USA > Washington DC > The centennial of the beginning of Presbyterianism in the city of Washington > Part 5
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England is far less homogeneous, more than one- third of her people dissenting from Episcopacy. Holland, Germany and Switzerland are each of them more than one-third Roman Catholic. The Scandinavian countries alone approach Scotland in denominational homogeneousness. Hence, if any- thing has been done in Scotland for higher educa- tion, Presbyterians have had the principal share in the doing of it.
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Before, however, I enter on the comparison of our heterogeneous America with homogeneous Scot- land, let us remember that we have nearly twenty citizens to deal with where Scotland has one. Each group of twenty American citizens is scat- tered over more than a square mile of territory. Little Scotland expects more than one hundred of her citizens to live upon each square mile, being five times as compact as our own nation. Scotland has had many centuries for rearing her people, with comparatively little admission of foreign elements. The United States, starting a century ago with fewer people than Scotland has to-day, has had to give place to every tribe under heaven.
I now ask you to imagine yourself with me in an educational corridor, with a nation on either side. On the left hand of this corridor I will put little Scotland as an example of Presbyterianism and education, and on the right hand I will put the United States of America. We will start with the elementary school, proceed to the secondary or higher schools, thence to the college and univer- sity.
First, I observe, that in Scotland, in the element- ary school, of the children from seven to fourteen years of age, every child has a seat provided for it ; indeed, there were nearly one hundred thous- and more seats according to the official report of three years since, than there were children to occupy them. The enrollment of children in the school was eighty for every one hundred of the
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school population ; the average attendance was sixty-eight for every one hundred of the school population.
In the United States of America, on the other hand, according to the last report of our Govern- ment, there are not enough seats or school-room accommodation. There were but sixty-nine scholars enrolled for every one hundred of the school popu- lation, being eleven less than in Scotland. And when we come to the average attendance, there are less than forty-five in the United States against sixty-eight in Scotland. So that while more than two-thirds of the children in Scotland who might be in school are found there every day of the school year, in the United States not one-half of the child- ren from five to eighteen years of age are found in daily attendance.
This suggests what Presbyterianism has done for Scotland in elementary education, and what Pres- byterians ought to seek to do for common schools in America.
In Scotland the average salary of a schoolmaster is between $650 and $700 ; of a school mistress over $300. Moreover, one-seventh of the schoolmasters and schoolmistresses are provided with residences free of rent. The total expenditure is nearly $11 for each pupil in average attendance.
The average salary of a schoolmaster in the com- mon schools of the United States is not quite $280 and of schoolmistresses, $263. As to residences for schoolmasters or schoolmistresses, if there is
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such a thing provided for our teachers in any one of the United States, I have never been so favored as to have any school board invite me to visit it.
Much has been said of the great advantages in the matter of wage earning of the American work- man over the unfortunate inhabitant of the British Isles. If my statistics are not all wrong, and they are taken from the official reports of the United States Government, Presbyterian Scotland provides far more handsomely for her laborers in the school- room, whether man or woman, than does our own country.
Presbyterians who are credited with enforcing Gospel doctrine, have a work to do throughout America in proclaiming on behalf of the school teacher, that " the laborer is worthy of his hire."
Before I pass from the elementary or common school, lest this comparison may seem too disheart- ening to Americans let me tell some of the advanced steps which we have made in the last quarter cen- tury, or since 1867 when the national department of education was first established. We have begun with the little children. In 1870 there were only four kindergartens in our country. The most recent statistics at my command, report one thous- and and one such schools with over fifty thousand pupils. Besides the separate kindergarten work which trains the little ones between the ages of three and six years, without the aid of books, to enter upon the elementary school, excellent results from this form of school have been accomplished by carrying its spirit into tens of thousands of the
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primary school-rooms of our land. Another hope- ful feature of our common schools is the setting alongside of them in the last quarter century of the manual training annex. With the enormous drift towards city life, the facilities for the old-fashioned manual training on the farm or in the village work- shop, have been greatly diminished. In twenty- eight of our large cities manual training has been established alongside of our common school train- ing from the beginning of the primary grade to that of the grammar school. It is not the teaching of a trade, but it is the teaching of what may greatly help towards successful entrance upon either a trade, a business pursuit or higher educa- tion. What, however, gives more encouragement than the setting up of additional agencies such as the kindergarten or school of manual training is the increased energy put into the common school for its great work of giving us citizens sufficiently intelligent to exercise the high office of voters. Our census reports of 1890, compared with those of 1870, show that while only 172 per cent. of the pop- ulation were enrolled in the common schools a quarter of a century ago, more than 20 per cent. were found there five years since. The real increase has been, however, wholly in the south and in the west. The newer parts of our country have ad. vanced ; the older portions have barely held their own.
