ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

In December, 1919, the Survey Committee of the Detroit Board of Education requested that a history of public education in Detroit be prepared before all of the earlier records of school activities had been dispersed or lost. In March, 1920, a general outline plan for such a history was prepared and presented for approval. In the main it followed the plan used in the preparation of this work, though some of the details required rearrangement as the study progressed. Upon approval, work was immediately started. Research showed that the field was a wide one, but that documentary sources of the earlier times were incomplete and, in some cases, very fragmentary. The chairman of the Survey Committee was informed of this fact and it was stated that at least three years would be required for the completion of the task, because pressing current activities necessitated the search for material during the evenings, week-ends, and vacation periods. All of the sources were not available in Detroit and several months of work in the University of Michigan library were necessary to secure essential data.

A class in the history of education in Detroit was organized in the evening session of Detroit Teachers College in the fall of 1920 and 1921, and it is due in a large measure to the interested and able work of the members that the second portion of this history was possible. Their contributions are noted in the bibliography. These groups included: Herman Browe, Burton Barns, Agnes Weidman, Jean Logan, Arthur M. Cornwall, Mary R. Pringle, Irvin Van Tassell, Stewart Baxter, Dorothy O'Connor, George R. Berkaw, Grace Woolfenden, Clara Stoddard, Fred Moe, Fanny Fletcher, Bertha Giffen, Alice Metzner, Abigail Lennox, Janet Gourlay, Grace Mochlman, Anna Engel, Lena M. Shaw, Madge Cohen, Erta Curtis, Irene Sullivan, and Gertrude Fleming. George Brown, former secretary of the Board of Education, contributed valuable notes of certain periods.

The cooperation and kindly criticism of Frank Cody, Charles L. Spain, Allan S. Whitney, Oliver G. Frederick, Stuart A. Courtis, Homer W. Anderson, George L. Jackson, Charles Scott Berry, Wales C. Martindale, Charles E. Chadsey, and Miss Regenia Heller, have been invaluable.

The graphic work was done by H. J. Kaufmann.

FOREWORD

The story of the development of the Detroit public schools since their inception in 1842 is as fascinating as any epoch in political or economic history. The far reaching influence of public education upon American life and institutions makes such a study valuable to the average man as well as to the professional educator.

City school administrators under the heavy pressure of daily tasks that must be accomplished within definite time limits have had little opportunity to write the story of the past. Such histories have yet to be developed. Detroit is fortunate in being able to bring together the achievements of the past before even the fragmentary records now existing have been lost and in so doing is making a very valuable contribution to the literature of public school history and administration.

(Signed) FRANK CODY, Superintendent of Schools.

INTRODUCTION

The true investigator of present day educational theory and practice must turn his eyes backward along the courses of their evolution. There is a strong tendency among those who are to be the educational leaders of tomorrow towards the acquisition of fuller experience in the field of educational history and philosophy. And particularly is this true with respect to the history of education in this country and also with respect to a philosophy which shall be fundamental to education in a democracy.

However no adequate history of education in the United States has been written. Painstaking investigations of state and local educational development must precede any such history and all too little of this type of work has been done. The development of education in New England has been traced more thoroughly than that of any other section of the country through the availability of the published records of many of the New England towns. This New England practice has been exceedingly influential in shaping educational thinking in all sections other than the South.

Doctor Moehlman's "Public Education in Detroit" is a very real contribution to this greater history of education in the United States. In its broad outlines the educational history of Detroit from its earliest beginnings to the present time, when it is among the foremost cities of the country in its provisions for public school education, is typical of the development of education in other American cities. Likewise it expresses in a concise and concrete form, one easily comprehended by students of education, the historical growth and development of education throughout the entire country since the foundation of Detroitorganization, methods of teaching, growth of the curriculum under both American and European influences, changing types of

school buildings, and powers and duties of the city school superintendent. It also contains an interesting account of the methods of administration of several of the early school superintendents which were strictly typical of their times.

The study is a stimulating presentation and interpretation of facts. It should not only broaden the educational horizon of every reader but at the same time it should point the way and give a method and an inspiration for further work of a similar character. It is written in a charming style and with a degree of virility and confidence that indicates at once Doctor Moehlman's perfect mastery of his sources.

Ann Arbor, Mich.

October 1, 1925

A. S. WHITNEY