USA > Indiana > A history of education in Indiana > Part 31
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Frequent communications in the papers early in 1867
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urged a separate establishment. One proposed to devote University Square in Indianapolis for that purpose, and the citizens of Indianapolis offered to raise $100,000 to secure its location. In the Legislature of that year a bill was in- troduced to locate it upon Tippecanoe Battle Ground. Dr. Nutt, very wisely as it seems and very forcibly, before the Legislature, by lecture throughout the State and in frequent newspaper correspondence, advocated its bestowal upon In- diana University. It was argued that to divide the fund would be to throw it away. Besides, the University could offer to the new interest eleven thousand acres of land yet unsold, the cabinet and museum of Dr. Owen just purchased and valued at $50,000, a military department already organ- ized, and the beginning of an engineering course that could easily form the basis of the mechanical work of the new school. On the other hand, in the appeals of Ovid Butler, of the N. W. C. University, Dr. Bowman, of Asbury Uni- versity, and others, the division of the fund found vigorous support.
It was all determined, however, finally, by the offer of John Purdue, of Lafayette, to give land and money for its location near that city, which offer included a donation of $150,000, to which were added $50,000 from Tippecanoe Coun- ty and one hundred acres of land by the citizens of Chauncey to fix its location. Mr. Purdue's gifts have been since in- creased to more than $200,000. The farm comprises one hundred and eighty acres, which, with buildings and equip- ments, is valued at about $350,000. Its permanent productive endowment aggregates as much more, invested in a five-per- cent Indiana State bond. These means of support have been supplemented by annual legislative appropriations of $10,000 to $60,000, representing a total State appropriation since the organization of the school of about $400,000.
As at first organized, the University comprised four special and co-ordinate schools: (1) The School of Natural Science, including Physics and Industrial Mechanics, Chemistry, and Natural History; (2) The School of Engineering, compris-
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THE STATE'S SUPERIOR INSTITUTIONS.
ing Civil and Mining Engineering and Architecture; (3) The School of Agriculture, including Theoretical and Practical Agriculture, Horticulture, and Veterinary Science; and (4) The School of Military Science. From this simple though comprehensive organization sixteen years of experience have worked considerable change, while maintaining the same general plan. The institution now embraces six special schools and a preparatory department.
1. A School of Agriculture, Horticulture, and Veterinary Science.
2. A School of Mechanical Engineering.
3. A School of Civil Engineering.
4. A School of Science.
5. A School of Industrial Art.
6. A School of Pharmacy.
7. A Preparatory Department.
In addition to these schools and as supplementing the work in agriculture, there was established in 1879 the Pur- due Experiment Station, which was given surer footing and a larger service through the congressional appropriations for such purpose to all the States in 1887. The act of March 2 provided that the contemplated "Experiment Stations " " should conduct original researches, or verify experiments, on the physiology of plants and animals; the diseases to which they are severally subject, with the remedies for the same; the chemical composition of useful plants at their different stages of growth; the comparative advantages of rotative cropping as pursued under a varying series of crops ; the capacity of new plants or trees for acclimation; the analysis of soils and water; the chemical composition of manures, natural or artificial, with experiments designed to test their comparative effects on crops of different kinds; the adoption and value of grasses and forage plants; the com- position and digestibility of the different kinds of food for domestic animals; the scientific and economic questions involved in the production of butter and cheese; and such other researches and experiments bearing directly on the
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agricultural industry of the United States as may in each case be deemed advisable, having due regard for the varying conditions or needs of the respective States and Territories."
To this end Congress makes, under the provisions of this act, an annual appropriation to each State of $15,000. Part ly, as a result of this encouragement, thirty-six stations are now sustained in thirty States.
Since March 12, 1877, each board of county commissioners in the State has been authorized to appoint two students to the University who shall be entitled to free tuition each in any department therein. Not more than two students may be admitted from any county at the same time under these conditions. From one fourth to one third of the member- ship in the institution belong to this class.
The first president of Purdue University was Prof. Rich- ard Owen; but he resigned in March, 1874, before the formal opening of the school to students, which occurred the follow- ing autumn. He was succeeded by A. C. Shortridge, who remained for one year; and he, after a few months under the management of Prof. John S. Hougham as acting president, by Dr. E. E. White, who remained until 1883. The present president is James H. Smart, who succeeded Dr. White upon his resignation, as above.
CHAPTER XXVIII.
SUPPLEMENTARY EDUCATIONAL INSTITUTIONS.
