USA > Indiana > A history of education in Indiana > Part 22
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(1881), under twenty-four sections, with full and helpful com- ments, and covering more than two hundred pages. Bloss revised the clerical and statistical work of the office, reformed the school census, and effectually broke up a most scandalous traffic in examination questions .* Holcomb was instru- mental in putting into execution a uniform course of study for the country schools, and a plan of graduation from them, Arbor-day celebrations, and the State Reading Circle for teachers. La Follette is to be credited with an inspection of records, and a correction of errors in the distribution of school revenues, amounting since 1860 to $150,000, and an addition to the school fund of not less than $400,000; a con- stant and effective official, encouragement given to the read- ing circle making it, as but for this official recognition it could not have been, not only the most successful teachers' reading circle in any of the States, but one of the most fruit- ful agencies for the improvement of teachers in Indiana.
Of course, it must be remembered that throughout the period, and particularly after its reorganization in 1865, the influence of the State Board permeated and re-enforced and assisted in shaping all that was undertaken or accomplished by the superintendent. It is perhaps true that, relatively, the superintendent has less influence now than formerly, and the board, as an organization of which he is chairman, more. He becomes the responsible exponent of the con- sensus of the board's deliberations-the executive of their will. Nevertheless, there are certain duties for the faithful performance of which he is practically held responsible. Some of them are clerical, and, unfortunately, consume a great part of his time. They are many and exacting; they have been called onerous. A mere mention of the annual routine will justify the statement.
It includes the receiving and inspection of the school census; the county auditors' reports of the local taxes and the interest on the common-school funds held by the coun-
* Sce State Report, 1882, Part I, pp. 40-43.
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ties; a record of the regular and acting county superintend- ents and trustees throughout the State ; the number and conditions of local certificates granted to teachers; the ad- justment of the congressional township funds when two or more counties are concerned; the amount of funds on loan in the counties, the condition of the loans, and the additions made to the funds; settlements with counties as to the in- terest on school funds; the auditing and summarizing of the county superintendents' statistical reports; the semi-annual apportionment of school revenues ; and comparison of the county auditors' semi-annual reports of the distribution of these and local taxes.
Besides this, there are involved the official correspondence of the office touching the interpretation of the school law; letters of advice and official direction; the hearing of appeals from county superintendents; visits to teachers' gatherings and school officials, and for the examination of school rec- ords ; reports to the Legislature and to the Governor; the delivery of examination questions to the county superin- tendents monthly ; the preparation of all needed blank forms, and the publication and distribution of the school law; while ex officio chairman of the county superintend- ents' annual convention, director of the Reading Circle Board, trustee of the State Normal School, and president of the State Board of Education.
In short, the duties of the office involve an oversight of, and more or less responsibility for, the enumeration of chil- dren throughout the State; all statistics concerning teachers and school officers employed, the permanent school funds and their safe investment, the receipts and disbursements of school revenues, and the careful auditing of all reports of subordinate officers.
One of the important services of the superintendent men- tioned is the occasional issuance of the school law, with official interpretations. This seems deserving of extended mention.
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3. School Law and Commentaries.
Eleven editions of the school law have been issued since the revision of the system in 1852. This is exclusive of the various laws published prior to that date, and which may be found only in the Revised Statutes, the documentary jour- nals, or special issues.
The law of 1837, entitled "An act incorporating con- gressional townships, and providing for public schools there- in," was published separately from the general acts, by William J. Brown, Secretary of State, immediately after its passage, and by authority.
The Revised Statutes of 1843 included all school legislation then in force, in Chapter XV, Of Common Schools, revised by the compilers, Samuel Bigger and George H. Dunn, and adopted by the Legislature, as codified, in 1843. These two documents are historically valuable for comparison with the more modern and greatly complicated system of laws of the last twenty years.
