Evening Schools

Collier's New Encyclopedia (1921)

schools which endeavor to educate those who for various reasons cannot attend schools conducted in the daytime. For the most part they are attended by people who earn their livelihood by working through the day and who desire to better their positions. They provide instruction in the primary grades, in vocational training, and in the liberal arts . Those who desire the primary work are chiefly older children and adults who have grown up illiterate. The largest number of students attending evening schools in the United States are those who wish to place themselves above the position of unskilled laborers by learning a trade. The introduction of courses in liberal education is comparatively an innova tion. In 1834 New York City established the first evening school and for a time it prospered, but as only primary instruction was given the number of students remained between ten and twenty thousand. When , however, evening high schools giving instruction in commercial and technical work were opened, the number of students greatly increased... The Cooper Union of New York, a private institution, is one of the most famous of those offering secondary and vocational education by evening high schools. Massachusetts now leads the States in the Union in the number of evening schools and in average attendance of students. Of the 204 cities which in 1913 had evening schools, 41 were located in Massachusetts cities. This has largely been the result of a law passed by the State in 1911, which made provision for the extension of the work in night schools as a part of the movement for vocational education . Many private institutions similar to the Cooper Union in New York have opened night schools. The Maryland Institute of Baltimore and the larger branches of the Young Men's Christian Association are conspicuous in the efforts to provide education for those who must earn their bd'living by day labor.