SCHOOL 



5240 



SCHOOL 



reached the required standard, a plate marked 

 Standard School, with the number of the dis- 

 trict, is placed over the door of the schoolhouse. 

 A still higher grade of school in this state is 

 designated as a Superior School. In all states 

 where the plan has been adopted it has awak- 

 ened new interest in education on the part of 

 rural communities. 



Consult Betts and Hall's Better Rural Schools; 

 Smith's All the Children of All the People; Bureau 

 of Education Circular, Minimum Health Require- 

 ments for Rural Schools. 



High Schools. The first high school in the 

 United States was the Boston English School, 

 established in 1821. Since the middle of the 

 nineteenth century high schools have become 

 a part of the school systems of all cities and 

 states. The city high school is a part of the 

 city system and is supported by the regular 

 public school fund. In some states the laws 

 permit the organization of township high 

 schools, making the township the unit for taxa- 

 tion and management. Illinois and Indiana 

 have a large number of township high schools, 

 thus bringing these schools to rural communi- 

 ties. In some states state aid is granted high 

 schools which reach a required standard. In 

 such cases they are usually affiliated with the 

 state university. 



For a long time the chief work of the high 

 school consisted in preparing its students for 

 college, but in recent years the work has been 

 broadened and the courses of study have been 

 radically changed to meet modern require- 

 ments. While college preparatory courses are 

 still maintained, other courses designed to pre- 

 pare students for entering upon their chosen 

 vocation have been added. Many high schools 

 now have courses in shorthand, bookkeeping, 

 domestic science and manual training. In 

 many schools courses in elementary agricul- 

 ture have been introduced, and agricultural 

 high schools are becoming common in the most 

 progressive agricultural states (see AGRICUL- 

 TURE, subtitle Agricultural Education). 



Technical high schools are found in large 

 cities. These schools aim to prepare students 

 for various lines of industry, and they are usu- 

 ally equipped with workshops, laboratories and 

 with kitchens for advanced work in domestic 

 science. The consolidation of rural schools has 

 led to the establishing of numerous rural high 

 schools in which the courses of study are 

 adapted to the needs of the students in these 

 communities (see subhead below, Consolidated 

 Schools). Some high schools maintain two- 



year courses for those students who are unable 

 to remain in school to complete the four-year 

 courses. This plan influences many young peo- 

 ple to enter the high school who would other- 

 wise leave school on completing the work of 

 the eighth grade. 



In many states the supervision of high 

 schools is twofold. These institutions are un- 

 der the direct supervision of the principal or 

 city superintendent, as the case may be, and 

 under the indirect supervision of the state uni- 

 versity, which sends a high-school inspector to 

 visit the schools and report their condition and 

 progress. Graduates of schools which maintain 

 the required standard are placed on the ac- 

 credited list, and their graduates are admitted 

 without examination to any college or uni- 

 versity accepting this standard. 



Reports of the Commissioner of Education 

 show that about twenty-five pupils out of every 

 hundred that enrol in the common schools 

 enter high school, and that about fourteen out 

 of every hundred who enter high school com- 

 plete a four-year term. Only one pupil out of 

 120 goes to college. 



Evening Schools. Evening schools have 

 formed a part of the educational system of the 

 leading countries of Europe for more than a 

 century, but the free public evening school in 

 the United States has been developed since 

 1850, although several beginnings were made 

 previous to that date. The purpose of these 

 schools is to enable those who are employed 

 during the day to extend their education. 

 Evening schools now form a part of the public 

 school system of every large city, and they are 

 exerting a strong influence in favor of better 

 education of the men and women who are wage 

 earners. The pupils may be roughly divided 

 into three classes boys and girls who were 

 compelled to leave school before they had com- 

 pleted the elementary course of study, men and 

 women who wish to fit themselves for higher 

 positions, and those who wish to complete some 

 branch of higher education. In general, the 

 pupils are older and more mature than those 

 of the day school. They desire strong, practi- 

 cal work, and the methods employed must 

 necessarily be different from those in the day 

 school. One of the most important lines of 

 work consists in teaching English to foreigners. 

 Evening classes in the technical high schools 

 pursue industrial or commercial subjects. The 

 public evening schools in the United States 

 employ about 15,000 teachers and have an en- 

 rolment of about 700,000 pupils. 



