High School

that part of a system of public instruction that follows the common school or grades. The first secondary schools of America were private academies. They were college preparatory schools. The typical course contained Latin, Greek, French, English, mathematics, science, history, etc., not essentially different from the academy of today, save that the subjects were in an undeveloped condition. Noted academies were opened in Philadelphia in 1751 and at Andover in 1778. The earliest public secondary schools in America were known as grammar schools. These schools made a specialty of the grammar of Latin, whence the name, and were chiefly preparatory to college. They were general throughout the colonies and were particularly strong in New England.

The first public school organized as an extension of the common school system, not as a college preparatory school, was the Boston English Classical School, afterward known as the English High School. It was founded in 1821. The latter name was employed in 1824. The school committee to which the town meeting had referred the subject for investigation expressed itself as of the opinion that the branches of knowledge taught in the grammar schools, that is to say, the grammar grades, "are not sufficiently extensive nor otherwise calculated to bring the powers of the mind into operation nor to qualify a youth to fill usefully and respectably many of those stations, both public and private, in which he may be placed." The committee made a specific recommendation for the opening of a new school and presented the following plan of organization:

1. That the term of time for pursuing the course of studies proposed be three years. 2. That the schools be divided into three classes and one year be assigned to the studies of each class. 3. That the age of admission be not less than twelve years. 4. That the school be for boys exclusively. 5. That candidates for admission be proposed on a given day annually; but scholars with suitable qualifications may be admitted at any intermediate time to an advanced standing. 6. That candidates for admission shall be subject to a strict examination, in such manner as the school committee may direct, to ascertain their qualifications according to these rules. 7. That it be required of every candidate, to qualify him for admission, that he be well acquainted with reading, writing, English grammar in all its branches, and arithmetic as far as simple proportion. 8. That it be required of the masters and ushers, as a necessary qualification, that they shall have been regularly educated at some university.

The course of study of this first American high school was:

First Class. Composition, reading from the most approved authors, exercises in criticism, composing a critical analysis of the language, grammar, and style of the best English authors, their errors and beauties, declamation, geography, arithmetic continued.

Second Class. Composition, reading, exercises in criticism, declamation, algebra, ancient and modern history and chronology, logic, geometry, plane trigonometry and its application to mensuration of heights and distances, navigation, surveying, mensuration of surfaces and solids, forensic discussions.

Third Class. Composition, exercises in criticism, declamation, mathematics, logic, history, particularly that of the United States, natural philosophy, including astronomy, moral and political philosophy.

In 1825, in New York, a high school for boys was opened, and during the next year a school for girls; but there was a strong sentiment that the public should not be called upon to pay for this stage of education, that high schools were interfering with academies; so the New York City high schools were discontinued and were not revived until 1897. High schools were opened at Philadelphia, 1838; Baltimore, 1839; Charleston, South Carolina, 1839; Providence, co-educational, 1843. The first St. Louis high school was organized in 1853; the first in Chicago in 1856. Michigan was the first state to establish a system of public instruction in which the high school was assigned a definite position intermediate between the common school or grades and the state university. Other states adopted the same plan. Beginning about 1860 the number of high schools increased rapidly. There were in 1870, 160 high schools; in 1880, 800; in 1890, 2,526; in 1900, 6,005; in 1905, 7,576. The natural consequence was that the high school took over the college preparatory work of the academy, and for decades lost sight of its original function, namely to provide advanced instruction for students not intending to go to college.

The proper sphere of the high school was defined well by the Committee of Ten appointed by the National Educational Association which reported in 1893:

The secondary schools of the United States, taken as a whole, do not exist for the purpose of preparing boys and girls for colleges. Only an insignificant percentage of the graduates of these schools go to colleges or scientific schools. Their main function is to prepare for the duties of life that small proportion of all children of the country--a proportion small in numbers, but very important to the welfare of the nation-who show themselves able to profit by an education prolonged to the eighteenth year, and whose parents are able to support them while they remain so long at school. . . . A secondary-school program intended for national use must therefore be made for those children whose education is not to be pursued beyond the high school. The preparation of a few pupils for college or scientific school should in the ordinary secondary school be the incidental, and not the principal object.

Aside from laboratory fees exacted in a few schools to cover breakage of glassware, tuition is free. A few schools are endowed. In states having a school fund at interest high schools share in a per capita apportionment of a few dollars annually. A few states subsidize the high schools by a special grant out of the state treasury. Minnesota, for instance, gives (1910) $1,750 direct bonus to each of over 200 high schools; but ordinarily the American high school is maintained by direct taxes levied on the assessed property of the city, township, or county, constituting the high school district.

Co-education is general. Separate schools for boys and for girls are maintained in some of the Eastern cities. There is a growing sentiment in favor of assigning girls and boys somewhat different subjects, but public opinion favors co-education. The ordinary course is four years in length. Attempts have been made to begin high school work two years earlier than is the custom. A number of cities have experimented with high schools beginning at the completion of the sixth grade, but the plan has not met general approval. Much has been said of extending the high school, German fashion, to the beginning of the college Junior year; but still the four-year high school course prevails. There is considerable diversity in subjects of instruction, and yet the list of subjects and the time allotment is quite uniform.

Miss Sara Burstall, of Manchester, England, a shrewd observer, visited America in 1908. In her Impressions of American Education she says:

But whatever cities or states the English teacher may study he cannot fail to be impressed by the extraordinary uniformity which is so marked and astonishing a feature in American life-a uniformity which much simplifies his work. There is, for example, more uniformity in the high school history course of study, over an area from Minneapolis to Boston, and from Washington to St. Louis (which takes two days and nights to cross by train), than in the half-dozen secondary schools in the one city of Manchester. This is not a matter of law; it is a matter of common consent,--of the voluntary adoption of a history course drawn up by a voluntary representative committee of teachers of history. We in England are much more independent and self-assertive than our American colleagues. We each like our own way of doing things; as English ladies like to dress each in her own style, from our queens downward. The uniformity of the dress of American women and girls, charming and dainty as they are, becomes oppressive after a time to an English-woman-as does the uniformity of their school equipment. All the best schools have the same things, which are, it is presumed, the best at that particular time, as is the prevailing hat, or shirt waist, or set of furs.

The most recent tendencies in high school development may be said to be the very general introduction of commercial and industrial features. Wood work, iron work, cooking, sewing, and subjects once seen only in business schools are becoming common. Agriculture is a recent claimant for place. There were in 1910 some 60 distinctively agricultural high schools, including high school courses in agricultural colleges; 346 high schools were teaching agriculture, and 16 agricultural colleges were aiming definitely to train teachers of agriculture for high school positions.

Geographically, high schools are not confined to any sections of the country. The high school movement started in New England, was taken up most enthusiastically in the Middle West, became most nearly the exclusive form of secondary education in the New Northwest, and took root last of all in the former slaveholding states where the need of providing a double system of education on account of the color line is a heavy handicap.

The following statistics of public high schools for the school year ending June 30, 1908, are taken from the report of E. E. Brown, U. S. Commissioner of Education: