Detroit Branch Opened. The school was opened for boys on June 20, with one principal and one assistant. Four terms a year were provided and the tuition was $5.00 a term or $19.50 for the year. Rev. C. W. Fitch was in charge of the high-school department assisted by E. C. Walker. Andrew Harvie was head of a middle department in classics and mathematics and the rudimentary instruction in the Latin and English languages was given by Wilson Gray. The discipline was strict, but perhaps not too strict, as there is a record of such boyish pranks as entering the school before the dreaded examinations by the Board of Visitors and destroying all records of demerit marks against pupils.3

38

This branch continued in operation until 1842. In August of that year a committee of the Board of Regents reported advisedly against further support of university branches. The Detroit branch continued until October 7, 1842, to allow the teachers' contracts to expire. The property was finally sold for $20,000 by the regents of the university sometime after the Young Men's Society, the first purchaser, had defaulted payment.39

Summary. Starting at the beginning of the period with the unwieldy product of a pedantic mind modeled after the University of France, the state of Michigan, in 1837, laid the foundations of a state-wide public school system under the plan of John D. Pierce. It took a long time to establish and carry out these ideas, for public education cannot advance faster than the people's ability to support it.

While the idea of the office of superintendent of Public Instruction was a reproduction of the Prussian Minister of Education, the system of elementary schools advocated by John D. Pierce, and later generally established, cannot be regarded as a transplanting of the German Volkschule to American soil. The nine-year union school and later the eight-year elementary schools established in Detroit and Michigan were the product of Ameri

3 Michigan Pioneer Collections, Vol. 1, p. 453.

39

Hinsdale, History of the University of Michigan, p. 28.

can needs and were brought from New England, first as a result of John D. Pierce's visit of inspection, and second, through the influence of the men and women from Massachusetts, Connecticut, and New York who settled here in such large numbers after 1825.

Public education was largely legislative in character from 1817 to 1838, and while the private schools and the university branch were being operated there was no efficient system of common schools in Detroit as late as 1838.

CHAPTER VI

THE DISTRICT SYSTEM (1838 TO 1842)

The period from 1825 to 1850, nationally, was marked by a general struggle in the east for free state schools.1 The great wave of democratic feeling had spread over the country and in its wake followed universal manhood suffrage. To secure intelligent government under these conditions it was necessary to educate the people so that they might use the privilege of suffrage to best advantage. Inventions, particularly in the application of steam, had caused an industrial revolution and resulted in the growth of cities. In these cities the educational problem was acute, and the laborer, the statesman, the public spirited men, New Englanders, and good citizens generally, fought to secure free public common school education for all.

2

There were seven phases in this struggle for free, tax-supported, and state-controlled schools.3 These were: (1) the battle for tax support, (2) the elimination of the pauper-school idea, (3) the making of schools entirely free by the elimination of the rate bill, (4) the development of state supervision, (5) the elimination of sectarianism, (6) the extension upward of the system, and (7) the addition of the state university. Those states where New England stock predominated achieved earliest success, for the people already had behind them the traditions of the Massachusetts laws of 1642 and 1647. Dewitt Clinton, in New York; Horace Mann, in Massachusetts; Henry Barnard, in Connecticut; Caleb Mills, of Wabash College; Calvin Stowe, of Cincinnati; Samuel Galloway and Samuel Lewis, of Ohio,

1

Ellwood Cubberley, in his Public Education in the United States, 1919, Chapters V and VI, gives an excellent account of the struggle for free schools. In 1830 there was 6.7% of the population in cities; in 1850, 12.5%, or almost twice as many.

'Cubberley, Public Education in the United States, pp. 128-9.

and John D. Pierce, of Michigan, were some of the leaders in this nation-wide struggle.

The Michigan school system had been organized in 1837 upon the adoption of John D. Pierce's report.

