The Number Of Teachers Required For These
Schools Is Very Great, As The Daily Attendance In Two Of Them Exceeds
2000.
The education given is so very superior, and habits of order and
propriety are so admirably inculcated, that it is not uncommon to see the
children of wealthy storekeepers side by side with those of working
mechanics.
In each school there is one large assembly-room, capable of
accommodating from 500 to 1000 children, and ten or twelve capacious
class-rooms. Order is one important rule, and, that it may be acted upon,
there is no overcrowding - the pupils being seated at substantial mahogany
desks only holding two.
The instruction given comprises all the branches of a liberal education,
with the exception of languages. There is no municipal community out of
America in which the boon of a first-rate education is so freely offered
to all as in the city of New York. There is no child of want who may not
freely receive an education which will fit him for any office in his
country. The common school is one of the glories of America, and every
citizen may be justly proud of it. It brings together while in a pliant
condition the children of people of different origins; and besides
diffusing knowledge among them, it softens the prejudices of race and
party, and carries on a continual process of assimilation.
The Board of Education of New York has lately thrown open several of these
schools in the evening, and with very beneficial results. The number of
pupils registered last year was 9313. Of these, 3400 were above the age of
16 and under 21, and 1100 were above the age of 21. These evening-schools
entailed an additional expense of 17,563 dollars; the whole expenditure
for school purposes in the city being 430,982 dollars. In the ward and
evening schools of New York, 133,000 individuals received instruction.
Each ward, or educational district, elects 2 commissioners, 2 inspectors,
and 8 trustees. The duties of the inspectors are very arduous, as the
examinations are frequent and severe.
The crowning educational advantage offered by this admirable system is the
Free Academy. This academy receives its pupils solely from the common
schools. Every person presenting himself as a candidate must be more than
13 years of age, and, having attended a common school for 12 months, he
must produce a certificate from the principal that he has passed a good
examination in spelling, reading, writing, English grammar, arithmetic,
geography, elementary book-keeping, history of the United States, and
algebra. This institution extends to the pupils in the common schools the
advantage of a free education in those higher departments of learning
which cannot be acquired without considerable expense in any other
college. The yearly examination of candidates for admission takes place
immediately after the common school examinations in July. There are at
present nearly 600 students under the tuition of 14 professors, and as
many tutors as may be required. The course of study extends over a period
of 5 years, and is very complete and severe. Owing to the principle
adopted in their selection, the pupils, representing every social and
pecuniary grade in society, present a very high degree of scholarship and
ability. In this academy the vestiges of antagonism between the higher and
lower classes are swept away. Indeed, the poor man will feel that he has a
greater interest in sustaining this educational system than the rich,
because he can only obtain through it those advantages for his children
which the money of the wealthy can procure from other sources. He will be
content with his daily toil, happy in the thought that, by the wise
provision of his government, the avenues to fame, preferment, and wealth,
are opened as freely to his children as to those of the richest citizen in
the land.
In order to secure a supply of properly qualified teachers, the Board of
Education has established a normal school, which numbers about 400 pupils.
Most of these are assistant-teachers in the common schools, and attend the
normal school on Saturdays, to enable themselves to obtain further
attainments, and higher qualifications for their profession.
Under this system of popular education, the average cost per scholar for 5
years, including books, stationery, fuel, and all other expenses, is 7
dollars 2 cents per annum. This system of education is followed in nearly
all the States; and while it reflects the highest credit on America, it
contrasts strangely with the niggard plan pursued in England, where so
important a thing as the education of the people depends almost entirely
on precarious subscriptions and private benevolence.
With a gratuitous and comprehensive educational system, it may excite some
surprise that the citizens of New York and other of the populous cities
are compelled to supplement the common schools with those for the
shoeless, the ragged, and the vicious, very much on the plan of our Scotch
and English ragged-schools. Already the large cities of the New World are
approximating to the condition of those in the Old, in producing a
subsidence or deposit of the drunken, the dissolute, the vicious, and the
wretched. With parents of this class, education for their offspring is
considered of no importance, and the benevolent founders of these schools
are compelled to offer material inducements to the children to attend, in
the shape of food and clothing. At these schools, in place of the cleanly,
neat, and superior appearance of the children in the common schools, dirt,
rags, shoeless feet, and pallid, vicious, precocious countenances are to
be seen. Nothing destroys so effectually the external distinguishing
peculiarities of race as the habit of evil. There is a uniformity of
expression invariably produced, which is most painful. These children are
early taught to look upon virtue only as a cloak to be worn by the rich.
This dangerous and increasing class in New York is composed almost
entirely of foreign immigrants.
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