The Average Price Per
Annum Of A Child's Schooling Throughout These Schools In Boston Is
About 3l. For Each.
To the higher schools any boy or girl may
attain without any expense, and the education is probably as good
as can be given, and as far advanced.
The only question is,
whether it is not advanced further than may be necessary. Here, as
at New York, I was almost startled by the amount of knowledge
around me, and listened, as I might have done to an examination in
theology among young Brahmins. When a young lad explained in my
hearing all the properties of the different levers as exemplified
by the bones of the human body, I bowed my head before him in
unaffected humility. We, at our English schools, never got beyond
the use of those bones which he described with such accurate
scientific knowledge. In one of the girls' schools they were
reading Milton, and when we entered were discussing the nature of
the pool in which the devil is described as wallowing. The
question had been raised by one of the girls. A pool, so called,
was supposed to contain but a small amount of water, and how could
the devil, being so large, get into it? Then came the origin of
the word pool - from "palus," a marsh, as we were told, some
dictionary attesting to the fact, and such a marsh might cover a
large expanse. The "Palus Maeotis" was then quoted. And so we
went on till Satan's theory of political liberty,
"Better to reign in hell than serve in heaven,"
was thoroughly discussed and understood. These girls of sixteen
and seventeen got up one after another and gave their opinions on
the subject - how far the devil was right, and how far he was
manifestly wrong. I was attended by one of the directors or
guardians of the schools; and the teacher, I thought, was a little
embarrassed by her position. But the girls themselves were as easy
in their demeanor as though they were stitching handkerchiefs at
home.
It is impossible to refrain from telling all this, and from making
a little innocent fun out of the superexcellencies of these
schools; but the total result on my mind was very greatly in their
favor. And indeed the testimony came in both ways. Not only was I
called on to form an opinion of what the men and women would become
from the education which was given to the boys and girls, but also
to say what must have been the education of the boys and girls from
what I saw of the men and women. Of course it will be understood
that I am not here speaking of those I met in society or of their
children, but of the working people - of that class who find that a
gratuitous education for their children is needful, if any
considerable amount of education is to be given. The result is to
be seen daily in the whole intercourse of life. The coachman who
drives you, the man who mends your window, the boy who brings home
your purchases, the girl who stitches your wife's dress, - they all
carry with them sure signs of education, and show it in every word
they utter.
It will of course be understood that this is, in the separate
States, a matter of State law; indeed, I may go further, and say
that it is, in most of the States, a matter of State constitution.
It is by no means a matter of Federal constitution. The United
States as a nation takes no heed of the education of its people.
All that is left to the judgment of the separate States. In most
of the thirteen original States provision is made in the written
constitution for the general education of the people; but this is
not done in all. I find that it was more frequently done in the
Northern or free-soil States than in those which admitted slavery,
as might have been expected. In the constitutions of South
Carolina and Virginia I find no allusion to the public provision
for education; but in those of North Carolina and Georgia it is
enjoined. The forty-first section of the constitution for North
Carolina enjoins that "schools shall be established by the
legislature for the convenient instruction of youth, with such
salaries to the masters, paid by the public, as may enable them to
instruct at LOW PRICES" - showing that the intention here was to
assist education, and not provide it altogether gratuitously. I
think that provision for public education is enjoined in the
constitutions of all the States admitted into the Union since the
first Federal knot was tied except in that of Illinois. Vermont
was the first so admitted, in 1791; and Vermont declares that "a
competent number of schools ought to be maintained in each town for
the convenient instruction of youth." Ohio was the second, in
1802; and Ohio enjoins that "the General Assembly shall make such
provisions by taxation or otherwise as, with the income arising
from the school trust fund, will secure a thorough and efficient
system of common schools throughout the State; but no religions or
other sect or sects shall ever have any exclusive right or control
of any part of the school funds of this State." In Indiana,
admitted in 1816, it is required that "the General Assembly shall
provide by law for a general and uniform system of common schools."
Illinois was admitted next, in 1818; but the constitution of
Illinois is silent on the subject of education. It enjoins,
however, in lieu of this, that no person shall fight a duel or send
a challenge! If he do, he is not only to be punished, but to be
deprived forever of the power of holding any office of honor or
profit in the State. I have no reason, however, for supposing that
education is neglected in Illinois, or that dueling has been
abolished.
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