ONE distinguishing mark of the present century touching educational matters is the established policy of the State to extend the privileges of intellectual and industrial training to all classes. To a generation yet living indeed belongs the credit of initiating the movement for really universal education. That schools are not for the wealthy alone, or for the ruling classes, or the males, or the whites, or the nor-
SUPPLEMENTARY EDUCATIONAL INSTITUTIONS. 373
mally constituted, or the moral, or those who have leisure, or the capable, but for the defective, the wayward, the feeble- minded, the improvident, the dependent as well, for any individual or class, whom any sort of education may help on the way toward an independent fruitful, happy life, is a com- paratively new thought to the world.
1. Deaf-Mute Education.
When the Indiana deaf-mute school was authorized by the Legislature in 1844 there were but seven such institu- tions in existence in the United States-one each in Con- necticut, New York, Pennsylvania, Kentucky, Ohio, Illinois, and Virginia-the product of thirty years of public senti- ment. Schools for the blind came even latter, the first in this country being the Perkins Institute in Boston, founded in 1832, Indiana following in fifteen years (1847), prior to which six other similar institutions had been opened in as many States, three of them being in the West. Both the Institute for Deaf Mutes and that for the Blind in Indiana are located at Indianapolis. Each is managed by a board of trustees, and has its special superintendent. The former en- rolls from three hundred to four hundred; the latter half as many. And each is supported by special annual legislative appropriations.
In the Deaf-Mute Institution there are two departments- the educational and the industrial-regularly maintained. It is in no sense an asylum, but a school for learning sup- ported by the State. The elementary course requires seven years for its completion, and comprises the subjects included in the term "common branches." For such pupils as arc fitted for and desire them, instruction is offered in advanced subjects, comprising a regular high school course of three years, sufficient academic training to prepare for elementary teaching, or other intellectual pursuits, and for professional studies.
In the industrial department the boys are trained to do cabinet work, chair-caning, etc., and the girls laundrying,
25
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sewing, general household and fancy work. A part of every day is devoted by each pupil to some sort of industrial em- ployment.
2. The Education of the Blind.
Like the one just mentioned, "The Institution for the Education of the Blind" is strictly an educational establish- ment, a legitimate part of the public-school system of the State, and "has for its object the moral, intellectual, and physical development and training of the blind children, of suitable school age, of both sexes, residing in the State." It is merely a boarding school in which tuition, boarding, washing, medical attendance, and support, except clothing and traveling expenses, are provided.
The instruction is similar in scope to that of the deaf- mutes, but includes music also, and adapts the industrial training to the conditions of the sightless. In the literary department are studied, besides the legal branches, algebra universal history, geometry, chemistry, and mental and moral philosophy. Besides vocal and instrumental music, an extended training is given in the tuning of musical in- struments, a course that is much patronized.
In addition to sewing, knitting, crocheting, and fancy work in thread, worsted, and beads, engaged in by all the girls, the older ones are taught to use the sewing-machine, making many household articles and stitching napkins, bed covers, simple clothing, etc. The smaller boys are given this work in beads also as a means of securing facile finger movements and cultivating the mechanical faculties, while in the workshop for boys is instruction in broom-making, chair-caning, etc.
3. Reformatory Institutions.
Of a very different character from the schools just de- scribed but still true schools, having like purposes and com- mon means, but supplementing the common-school system, are the two reformatory institutions-the one for boys, at Plainfield, and that for girls, at Indianapolis.
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SUPPLEMENTARY EDUCATIONAL INSTITUTIONS.
A. BOYS' REFORMATORY.
The Constitution of 1852, in Article IX, required that there should be established by the General Assembly " houses of refuge for the correction and reformation of juvenile offenders." For fifteen years no steps were taken to execute the trust. In the Fourteenth Annual Report (1866) State Superintendent G. W. Hoss made an appeal to the Legisla- ture, based upon a study of " education and crime " and "edu- cation and pauperism," and their cost in other States and countries, for the founding of a reform school under the management of the State. An act with this end in view was passed at the next Legislature providing for a "House of Refuge," and appropriating $50,000 to secure a site and erect buildings. On January 1, 1868, the school was opened nominally, though the first inmate was received the 28th of the same month. Ten others were immediately transferred from the Northern Penitentiary, and by the close of the year the institution had 108 boys, in two families-i. e., in two groups, each with its own directive head.
Boys are entered only through commitments from circuit and criminal courts, and for crime or incorrigibility. If for crime, the boys must be from eight to sixteen years of age; for incorrigibility, a year older. All terms close at twenty-one, whatever the age at entrance, though tickets of leave are granted to boys when, in the judgment of the au- thorities, they are deserved. Nearly three thousand boys have at various times been members of the institution in its twenty-three years' history. Four fifths of these have been honorably dismissed, more than ninety per cent of whom have, by subsequent industry and manly deportment, jus- tified the training of the school.
