the king refused to extend its jurisdiction to the higher schools.

Despite the reactionary policy of the sovereign, the culmination of the attempts to establish a national nonsectarian system of education occurred during this reign. (4) Publication of General Code in 1794; In 1794 there was published the General Code, in which the chapter upon education declared unequivocally that “all schools and universities are under the supervision of the state, and are at all times subject to its examination and inspection.” Teachers were, therefore, not to be chosen without the consent of the state, and where their appointment was not vested in particular persons, it was to belong to the state. Teachers of all secondary schools were to be regarded as state officials. No child was to be excluded from the schools because of his religion, nor compelled to stay for religious instruction when it differed from the belief in which he had been brought up.

Foundation of the Ministry of Education and Further Progress.—While this comprehensive code met with much opposition from the clergy and the ignorant masses, and the next king, Frederick William III, weakly yielded at first, the humiliation of Prussia by Napoleon (1803) brought the country to a realization of the need of a centralized organization of the school system. The Oberschulcollegium was abolished, to get rid of the clerical (5) Creation of a Bureau of Education in 1807, which later became a separate Ministry and then was further organized. domination that had crept in, and a Bureau of Education was created as a section of the Department of the Interior in 1807. The Bureau was within a decade erected into a separate Department or Ministry of Education. Eight years later (1825) the state was divided into educational provinces; and a Schulcollegium, or administrative board, with considerable independence, but subject to the minister, was established over each province. Since then there have been many further developments, and provinces themselves are now divided into ‘governments,’ each of which has a ‘school commission’ over it, and every government is divided into ‘districts,’ whose chief officer is a ‘school inspector.’ Under the district inspector are local inspectors, and each separate school also has a local board, to take charge of repairs, supplies, and other external matters.

Thus the supreme management of the schools has been gradually coming into the hands of the state for nearly two centuries. The decrees of 1717 and 1763, the establishment of the Oberschulcollegium in 1787, the General Code promulgated in 1794, the foundation of a distinct civic administration of education in 1807, are the mile-stones that mark the way to state control. But, while the influence of the church has been constantly diminishing, many of the board members are ministers or priests and the inspectors come mostly from the clergy. Moreover, religious instruction forms part of the course in every school, although it is given at such an hour that any pupil may withdraw if the teaching is contrary to the faith in which he has been reared. The secondary schools are largely interdenominational, but in elementary education there are separate schools for Catholics and Protestants, alike supported by the state.

The Elementary System.—Prussia, like most of the principal states of Europe, as a result of their educational history, has its elementary and secondary systems quite separate and distinct from each other ([Fig. 48]). The universities continue the work of the gymnasiums and real-schools, but these two latter institutions parallel the Volksschulen, work of the Volksschulen (people’s schools), rather than supplement it. The course of the secondary school ordinarily occupies the pupil from nine to eighteen years of age, while that of the elementary school carries him from six to fourteen, and after the first three years it is practically impossible to transfer from the elementary to the secondary system. A pupil cannot enter a gymnasium or real-school after completing the people’s school, and the only further training he can obtain is that of the Fortbildungschulen, ‘Continuation schools,’ or ‘continuation schools,’ which supplement the system (see p. 420). The people’s schools are gratuitous and are attended mostly by the children of the lower classes, while the gymnasiums charge a tuition fee and are patronized by the professional classes and aristocracy. Hence the line between elementary and secondary education in Prussia is longitudinal and not latitudinal, as it is in the United States; the distinction is one of wealth and social status rather than of educational grade and advancement. There are also and Mittelschulen. some Mittelschulen (middle schools) for the middle classes of people, who cannot send their children to the secondary schools, and yet can afford some exclusiveness. They have one more class than the people’s schools, include a foreign language during the last three years, and require teachers with a better training.

The Secondary System.—The main types of secondary Gymnasien and Realschulen; schools in Prussia are the Gymnasien (see p. 114), with the classic languages as the main feature of their course, and the Realschulen, or real-schools (see p. 176), characterized by larger amounts of the modern languages, mathematics, and the natural sciences. For more than a century after the first real-school was opened in Berlin by Hecker (1747), this type of institution had only six years in its course, and was considered inferior to the gymnasium. By the ministerial decree of 1859, however, two classes of real-schools were recognized, and those of the first class had a course of nine years, and included Latin, but not Greek. They were given full standing as secondary schools, and graduates were granted admission to the universities, except for the study of theology, medicine, or law. The course of the second class of these institutions contained no Latin, and was but six years in length. In 1882 the compromise character of the course of the first class of institutions Realgymnasien and Oberrealschulen; led to their being designated as Realgymnasien, while the second class in some instances had their work extended to nine years and became known as Oberrealschulen. The graduates were then allowed the privilege of studying at the universities in mathematics and the natural sciences. Since 1901 the university courses have been thrown open to graduates of any of the three types of secondary schools, except that, to be eligible for theology, one must have completed the course of a gymnasium, and for medicine, the course of a real-gymnasium at least. Besides these schools that have been mentioned, in rural districts where a complete course cannot be maintained, there are often secondary institutions that do not carry the student more than six years. These are known, according to the curriculum, as Progymnasien, Realprogymnasien, and Realschulen. The first two classes are far less common than institutions with the longer six-year courses; course of the same character, but the Realschulen are nearly twice as numerous as the Oberrealschulen.

Since these three types of secondary institutions are so distinct from each other ([Fig. 48]), it is evident that a parent is forced to decide the future career of his boy at nine years, long before his special ability can be known. If he once enters a real-school, he can never transfer to a gymnasium, because the Latin begins in the lowest class of the latter course, nor can he enter the gymnasium from the real-gymnasium, after twelve, since he has had no Greek. To overcome this objection, during the past quarter of a century efforts have been made to delay the irrevocable decision by grouping all three courses as one institution and making them identical as long as possible. In secondary schools of this new sort, French is usually the only foreign language taught for the first three years. Then the course divides, and one section takes up Latin and the other English. After two years more a further bifurcation takes place in the Latin section, and one Reformschulen; group begins with Greek, while the other studies English. These institutions are known as Reformschulen ([Fig. 48]), and the plan was first introduced at Frankfort in 1892. The ‘reform schools’ are now growing rapidly, and there is evident an increasing tendency to postpone the choice of courses as long as possible. The three years of training preliminary to admission to a secondary school of any type may be obtained through the people’s or the middle schools. But there has also grown up, as an attachment the Vorschule. of the secondary schools, a Vorschule (preparatory school), to perform this function for pupils of the more exclusive classes.