ing system, the methods of accrediting schools, and the methods of certificating students to university authorities, there remains to ask what is the effect of this system upon the university, upon the high schools, and upon the educational system of the State as a whole. From the standpoint of the University of Michigan, two features are worthy of consideration: First, the effect of the system upon scholarship, and, secondly, its effect upon attendance. As to scholarship, little better can be done than to summarize a report made by a committee of the faculty appointed to investigate the standings of students admitted on certificate as compared with those admitted on examination for the first nine years of the existence of the accrediting system. This committee made a careful study of the examination records of all the members of the freshmen classes for the period named, and tabulated the results in such manner as to show separately the standings of those admitted on certificate and those admitted on examination-a study involving more than 1,000 students and more than 10,000 examinations. The committee refrained from examining the records subsequent to the freshman year, in the belief that one year in the university ought to obliterate the main distinctions arising from differences in preparatory schools. From the tables thus framed and classified the committee computed the percentages of scholarships from each class by dividing the number of examinations successfully passed by the number that, by order of the faculty, ought to have been passed. The following are ths results obtained: Total number of students admitted on certificate. The percentage of scholarship ... .... The total number of students admitted on examination 470 88.91 574 87.22 It will be observed that the committee found a slight balance in favor of admission by certificate, showing that the university was the gainer, rather than the loser, by the change. Unfortunately no systematic investigations have been made since that time. It is our firm belief, however, that a like investigation to-day would not result to the disadvantage of the certificated student. As to the effect of the certificate system on the attendance at the university, there is not the slightest doubt in the minds of any conversant with its workings but that it greatly increases it. This is the unanimous verdict of high-school and university authorities, of the students themselves, and of high-school inspectors. It follows as a natural consequence from shortening and smoothing the pathway leading from the high school to the university and from bringing them into closer union and sympathy with each other. Two illustrations from many: A little more than a year ago the inspector responded to an invitation to examine the high school in the town of A. He was informed by the superintendent that there was no one preparing to enter higher institutions and no sentiment for such preparation, but that he desired affiliated relationship with the university for the purpose of creating and arousing such an interest. The school was examined and accredited in the usual way. This very act seemed to arouse such ambitions, and to open the door to such undreamed possibilities that three students entered the university in the fall and others went elsewhere. Somewhat less than a year ago the high school in the town of B. was reexamined and rejected after having been on our accredited list for many years. Six students who were preparing to enter the university on certificate were thus deprived of the privilege and could now enter only on examinations. Of these six, one came and was successful; the other five sought institutions of lower grade. The school has now been reorganized and has made application for reexamination. But it is from the standpoint of the high schools that the crowning virtue of the accrediting system is most marked, a fact wholly unrecognized and unappre ciated by the great majority of those unacquainted with the practical workings of the system. It has been deemed best, therefore, to point out definitely and specifically wherein the accrediting system reflects upon and exalts the high schools, even at the cost of overlapping and repetition. 1. Its influence upon standards.—Before a school can be accredited it must offer all the branches required at the university for admission; it must pursue them for certain periods of time, the minimum of which is specified; it must give suitable opportunities for library and laboratory work, and it must attain a certain fixed degree of thoroughness, vitality, and spirit of scholarship. The inspector comes, backed by all the authority and influence of a great university, examines these standards according to his definitely fixed ideals, and reports back to the proper authorities. Upon this report hang in a large measure the reputation, the influence, and the prestige of the school, and therefore a favorable outcome is highly prized. Inspectors are frequently requested by superintendents to examine their schools unofficially for the sole purpose of aiding them in marking and bettering their standards. 2. Its influence upon the teaching force.-After the inspector has examined a high school, as heretofore outlined, comes the conference. Here he explains to the superintendent or principal the conditions as he sees them, commending the good and pointing out the bad. He explains the theories of the university, changes in requirements for admission, and plans in operation in the best high schools, and he suggests ways and means for correcting deficiencies and laying solid foundations for scholarship. He advises also concerning the organization, the methods of discipline, the courses of study, library and laboratory facilities, text-books, and supplies. The inspector listens in turn to a statement of their difficulties, fears, hopes, and ambitions, and aids to the best of his ability in their proper solution. He meets the teachers if need be and gives them opportunity to ask for his criticisms, suggestions, and help, an opportunity of which they freely avail themselves. If the standards of the school are only moderately satisfactory or are too low to warrant establishment of accredited relationship, it is placed on the “nursing list" and reexamined the following year. If conducted frankly and sympathetically the conference hour can be made productive of immeasurable benefit. 3. Its influence upon pupils.—The influence of the accrediting system upon pupils has already been indicated. There needs to be added, however, that the opening of the university door to all properly accredited students is not the only potent influence at work among them. The repeated visits of the university inspector are of scarcely less importance. They arouse among the pupils of the average high school a spirit of inquiry concerning colleges and universities; they set them to thinking and to talking about going to college; they intensify their desires and stimulate their ambitions to make the trial. The very fact that a great educational institution will send an official to them adds dignity, importance, and seriousness of purpose to the work of the school and to the work of life. The pupils often ask questions concerning the university, the expenses of living, the opportunities for self-help, the methods of securing rooms, and of registering. These the inspector answers individually, in groups, or in a short address before the school, offering suggestions, encouragement, help. 4. Its influence upon the board of education and the communities.