UNITED STATES (EDUCATION). 



made to take a direct personal interest in the busi- 

 ness of education, and to carry it on in the way 

 best suited to supply the general wants. The 

 people, in their town-meetings, vote the money, by 

 their committees spend the money, and by their 

 children get the benefits of the outlay : the whole 

 management of the schools is directly in their hands. 

 Another great advantage is, that the schools are 

 supported by a tax upon property, although this re- 

 mark does not apply strictly to all the states, in 

 some of which there is a public fund for bearing a 

 certain proportion of the expense. But every where 

 in New England, except in Connecticut, they are 

 supported by a tax on the property of all. It is 

 therefore an arrangement eminently beneficial to the 

 poorer classes of the community. In most towns, 

 one fifth of the inhabitants pay at least one half of 

 the tax, and, instead of sending one half of the 

 scholars, do not send one sixth. Of course the 

 school tax is substantially a tax on the rich to edu- 

 cate the children of the poor ; and it is thus equally 

 beneficial in its operation upon both parties. The 

 poor have the promise of the law and the constitu- 

 tion that their children shall be educated, and thus 

 preserved from the greatest temptation to crime : 

 the rich are assured that they shall live in a com- 

 munity where universal education shall keep the 

 foundations of society safe, and afford them a greater 

 personal security than the law can offer. In this 

 way the system of free schools, as practically carried 

 into operation in New England, is to be regarded 

 as a great moral police, to preserve a decent, orderly 

 and respectable population ; to teach men, from 

 their earliest childhood, their duties and their rights ; 

 and, by giving the whole mass of the community a 

 sense of character and a general intelligence, make 

 them understand the value of justice, order and 

 moral worth, and more anxious to maintain them 

 than the law itself can be. The means of improve- 

 ment being thus given to all, we find daily examples, 

 in the United States, of men raised to the most 

 commanding influence from the poorer classes of 

 the obscurest villages, who, but for the opportunity 

 offered by the free schools, at their own doors, to 

 make the first step in their career, would never 

 have risen from the humble station in which they 

 were born. The following remarks are from an 

 article in a number of the Quarterly Journal (pub- 

 lished in London), written by professor Ticknor of 

 Boston, United States : " This system of univer- 

 sal education has now, therefore, become, to a re- 

 markable degree, the basis of the popular character 

 which marks the two millions of people in New 

 England. The laws, indeed, differ in the six states, 

 and have been altered in each, from time to time, 

 since their first enactment ; but all the states have 

 laws on the subject : the leading principles are the 

 same in all of them ; and the modes of applying them, 

 and the results obtained, are not materially different. 

 Indeed, in almost every part of these six states, 

 whatever may be the injunctions of the law, the 

 popular demand for education is so much greater, 

 that the legal requisitions are generally or con- 

 stantly exceeded. The most striking instance of 

 this is, perhaps, to be found in the city of Boston, 

 where the requisitions of the law could be fulfilled 

 by an expenditure of three thousand dollars an- 

 nually, but where from sixty to seventy thousand 

 are every year applied to the purpose. And yet 

 multitudes of the poor and small towns in the in- 

 terior show no less zeal on the subject, and in pro- 

 p^^tion to their means, make no less exertion. The 



mode in which this system of popular education is 

 carried into effect is perfectly simple, and is one 

 principal cause of its practical efficiency. The New 

 England states are all divided into territorial com- 

 munities called towns, which have corporate privi- 

 leges and duties, and whose affairs are managed by 

 a sort of committee annually chosen by the inhabi- 

 tants, called selectmen. These towns are of unequal 

 size ; but in the agricultural portions of the coun- 

 try, which contain four fifths of the people, they 

 are generally five or six square miles; and upon 

 them, in their corporate capacity, rests the duty of 

 making provision for the support of free schools. 

 This duty is fulfilled by them, in the first place, by 

 voting, at a meeting of all the taxable male inhabi- 

 tants over twenty-one years old, a tax on property 

 of all kinds to support schools for the current year, 

 always as large as the law requires, and often 

 larger ; or, if this is neglected by any town, it i- ><> 

 surely complained of to the grand jury by those 

 dissatisfied inhabitants, who want education for 

 their children, that instances of such neglect are 

 almost unknown. The next thing is to spend 

 wisely and effectually the money thus raised. In 

 all but the smallest towns, one school, at least, is 

 kept through the whole year, in which Latin, 

 Greek, the lower branches of mathematics, and 

 whatever goes to constitute a common English 

 education in reading, writing, geography, history, 

 &c., are taught under the immediate superintend- 

 ence of the selectmen, or of a special committee 

 appointed for the purpose. This, however, would 

 not be carrying education near enough to the doors 

 of the people, in agricultural districts, to enable 

 them fully to avail themselves of it, especially the 

 poorer classes and the younger children. To meec 

 this difficulty, all the towns are divided into dis- 

 tricts, varying in number, in each town, from four 

 to twelve, or even more, according to its necessi- 

 ties and convenience. Each district has its district 

 school committee, and receives a part of the tax 

 imposed for education ; sometimes in proportion to 

 the population of the district, but oftener to the 

 number of children to be educated. The committee 

 of the district determine where the school shall be 

 kept, select its teacher, choose the books that shall 

 be used, or delegate that power to the instructor, 

 and, in short, are responsible, in all particulars, for 

 the faithful fulfilment of the trust committed to 

 them ; the general system being that a school is 

 kept in each district during the long winter months, 

 when the children of the farmers are unoccupied, 

 by a male teacher capable of instructing in reading, 

 writing, arithmetic, English grammar, geography 

 and history; while in the same school-house, during 

 the summer months, schools are kept by women, 

 to instruct the smaller children in knowledge even 

 more elementary. In this way, for the population 

 of New England, consisting of two millions of souls, 

 not less than from ten to twelve thousand free 

 schools are open every year, or, on an average, one 

 school to every two hundred souls a proportion 

 undoubtedly quite sufficient, and larger than would 

 be necessary, if the population were not in many 

 parts very much dispersed." 2. The common or 

 free schools give instruction in the elements of an 

 English education (reading, writing, arithmetic, 

 geography), and in the larger towns teach Latin 

 and Greek. The public legislation goes no further 

 in its requisition, but has generally stood ready to 

 assist the people, whenever they have shown them- 

 selves disposed to go beyond this point. This is 