The law of 1852 was originally published by authority as a separate document, as was the act of 1837, but appeared also in the Revised Statutes of 1852, as Chapter XCVIII. The year following, however, May 1, 1853, there was issued from the office of the Superintendent of Public Instruction its first official edition of the School Law of the State of Indi- ana, with explanations, instructions, and forms of proceed- ing, including the original acts of 1852, and the amendments thereto by the Legislature, March 4, 1853. The publication was under the authority of Superintendent Larrabee, and included in an appendix the report in full of Hon. John C. Walker, Chairman of the House Committee on Education, in submitting the proposed amendments, forms of bonds, a system of book-keeping, blank orders, notices, reports, li- censes and instructions concerning the school census, besides answers to a score of questions, by way of interpreting the law. It is a valuable piece of documentary literature.
Prof. Mills issued a second edition in May, 1855, with helpful notes and suggestions, and the amendments just
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passed. The third, by Superintendent Larrabee, in addition to the usual matter, presented an unabridged transcript of the six decisions of the Supreme Court, then and since, so important in their relation to the schools, touching the con- solidation of funds, the levying of local taxes, and the equal- ization of revenues. It was a bit of official policy, wisely conceived and admirably carried out, that did much to fa- miliarize the people, and especially school officers, with the actual condition of school affairs, and the nature of the sys- tem, at the most critical period in our educational history. Mr. Fletcher published an edition also, the fourth, in 1861, with notes, very full and clear, a reprint of the essentials of the Supreme Court decisions, and a full list of the text-books recommended to the schools by the State Department.
Superintendent Hoss, in his term of three years and a half, published two editions-one in 1865, and another, the sixth, in 1867. This latter included Article VIII of the Con- stitution on education, and foot-notes explanatory of almost every section of the law about which there could be any question. It was, without doubt, the most helpful edition of the law that had yet been published, and the most provoca- tive of interest in the system.
From 1852, for twenty-five years, the great educational need of the State was that the public-the official and citi- zen public-should be brought to know the system, to be informed of their duties and privileges, to understand the real purpose of the school, and the possible large service it was fitted to render to the individual and the home and the institution. To this end it was desirable that every means should be employed to set the school and its organization rightly before the people. Such commentaries as Larrabee's, and those by Hoss twenty years later, accomplished this in a very effective way.
The seventh issue was by Superintendent Hobbs in 1869, and the eighth by his successor, Mr. Hopkins, in 1873. The Legislature of this year had made some important changes in the law, and the commentary was made not only to in-
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clude the former law and these amendments, but such an arrangement of them all from 1865 as to hint at a history of the system and the lines of its development which, with nu- merous opinions and decisions, did much to establish the new law and secure it public confidence.
In 1877 Superintendent Smart published the ninth edition of the law, whose annotation comprised, besides the official opinions of the department, abstracts of seventeen recent Supreme Court decisions concerning schools and schooling for negroes in the State, the rights of teachers, the relations of civil and congressional townships, the anticipations of school revenues, corporal punishment, etc. The tenth edi- tion was by Superintendent Holcomb, and was issued in 1885. It presents in compact form, along with current notes and opinions, extracts, also, explanatory of various sections taken from former editions of the law, and the ac- cepted decisions of the office. The eleventh and last issue was by Superintendent La Follette, in 1889, adding to the tenth issue certain decisions of the department and recent modification of the law.
By an act of the Legislature, March 28, 1879, there was created the Board of Revision of the Laws, by which acts relating to the common schools, the State University, the Normal School, and Purdue University were codified, and appear as Chapters LII, LIII, LIV, and LV of the Revised Statutes of 1881. This, however, was simply a copy of the laws in force, was given without note or comment, and, having no official connection with the department, it is in- serted here only to make the list of the school-law publica- tions complete.