Take as favorable a view as we can of the ele- mentary schools, if we judge them by no higher
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standard than those of Scotland, we see an immense work to be done. The two branches of work that are most urgent, are, first, to provide qualified teachers, men and women, for every common school in the United States. Second, to educate the pub- lic sentiment to make the office of these teachers at least as good an office as we find in poor Scotland.
Shall barren Scotland "land of brown heath and shaggy wood," as she is named by her foremost writer, be allowed to do more for her pedagogues, whether " Reuben Butlers " or "Dominie Sam- sons," than our land of deep loamy prairies and broad alluvial valleys, for her teacher, though some of them be "Ichabod Cranes" or "Hoosier School- masters ? "
I ask you to resume the walk up the educational corridor, where we now reach, whether in Scotland or in the United States, the place of the advanced school, named in either country the secondary or high school. Little Scotland has one hundred and fifty-two schools that give secondary training, of which the larger part are outside the Government inspection. In these schools over seven thousand students presented themselves for what is known as the "leaving certificate," corresponding to our high school diploma. This is very nearly one for every four hundred and sixty of the population. According to the last reports in the United States in the year 1892, there were from both public and private academies and high schools, not quite thirty seven thousand graduates, about one for every seven-
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teen hundred of the population. Nor am I sure that the leaving certificate of the Scotch high school does not testify higher attainment than the average diploma of the American academy. They are ac- cepted by the Scottish universities in place of their preliminary examinations. The powerful lever in Scotland for securing system and uniformity in secondary education, is the rule of her four univer- sities, that the only equivalent for the preliminary examinations by the university, shall be those con- ducted by the Government examiners.
Has not the time come in America when through- out all our States, secondary education may be rend- ered more uniform and thorough ? Presbyterians were the pioneers in numberless counties of the Middle States of private high schools or academies.
My own recollection goes back near fifty years before public high schools were set up in Ohio, to the building by my parents upon their own ground of a small academy ; the only one in a broad county.
It is my first educational reminiscence. Upon graduation from college I was for a while classical teacher in a similar academy. In both of those communities the Presbyterian academy stimulated the establishing of the public high school which has taken its place. This has been the history of numberless communities. Nevertheless, while the public high schools in 1892 were about three thous- and, there were still fifteen hundred and thirty academies supported by private corporations. The public high schools have about two hundred and
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forty thousand students, while the private have a little over one hundred thousand. The figures can- not be precise, because as the commissioner wisely says, the exact place of the secondary school in the United States is not yet definitely determined. Enough, however, is clear to show that the zeal of the Presbyterians for country or village academies has not been misplaced. Nearly one-third of the secondary education of the United States is done by the private academy including, of course, all the numerous academies of our Roman Catholic breth- ren, and even then there is not one high school or academy for each fourteen thousand of our citizens.
Here, before I leave this part of the educational corridor, I mention for our encouragement three agencies that have sprung up in America parallel with the high school or academy. I mean the trade school, the business college and the school of arts and design. Young men and young women by thousands, take these as a substitute for the high school. In the cities of America over one-half a million of youth complete the common or element- ary schools every year. Not fifty thousand of these enter the high schools ; that is, only one out of every ten. The question arises as in the New Testament narrative, "where are the nine ?" The answer in a crude way must be, in the shop, in the office, in the railway, in the street, or in the saloon. To supply the demand of the common school scholar who wants to go out promptly to earn his liveli- hood, business colleges offer themselves, perhaps
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two hundred to three hundred in our country with nearly fifty thousand students. The trade schools are much newer and perhaps number less than half- a-dozen in the entire United States. They can hardly have superseded very largely the old-fash- ioned mode of learning trades by young men becom- ing helpers and associates of skilled mechanics, but they may do much in a generic way. There are scores of various trades in the United States. The trade schools are not likely ever to teach each and every one of these forms of labor, but they may teach a few and they may exalt before the eyes of intelligent youth the mechanical occupa- tions. The schools of industrial art have grown up wholly in this generation ; there are thirty-three named in the last national report. They range from teaching how to design ordinary fabrics, all the way up to educating the sculptor and engraver. The energy that Americans are giving to these practical forms of secondary training, explain, in some measure, our doing so much less than we ought in the work of academies or high schools.
I now invite you to enter the third and last por- tion of the educational corridor, the place of the college and university. On the left hand is Pres- byterian Scotland, which, far more than people are aware of, has been the exemplar of the colleges and universities of America. At this very day, if you ask me what schools in the old world our chief colleges and universities most resemble, I answer, not the universities of Germany, for they relegate
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the entire work of general training to the Gymnasia, which supply the place of both our high schools and colleges. Not any other continental system, because every one of them is further away from us than even Germany. Not the great English uni- versities, for they have never builded by their side the professional schools of law, medicine and engi- neering. Moreover, their colleges are primarily dormitories, each with its instruction in some meas- ure independent of the university proper. The real prototyes are Glasgow, Edinburgh, St. An- drews and Aberdeen. Harvard, Brown, Yale, Col- umbia, New York University, Cornell, Philadel- phia, Michigan and Chicago, if they have not each the entire six faculties of Edinburgh, namely, arts, science, law, medicine, divinity and music, have in every case the most of them.
