NATIONAL SCHOOLS. 



" Americans have no Kaiional System of Education," is the 

 slur one often hears in Europe. To this criticism, my ready 

 answer v\^as, we need none and are fully determined to have 

 none. The maintenance and control of schools has never been 

 the aim of our National Grovernment. 



Oar local independence and repugnance to federal interfer- 

 ence and our complete State sovereignty in educational mat- 

 ters, is an enigma to Europeans, being in marked contrast to 

 their traditions and usages. In England, for example, the 

 School Board of any town or city may not select a site, 

 build a school house, or prescribe the amount of a school fee 

 ■without the sanction of the National Educational Department. 

 But the complete decentralization of the American school 

 system, though a point of weakness in European eyes, is, in 

 fact, a prime source of its strength. The fact that our Schools 

 are wholly in the hands of the people, supported by the funds 

 they raise, controlled by officers chosen by them and responsi- 

 ble to them, is a leading element of their prosperity. Though 

 certain bills lately introduced into Congress indicate that a 

 few would w^elcome European centralization and control, the 

 general public sentiment of the country has so long been 

 growing in favor of the unfettered working of State systems, 

 that this has now become our settled policy, which no lobbj^ in 

 Washington can change if it would, and should not if it could. 



If a strong central government be essential for an ignorant 

 nation, an intelligent people can govern themselves. In Amer- 

 ica, the success of schools in each State will depend upon the 

 intelligence and consequent appreciation of its people. One of 

 the worst legacies left by slavery is that of ignorance, and con- 

 sequent indifference, to schools, or rather of insensibility to the 

 evils of illiteracy or to the advantages of education. Shall the 

 admitted school destitution of the South, or of some new 

 Western States, be promptly removed hy federal agency, or 

 more gradually supplanted by developing a proper local public 

 sentiment. In the past, states and nations have been slow in 