Two years prior to this last act it had been ordered by a resolution of the Indiana House of Representatives "That the State Superintendent of Public Instruction be and the same is hereby instructed to codify the school laws of the State, with such alterations and amendments as will make the laws harmonious and compact, and report the same to the House of Representatives at the meeting of the next General
18
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Assembly, provided the same shall be done without cost to the State." The work was undertaken by State Superintend- ent Smart, and two years later the revision was submitted to the House. After numerous amendments and some re- visions it was finally passed, and approved as the school law of the State, March, 1879. In the process of revision there was " brought together," as Dr. Smart says, " a large mass of valuable information in regard to school law and the com- mon-law principles, which have been promulgated by the courts in relation thereto," which was published in 1881 by the author as a Commentary on the School Law of In- diana .*
This Commentary is a valuable treatise of more than two hundred pages on the school system of Indiana, comprising, besides the law (so much of it as bears upon the points dis- cussed), the decisions of the Supreme Court and the opinions of the Attorney-General, citations from the bench in other States, abundant references to other parts of the statutes, and to former opinions of the department. The work presents only such portions of the laws as pertain to the duties of school officers and teachers, carefully analyzed and arranged in topics as follows:
(1) County superintendents, their appointment and duties ; (2) the appointment and qualification of school trustees; (3) penalties and liabilities of school officers and school corpora- tions; (4) school revenues, financial accounts, and reports; (5) on the levying of school taxes; (6) the location of schools; (7) township graded schools, and joint district and graded schools; (8) school meetings and school directors; (9) con- struction of school-houses; (10) school apparatus; (11) care of school property; (12) County Board of Education; (13) rules and regulations, and their enforcement; (14) the em- ployment of teachers in townships; (15) dismissal of teachers in townships; (16) teachers in towns and cities; (17) the law of appeal; (18) the law of contracts; (19) the law of enumera-
* William B. Burford, 1881, Indianapolis.
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tion; (20) the law of transfer; (21) township school property within towns and cities; (22) township libraries.
Of the thirteen men who have held this highest educa- tional office of the State,* four only-Fletcher, Hobbs, Bloss, and Holcomb-were natives of Indiana. Larrabee was from Maine, Mills and Smart from New Hampshire, Rugg from New York, Hoshour from Pennsylvania, Hoss from Ohio, Hopkins from Kentucky, aud La Follette from Wisconsin. With all but two, teaching had been a profession, Rugg only having never taught. Eight of them were regular college graduates, representing Bowdoin, Dartmouth, Brown, In- diana, Asbury, Hanover, Harvard, and the College of France. Two-Hoshour and Hobbs-had taken partial courses, while Superintendents Rugg and Hopkins honored the office and the State with no more formal training than comes of a good academic course.
4. The State Board of Education.
The State Board of Education in Indiana dates from 1852. Section 147 of the act of that year provided that it should con- sist of the State Superintendent of Public Instruction, the Governor, the Secretary, Treasurer, and Auditor of State, and should hold annual meetings "for the purpose of more effectually promoting the interests of education by mutual conference, interchange of views and experience of the practi- cal operation of the system, the introduction of uniform school-books, the adoption of the most eligible means of facilitating the establishment of township school libraries, and the discussion and determination of such questions as may arise in the practical administration of the school system."
In 1855 the Attorney-General of the State was made a member of the board, the constitution of the body remain- ing otherwise unchanged until 1865. During all this period -thirteen years-the Superintendent of Public Instruction
* Prior to 1891.
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was the only professional member, the other five (after 1855) being State officers. Of course there was ability, as there was faithful devotion to duty from all of them. Among them were men prominent in the recent convention, advo- cates of free schools, friends of the system, and scholarly withal-but not members of the board because of their con- nection with the system or familiar acquaintance with it. It had a business, not professional, constitution. Among its members, however, were included Governors Wright, Wil- lard, and Morton, and Attorneys-General Joseph E. McDon- ald and Oscar B. Hord, besides John P. Dunn, Elijah New- land, Cyrus L. Dunham, John W. Dodd, Judge Morrison, and Nathaniel Cunningham. The beginnings of the sys- tem had among them and their colleagues their first di- rection and saving impulse. The present system is greatly indebted to their wisdom and discretion and scholarly so- licitude during the first troublesome years for its possibili- ties.