Institutes for teachers and educational associations had hardly yet been organized, except perhaps in a very experimental way in one or two states; but the public-spirited men mentioned above were devoting a large share of their time and energies to systematic lecturing tours through various sections of Michigan. Horace Mann, Dr. Mayo, Henry Barnard, and others, were active in this good work, and their labors resulted in the development of a general knowledge which the people gained regarding their school interests. Among the men who travelled widely throughout New England and New York was Prof. J. Orville Taylor, editor of an educational monthly, The Common School Assistant, published at Albany, N. Y., and in addition, the manager of a schoolbook publishing concern called, The American Common School Union. Mr. Taylor visited Detroit in June, 1839, and from there started on a lecturing tour throughout the southern part of the state.

In the number of his magazine for September, 1839, he gave a very interesting description of his visit to Ypsilanti, June 10, 1839.

"This young state [Michigan] has burst into existence with all the suddenness and beauty of an opening flower in a tropical climate; and although she is not yet the Empire State,' she is destined to be the 'Educating State.' Michigan has a larger school fund in prospective, and a better school law in operation than either of her sister states. Perceiving these important features in a new state, I had long felt a desire to visit the people and the schools of Michigan. On the 9th of June, I had the privilege of addressing a large audience in the State House at Detroit, and at the close of this meeting, through the earnest solicitations of the Hon. C. C. Trowbridge and others, agreed to lecture in the following prominent places of the state: Ypsilanti, Ann Arbor, Jackson, Marshall, Kalamazoo, St. Joseph, Niles, Edwardsburgh, White Pigeon, Centerville, Coldwater, Jonesville, Tecumseh, Monroe, and Detroit.

"The first place to visit was Ypsilanti. This flourishing village is 15 years old and already numbers 2,000 inhabitants. It contains four excellent schools, two district, and two private schools.

"Mr. D. Hammond, the teacher of one of the district schools, is an experienced, well-informed, competent instructor of youth. His school numbers 65. The external appearance of the schoolhouse is pleasant; but the rooms are not ventilated and the desks and seats are badly constructed. The lower part of the windows was too near the floor, permitting the children to look into the street; the ceiling was so low that it gave the room a close cramped appearance.

"A school room should have a ceiling at least fifteen feet high; the bad air could then rise above the children's heads, and a good sized window would not extend so far down as to permit the children to look through it. The upper sash of the window should drop instead of raising the lower one. After mentioning this construction of schoolhouses, and the above atmospheric principles to Mr. H., he remarked: 'I have frequently requested my employers to make the alterations you propose, but they think it downright folly, and I cannot get them to do anything.' "This did not surprise me, for on a certain occasion I took no little pains to point out to a parent these improvements in a schoolroom, when the poor man (trustee) very suspiciously looked me in the face and said, 'I guess that's some speculation of yours to make something out of us; we don't believe in this changing-it's all got up to make money.'

"I remarked to him that I was not a carpenter, and that he only could make anything by the proposed alterations, 'But,' he said, 'we don't want ventilators, as you call them, for they'll let the cold air down upon the school.'....

"Mr. Hammond receives from each pupil two dollars per quarter, and all things considered, has a school which does himself and the village great credit. We were glad to learn that Mr. H. makes the business his study and profession for life.

"Mr. Melvin, the teacher of the other district school, is a young man of good attainments, and one who thinks for himself. Will make an excellent teacher if properly encouraged and rewarded. Has 60 scholars. The schoolhouse is of brick material and delightfully located in a shady grove.

"I was glad to see back pieces to the seats which his small pupils occupied. The ceiling of his room, however, was too low, and the air impure from a want of ventilators.

"The seats and desks in both of the district schools could be improved essentially. The long seats, permitting children to sit side by side, and to look each other in the face, should give place to single seats, all facing the teacher.

"Miss Clark's private school numbers 35 young ladies, who are not pleasantly accommodated in a small room in a private dwelling. The citizens of Ypsilanti should provide Miss C's. school with a more suitable room. I found in the school a globe, an orrery, a good set of diagrams; also a small philosophical apparatus.