Some little conception of the immensity of the common-school system in the United States may be obtained from the following statistics, taken from the Report of the Commissioner of Education for 1896–97.
COMMON-SCHOOL STATISTICS OF THE UNITED STATES
(NOT INCLUDING PRIVATE SCHOOLS, COLLEGES, OR UNIVERSITIES).
| 1870–71 | 1896–97 | |
|---|---|---|
| I.—General Statistics. | Approximate | |
| Total population | 39,500,500 | 71,374,142 |
| Number of persons 5 to 18 years of age | 12,305,600 | 21,082,472 |
| Number of different pupils enrolled on the school registers | 7,561,582 | 14,652,492 |
| Per cent of total population enrolled | 19.14 | 20.53 |
| Average daily attendance | 4,545,317 | 10,089,620 |
| Average length of school term (days) | 132.1 | 140.4 |
| Male teachers | 90,293 | 131,386 |
| Female teachers | 129,932 | 271,947 |
| Whole number of teachers | 220,225 | 403,333 |
| Per cent of male teachers | 41.0 | 32.6 |
| Average monthly wages of teachers: | ||
| Males (averaged from the statistics of 43 States) | $44.62 | |
| Females (averaged from the statistics of 43 States) | $38.38 | |
| Number of schoolhouses | 132,119 | 246,828 |
| Value of school property | $143,818,703 | $469,069,086 |
| II.—Financial Statistics. | ||
| Receipts: | ||
| Income from permanent funds | $7,846,648 | |
| From state taxes | 35,062,533 | |
| From local taxes | 127,960,761 | |
| From all other sources | 17,771,301 | |
| Total receipts | 188,641,243 | |
| Expenditures: | ||
| For sites, buildings, furniture, libraries, and apparatus | $31,903,245 | |
| For salaries of teachers and superintendents | $42,580,853 | 119,303,542 |
| For all other purposes | 36,113,815 | |
| Total expenditures | $69,107,612 | $187,320,602 |
| Expenditure per capita of population. | 1.75 | 2.62 |
| Total expenditure per pupil | 15.20 | 18.57 |
To these grand totals must be added the million and more in attendance at private schools throughout the country, and the rapidly increasing number (now 217,763) of those who receive higher instruction, in universities and professional and normal schools. This makes for the United States a grand total of 16,255,093 pupils and students of all grades in public and private schools. The growth during the last generation has been most marked. The statistical table gives an opportunity for comparison with the year 1870–71,—the span of a generation,—and it has been estimated that within this period the average total amount of schooling has increased from 2.91 years to 4.28 years. In other words, the amount of education which each one felt able to afford has increased almost one half. Such is the magnificent result which has grown out of the isolated village schools of our New England ancestors, fostered by the democratic desire for intelligence found all over the country.
SCHOOLHOUSE, SLEEPY HOLLOW, N. Y.
(Courtesy of The School Journal, New York.)
Equally great has been the change in the spirit of the school. In the early days the schools were very crude. Population was scattered, and since the children could not go as far to school as their elders did to church, the number of schoolhouses was very great. They were usually put up by the people of the neighborhood with little pretense at adornment. The average schoolhouse was located either at a fork in the roads or on an elevation, where it shared, with the church, the honor of conspicuousness. We give a picture of Old Sleepy Hollow Schoolhouse, made famous by Washington Irving’s elaborate description of Ichabod Crane, its ruler in the colonial days. But a structure of this kind is luxurious compared with the hardships of more sparsely settled regions. From Wickersham’s “History of Education in Pennsylvania” the following description is culled: “The pioneer schoolhouse was built of logs, sixteen by twenty feet, seven feet to the ceiling, daubed with mud inside and out, a mud and stick chimney in the north end, and in the west a log was left out, and the opening covered with oiled paper to admit light; holes were bored in the logs and pins driven in, on which to nail a long board for a writing-table, and slabs with legs answered for seats. The early schoolhouses were generally situated near the roadside or cross-roads, being without playground, shade-trees, or apparatus.”
Here the master kept his country school for a term of from six to twelve weeks. In the winter time the pupils were almost frozen, and there were other dangers which the hardy lad of those days had to encounter. Nevertheless, rude, uncomfortable, and inadequate as they were, it was here that our forefathers obtained their scanty schooling. The three R’s, Readin’, Ritin’, and ‘Rithmetic, formed the basis of the course of study. Methods were very simple. Much of the early instruction was religious in its trend, and the child was expected to use books which would teach moral lessons. Church books, containing creeds and hymns and catechisms, might be used in the school for study. Then there were the primers or books to teach the A B C. The famous “New England Primer” was published in the latter part of the seventeenth century. Later editions contained rhyming couplets upon each letter of the alphabet, illustrated with such imagery as the art would allow. A page from the “Child’s Guide,” published in London in 1762, is shown on page [527]. Its verses were easily memorized, and sometimes gave a basis for a spelling lesson. There were no graded readers until this century.
Writing in some neighborhoods was taught only to boys, on the general ground that it was an unnecessary accomplishment for the sex which never engaged in business. Ink was home-made from bruised nutgalls placed in a bottle with water and rusty nails. The writing was done with a quill pen, and one of the foremost duties of the old-fashioned pedagogue was to make and mend pens.