By the act of March 6, 1865, the general school law was revised and greatly modified, and particularly the section referring to a State Board of Education. It was then pro- vided that "The Governor of the State, the State Superin- tendent of Public Instruction, the President of the State University, the President of the State Normal School (when the same shall be established), and the superintendents of common schools of the three largest cities in the State shall constitute a board, to be denominated the Indiana State Board of Education. The size of the cities shall, for this purpose, be determined by the enumeration of children for school purposes annually reported by school examiners to the Superintendent of Public Instruction." As to its func_ tions, the board was held to "perform such duties as are prescribed by law," to "take cognizance of such questions as may arise in the practical administration of the school sys- tem as are not otherwise provided for, and duly consider, discuss, and determine the same," and to have power to ex- amine applicants and " grant State certificates of qualification
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to teachers " found to possess " eminent scholarship and pro- fessional ability."
In 1875 the constitution of the board was again modified by adding to it as a member the President of Purdue Univer- sity, just organized .*
Since 1865, therefore, during which period the really pro- fessional work of the board has been done, its membership has included the Governors of the State, and acting Gover- nors, from Morton to Chase; Presidents Nutt (1865-1875), Moss (1875-1884), Jordan (1884-1891), and Coulter (since his election to the University presidency, June, 1891), of the State University; Presidents Jones, Brown, and Parsons, of the State Normal School; and Presidents Shortridge, White, and Smart, of Purdue University. Shortridge and Brown have also served on the board as superintendents of the In- dianapolis schools, and Smart from Fort Wayne. Besides
While it is only incidentally a matter of history, reference should be made here to yet another proposed modification of the board, by adding to it a representative of county superintendents.
After the Superintendency Law of 1873, and the creation of the County Board of Education, and through the agency of township and county insti- tutes, and closer inspection of schools, the system in the townships was greatly improved in efficiency, and, within a decade, had become the most important and respectable educational interest in the State. It was felt that rural schools should have direct representation in the councils of the board. It had been frequently discussed in gatherings of school men, and in educational papers, but the movement first took shape in a recommenda- tion by Superintendent Holcomb in his first report, in 1884, that three county superintendents should be elected at their annual convention to membership on the State Board, in such way that, after the first, each - should hold his office for three years. The State Board of Education, also, the year following, concurred in the opinion, and recommended the change. Superintendent Holcomb again, in his second report, the Indiana School Journal, and educators generally throughout the State have repeatedly ex- pressed their confidence in the wisdom of the recommendation. While no action has yet been taken by the Legislature, the movement would seem to be in the right direction. An educational interest that concerns threc fifths of all the children of the State certainly has claims to some direct represen- tation upon the State's Board of Control.
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these, H. S. Tarbell, as superintendent of Indianapolis schools; E. S. Greene and John S. Irwin, of Fort Wayne; and E. J. Rice, Alexander M. Gow, John M. Bloss, and John Cooper, of Evansville, have all had service on the board. The present membership includes Governor Ira. J. Chase, State Superintendent H. D. Vories, Presidents John M. Coulter, J. H. Smart, and W. W. Parsons, and Superintend ents L. H. Jones of Indianapolis, J. W. Layne of Evansville, and W. H. Wiley of Terre Haute.
Altogether, in its nearly forty years of history, the board has included in its membership as State superintendents, governors, civil officers of State, college presidents, and city superintendents really the best educational thought and skill of the State. The growing unification of the system through these years, the direction of legislation, the pushing of re- forms, the cultivation of public sentiment, the shaping of courses of study and school-room method, the improvement of teachers, and the dignifying of the profession, are, in no small degree, due to the wise labors of the State Board of Education, and their advisory relations toward the depart- ment of supervision.