Unfortunately, the faculty of music is but slightly copied on this side of the Atlantic. The ballads, the soul-thrilling airs of old Scotland, the songs of Scott and Burns, are still waiting for a response to be echoed from the Alleghenies, the Rockies or the Sierra Nevada. This remark upon music is not wholly a digression, for if he was right who said " Let me make the songs of the people and I care not who makes their laws," certainly the education of America must depend much upon who writes her songs and her sacred hymns. The university on these shores that will lead in the exaltation of music and song, may do more to influence America than any other.
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I return to ask you to look closely at the excel- lent points of college and university training in Presbyterian Scotland. Her four foundations date back, St. Andrews to 1411, Glasgow, to 1450, Aber- deen to 1494, Edinburgh to 1583. The income of the four reaches something over a half million dol- lars. They are not very rich as compared with the four richest American Universities, or with the wealthiest foundations of Germany.
The distinguishing and admirable feature of these universities is the exact system upon which they are organized. Each and every one of them requires the same preliminary examination for ad- mission to the faculties of arts and science. No one is admitted to the Faculty of Divinity unless he has completed the subjects embraced in the curric- ulum of arts. No one can be examined for the de- gree of Bachelor of Laws unless he be a graduate in arts of a British University or a foreign univer- sity specially recognized. No one can begin med- ical study unless he has passed the preliminary ex- amination in general education. There is this same requirement for graduation in music. For gradua- tion in arts and science the requirements are much the same as those in the best colleges of America, except that only three years residence is absolutely demanded. Recently, also, certain of the Scotch universities have set up what may be the equiva- lent of the graduate schools of the foremost Ameri- can universities, and confer the degree of Doctor of Philosophy, Doctor of Science, or Doctor of
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Letters, five years after they have received the or- dinary degree in arts or science. But in this matter of research in graduate arts and science, Scotch universities are already supassed by a few of our own universities. They are also far sur- passed by the great faculties of philosophy through- out Germany.
Turning to the right hand of the corridor, we should like to compare the colleges and universi- ties of America with those of Scotland. We are bewildered first by the utter confusion in the naming of our schools, and second, by the lack of uniformity among them in the work undertaken for either the first degrees in arts and science or for the higher degrees, whether in arts and science or in divinity, medicine, law or technology. I sug- gest that there may be an important work for Pres- byterians who believe with Paul that " God is not the author of confusion."
As to the matter of names, I have before me upon my desk two publications, one is the catalogue of Harvard University, a volume of more than half a thousand pages, showing how an annual income of over one million dollars is used in the support of three hundred and thirty instructors, and the teaching of over three thousand students. The other is also a circular of a university, I shall not mention its name, but it has two departments, the preparatory and the college. Among the studies of the preparatory department, are mental arith- metic, the fifth reader and spelling. The freshman
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studies in full for the first term are the Greek reader, the Latin reader, general history, geometry and the Bible. The concluding studies covering the second term of the Senior year are the Greek Testament, logic, moral science, German and geol- ogy. This university is catalogued by the United States Government in the same list with Harvard, as if it occupied the same platform. The merchant who displays in his show window goods named broadcloth (meaning what everyone understands by broadcloth) has no right alongside of them to place a piece of shoddy and on it write the label broadcloth. Does not the United States lend it- self to false witness in its educational reports ?
I take up from my desk the catalogue of another university, also honored with a place alongside of Harvard in the report of the Commissioner of Edu- cation. This university professes to include no less than twelve schools. I turn to the list of its Alumni which is published in this circular, and I find that in the year 1895, it sent forth into the world four graduates whose first names are given in three instances, the first is Eddie, the second is Jennie, the third is Lutie, the Christian name of the fourth is concealed under the initials E. J. And there is no evidence that any of these gradu- ates has studied any language save the English. This is the contribution of an American University in the year of our Lord 1895, to the ranks of our educated citizens. Both the universities referred to are in the Mississippi Valley. I take up a third
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catalogue, of a university in a northern State far- ther east. I find that in the list of its faculty the entire instruction in classics for both prepara- tory school and college, is carried on by a single professor; all the modern languages including the English language are taught by one young lady; all the natural sciences by a single instructor; the president teaches all the philosophy, and carries on the principal part of the school of theology. The Faculty comprises these four and no more. In theology students have a choice of two courses, the studies of the first term in the English theological course are algebra, the Old Testament, physics, and homiletics ; in the third year of theology, the Bible is omitted and the studies of the concluding term are botany, political economy, history and moral science. In the Latin theological course, this is improved upon by the substitution for his- tory, of Horace's Odes and Epistles. Seriously, this is the Alpha and Omega of the theological course of an American University, which is hon- ored with the name of university in our Govern- mental announcements.