-The boards of education and the communities always desire the highest possible efficiency of their schools, and they have come to measure this efficiency by the recognition the schools receive at the hands of the university. They therefore cordially invite the university inspector, earnestly seek his opinions and advice, and give serious consideration to all his recommendations. Indeed, so thoroughly have they come to rely upon the university to mark the efficiency of their schools that I do not exaggerate when I say that there are few places in Michigan where a superintend ent or high-school principal can long maintain his position if accredited relationship, once established with the university, should be repudiated on reexamination. As to the effects of the accrediting system upon the educational system of the State as a whole, I quote from the annual report of President Angell to the board of regents after an experiment of ten years. He says: This innovation on old customs, like all innovations, and chiefly because it was an innovation, was met at once with severe criticisms, and especially by some distinguished educators in the older colleges, fearing, as was alleged, that such a system would bring down the standards of colleges. Experience, however, has proved that there was no ground for fear, except that the thing was new and not practiced in the mother colleges. Two facts are to be noted among the results: (1) The standard of preparation in the high schools, if affected at all, has been elevated rather than lowered; (2) the State system of education has become a reality. It is obvious that there can be no system, properly so called, without an actual and living connection and communication among its members. By calling for the visiting or examining committee of the faculty the high schools have been brought into that vital connection with the university which makes them parts of a natural organism and, so far as concerns our schools, our State system no longer exists merely on paper. No one can look into the condition of these schools without feeling satisfied that this connection has had the effect both to animate their students to more earnest effort and to encourage and strengthen the teachers, while it has brought about a more perfect unity of plan and method in the schools of the State in general. In short, it gives to our schools, otherwise isolated, a bond of union and a center of life. We are convinced, as the result of an experiment of ten years, that this cooperative plan, especially if entered into by the few remaining schools, and thus perfected, will give a character of consistency, solidity, strength, and efficiency to the educational work of the State, which will leave nothing further to be desired but the uninterrupted operation and movement of the system. At that time there were 16 schools upon the accredited list; to-day the number has swelled to 250. In a recent interview President Angell, in the light of the twenty years that have passed since that report was written, emphatically confirms the position there taken. He realizes that the accrediting system has its limitations the same as the examination or any other system; but that, taken as a whole, it is freest from objections, is the most productive, and the most logical of all systems yet devised. One criticism presents itself. The admission of properly accredited students to the university without examination tends to belittle examinations as an educational factor. This, however, is incidental rather than essential, and the university is gradually awakening to the necessity of setting the stamp of its disapproval upon it. In conclusion permit me to say that the colleges and universities of the territory covered by the North Central Association of Colleges and Secondary Schools are perfecting a plan looking toward a general recognition of the best high schools in the several States. When this plan is completed and put in execution, it will not be unlike this association in the breadth and uniformity of the work attempted. CHAPTER XIII. MISCELLANEOUS EDUCATIONAL TOPICS. Contents.-The first American public school (W. A. Mowry).—Supervision in Massachusetts.-School supervision (C. A. Brodeur).-George Charles Holls (Henry Barnard).—The Brothers of the Christian schools in the United States.-Educational tendencies, desirable and otherwise (Andrew S. Draper).-Rural school libraries (Henry Sabin).-The Yale bicentennial celebration. The kindergarten ideal of nurture (Susan E. Blow).-Joseph Le Conte (S. B. Christy).-Addresses at the Johns Hopkins University celebration.-Addresses at the installation of President Butler, of Columbia University.-Free text-books: Benefits, objections, and cost.-Technical education in Germany (V. C. Alderson).-Report on drawing in Western normal schools. THE FIRST AMERICAN PUBLIC SCHOOL.4 By WILLIAM A. MOWRY, Ph. D., Hyde Park, Mass. We have now fairly entered upon the twentieth century. The United States of America as a nation is rapidly making important history. The events of the last year, of the last decade, of the last half century will hereafter play a conspicuous part in the annals of the world. To-day our territory extends from the Atlantic to the Pacific, covering the largest and most desirable portions of the north temperate zone in North America, to which we have added Alaska and our recently acquired islands between the Tropics in both the Atlantic and Pacific oceans. In less than three centuries from the first permanent English settlement in North America we have grown from English colonies to independence, and have established a government-a compound republic-which for a century and a quarter has steadily grown, increasing in territory, in population, in the intelligence of its people, in industry, and in wealth, until to-day the Stars and Stripes float over nearly 4,000,000 square miles of territory, and under our flag are protected the interests of nearly, if not quite, 85,000,000 people. The broadening of our industries, the accumulation of wealth, and the everincreasing growth of general intelligence are believed by many to be without parallel in the history of any of the nations of the world. Without doubt this Republic is to-day at least one of the strongest, most powerful, most successful of the nations. Doubtless many causes have conspired to produce these great results. To understand present conditions we must go back to remote causes. To comprehend the growth, development, uplift of human society in these modern times we must go back to the great Reformation and to the Renaissance in Europe in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. We must give attention to the wresting of arbitrary power from sovereign rulers. We must read the history of the Anglo-Saxon race. We must have respect for those who secured Magna Charta from King John. We must study the establishment of the Protestant Church in England and the history of the English Bible. But perhaps more than all these, we must read carefully and attentively the story of the English Puritans. To under a Reprinted from Education, May, 1901. See in this connection an article by Dr. George Gary Bush entitled "The first common schools of New England," in the Annual Report for 1896-87, vol. 2, pp. 1165-1186. |