An inspection of the records of the board's proceedings shows that the wording of the law gives but meager insight into the real duties of the organization. It has been a very busy body of men. The first meeting was held June 7, 1853, and its first business was the consideration of a selection of books for the proposed township libraries. Indeed, this was the one question of constant interest to the board for the first three years of their service, and in the solution of which were spent not less than $250,000.
Another duty that fell to the board, along with the superintendent, was the selection and recommendation to the local school officers of a series of text-books for uniform use throughout the State. The magnitude of the responsi- bility, and the need for wise conservative action, can be but feebly appreciated to-day, in the presence of an efficient, cheap, and abundant school-book literature, such as was un-
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known a generation ago. Texts upon the most familiar subjects even were relatively few; these few were little known by most people, and less used by the school. Many of them were only the first attempts at graded texts. The law itself was an experiment. The investment of thousands of dollars was involved in the board's choice. A beginning was made (November, 1853) by the adoption of McGuffey's Eclectic Spelling Book, the Indiana Readers (I-IV),* Web- ster's Dictionary, Butler's Grammar, Ray's Arithmetics (I- III), and Mitchel's Geographies; to which, three years later, were added Warren's Physical Geography, Berard's School History of the United States, Payson, Dunton, and Scribner's System of Penmanship, Wilson's Elements of Punctuation, Smith's Juvenile Definer, Martin's Orthoëpist, and Brook- field's First Book in Composition. Besides these, Cowdry's Moral Lessons, and the American School Hymn-Book were recommended for use. The selection seems to have given general satisfaction. "Time," they record in their proceed- ings (1857), "has exhibited the wisdom of the choice. In no State of the Union have efforts for the introduction of uniform text-books for schools been so successful as in In- diana."
That the intention of the law was not to secure a uniform use of books, but only some authorized standard to guide in the local selection, appears in that this was the interpretation of the phrase by all the earlier boards and superintendents, and that in 1861 Superintendent Fletcher's notes make it mean that the board is to approve only and recommend. In the year 1859 a complete set of Goodrich's Readers, seven in number, as revised by Butler, were adopted to supplement the list of Readers previously recommended. To the list, in 1861, were added, also, texts in Algebra, Physiology, Chem- istry, Natural Philosophy, Book-keeping, and the Bible.
Occasional changes-additions and substitutions-were made in the next few years, presenting upon the whole a
* Compiled from the McGuffey series.
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generally safe and commendable standard of common-school texts. But the law never secured uniformity, nor any satis- factory approximation to it, and in the revision of the law in 1865 the board was relieved of the responsibility. There- after the choice of books was in one locality left to the town- ship trustee, elsewhere to the patrons, frequently to the teacher .* But in 1873 the responsibility was fixed by assign- ing it to the County Board of Education, just created. Ac- cordingly a circular was issued by the State Board to town- ship and city school trustees advising with them concerning their new relations to the schools, and especially in the con- trol of the choice of text-books to be used. For sixteen years the selection was wholly in the hands of this board, the law prescribing the conditions upon which adoptions might be made. The law secured uniformity throughout the schools of each county, prevented frequent changes of books, and, in general, resulted in the selection of a superior class of books.
By the Legislature of 1889, however, the responsibility of selecting books was again put into the hands of the State Board, with whom it yet rests. This was accomplished through the creation of a Board of School-book Commis- sioners (the State Board of Education), upon whom was im- posed the task of selecting or procuring the compilation of a series of text-books in the legal branches, for use in the com- mon schools of the State.
In Indiana, as in various other States, the sentiment had been forming that school-books could and should be fur- nished to the pupils more cheaply. As a supposed step toward this end, there have been provisions made in a great number , of States looking toward some sort of uniformity, either throughout the State or over smaller units of territory, or others prohibiting the too frequent change of texts. The ultimate aim, however, seems to be lower prices. "It is assumed that retail prices fixed by publishers and retail
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