This same national report enrolls as a university a school in Ohio, which with rare good sense makes the following announcement in its circular : "Our resources not having increased in proportion to the requirements of the American College, we have deemed it wise to concentrate our energies upon building up a preparatory school." The only mis- take here is that they still wear the name univer-
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sity, and are so published by our Government. Imagine the surprise of the intelligent European who procures the catalogues of American Universi- ties and opens this catalogue to page 7, which an- nounces "Blank University Primary School." "The age for admission is six years. The studies are reading from a chart and first reader." Still another university claims to consist of eight schools with eight faculties, yet one man attends to all the mathematics of the eight faculties ; a second man to all the classical languages, a third to English, and one lady to modern languages for all the four principal faculties. A Bachelor of Science, Atlas- like, shoulders for the five faculties, the whole world of nature. All this is done in one two- storied building costing $26,000, where men and women are made Doctors of Science and Doctors of Philosophy. The catalogue announces that the university has achieved " a phenomenal success." " The assets have been increased to over $10,000 with but a slight indebtedness." It regrets that " the invested funds are now almost unproductive," but " the opportunities opening before this youth- ful university are almost unparalleled." This is in one of our great Northern States and in the name of one of our greatest Christian denominations.
Here is a university in one of the greatest North- ern States. Its faculty, when you have subtracted a music teacher, a drawing master and a prepara- tory school teacher, consists of four or five persons. One man not only undertakes the whole world of
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natural sciences, but also German ; another, not only the wealth of the Greek language and litera- ture, but also the French, and as if this were not enough, also all of English. This university with four professors, in a single year made four honor- ary Doctors of Divinity, and also adds an honorary Doctor of Law each year to the roll of those cre- ated by the great universities of the Old World and the New.
It reminds me of nothing so much as of the days of wild cat banking. Many here remember the days of wild cat banking, when every cross roads, where the scream of the wild cat was still heard, set up its own bank and issued its currency, and what a harvest of frauds and failures followed. The result was that no bank bill was accepted for its face when it traveled far from home. Every American of intelligence, thanks God that the nation took up the task of systemizing our paper money and making it honest; a greenback now is good from ocean to ocean for its face value. Wild cat banks have gone, but wild cat universities and colleges are with us in large numbers. They have their origin from similar conditions. Universities and colleges are needed in every State. Over-am- bitious, although generally honest citizens in num- berless villages and cities, undertake to build a university or college for their neighborhood. Governmental regulation and restriction are want- ing. The result to-day is, seven score nominal universities with not more than a score and a half
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of them that are considered by the editors of the book of universities and colleges, published in Strasburg, Germany, worthy to be included in that volume. The work of only three of them is fully recognized by the chief universities of Scotland in their catalogues. And yet poor little Scotland has less people and less wealth in all her borders than are found within sixty minutes ride of the Chan- cellor's office in the New York University building on Washington Square, East.
How glorious for little Scotland that she can connect with her four universities so many great names !
St. Andrews claims John Knox and Thomas Chal- mers, Playfair, the great astronomer, and Duff the great missionary. Glasgow, such a philosopher as Sir William Hamilton, and scientist as Lord Kelwin, such a writer as John Wilson, and discoverer as Livingston. Edinburgh enrolls Dugald Stuart, while Aberdeen claims Thomas Reid. Such great names as David Hume, Thomas Carlyle, Edward Irving, Norman Macleod, Lords Jeffrey and Brougham, John Witherspoon, William Robert- son the historian and Sir Walter Scott, are all on the catalogue of a single Scottish university.
Reduce our 440 universities and colleges to 40 universities, and 200 colleges, let the remaining 200 become only academies, and we may then have in each university and college a source of just pride.
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I have quoted to you extreme cases, but I am quoting from catalogues of the year 1895. I am not quoting from any catalogues save of schools that are named universities, and that in a volume. issued from the Government Printing Office at Washington, signed by the Commissioner of Educa- tion of the United States of America; a volume which enrolls about 140 universities in the United States and some 300 colleges. Were I to analyze also the colleges, I should present to you a far greater number of schools such as those I have named, that are hardly doing respectable work for a private acad- emy. Here, for example, is a college department of a university so called in one of our large cities. It consists of two classes, a senior class of one boy, and a sophomore class of one boy, with a faculty of four members. I will take the liberty of calling the professors by their first names : Mary teaches all the mathematics and English literature ; Emily all the natural sciences ; Arthur the classics, while the president as usual, takes care of the philosophy. This is the sum total of the college.
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