This training bears a triple character, being, on its for- mal side, about equally intellectual and manual, with the whole environment and administration such as to yield the largest returns on the side of will culture, in mechanizing right habits and moral standards. Formal school work and some industrial interest occupy each about half a day. Ele-
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mentary instruction in the common branches is provided; and in the shops, about the houses, or upon the farm, sys- tematic instruction and daily practice are had in brick-mak- ing and masonry, plastering and carpentry, general cook- ing, tailoring, shoemaking, farming and gardening, with floriculture, stock-raising, and gas-making. Even as to this it is not a mere manual-labor school, but aims to turn the boys out fairly familiar with their trades on the side of the- ory. The school has a farm attached of more than two hun- dred acres; a dozen " cottages," in each of which is a "fam- ily " under the constant influence of a teacher known as the " House Father"; school rooms; a gymnasium; barns; and shops, in which, and by the boys, is done most of the work of every sort required about the place.
The school at present numbers from five hundred to six hundred. It is managed by a superintendent * appointed by and responsible to a board of trustees, who receive their appointment from the Governor of the State. It is sup- ported by annual appropriations of the Legislature.
B. THE REFORMATORY FOR GIRLS.
So far as known, Indiana stands alone among the States in having an institution for the reformation of wayward girls and a prison for convict women, each independent of the other but under the one control, and both managed by women. Throughout its administration the Board of Man- agers, the superintendent, matrons, and officials in both de- partments, teachers, physicians, and servants-all are women, and have been since 1877. About ten years before, the So- ciety of Friends had appointed two of their members, Sarah Smith and Rhoda M. Coffin, to visit the prisons of our own and other countries looking to some "plan for ameliorating the condition of female prisoners."
Governor Baker's interest was readily enlisted, and he recommended to the Assembly, January 8, 1869, the estab-
* Since 1880, T. J. Charlton.
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SUPPLEMENTARY EDUCATIONAL INSTITUTIONS.
lishment of " a prison exclusively for women," and that it should "be under the government of women." In May of the same year such bill was passed, establishing the "In- diana Reformatory Institution for Women and Girls," with S. A. Fletcher, Jr., Indianapolis, James I. Irwin, Columbus, and F. G. Armstrong, Camden, as managers. Mrs. Rhoda M. Coffin Richmond and Mrs. Emily A. Roache were a Board of Visitors. The reformatory was opened in Septem- ber, 1873, and the penal department a month later. Sarah Smith was the first superintendent. In 1877 the managing board was made to consist of women. In 1884 a woman physician was employed. At present all officials, clerks, teachers, etc., are women-indeed, every employé, except perhaps the engineer and watchman. In 1889 the name of the institution was changed by an act of the Legislature to the "Reform School for Girls, and Women's Prison."
To the reformatory girls are admitted who are not less than eight nor more than fifteen years of age, and may be retained until the age of twenty-one. For the last three years of service, at the discretion of the managers, inmates may live outside the institution upon tickets of leave, being all the while answerable to the authorities. For the last ten years the number in the institution has averaged one hundred and forty girls and more than fifty women. The average age of the former is twelve, of the latter thirty years. The support comes through the State treasury; but for every one of its commitments each county sending pays to the State treasury $140, where also all proceeds of the work done in the institution are deposited.
The reformatory is primarily a school; incidentally so the women's prison. Of academic subjects, the common branches only are taught, besides drawing and painting, three and a half hours each day being so employed. Besides books, however, are the industries, which are no less sys- tematically followed, and are, perhaps, even more service- able. Sewing, upon contract, cutting, fitting and dressmak- ing, knitting, laundrying, both domestic and for the trade,
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UNDER THE NEW CONSTITUTION, 1851-'91.
cane-seating, gardening, and general housework, are all in- cluded in the category of industries taught and practiced. Nursing in the hospital also is made a subject of instruction and training, girls being taught how to bandage sprains, dress wounds, take the temperature of the body, nurse, and prepare food for the sick.
Over eight hundred girls and four hundred and fifty women have been admitted to the school and prison since their opening in 1873. For the first ten years the statistics show that eighty per cent of those discharged from the re- formatory, and seventy-six of those from the penal depart- ment, have since led useful and orderly lives. Such results make it a school whose methods and management are worth consulting.
4. The State Soldiers' and Sailors' Orphans' Home.
This school and home was established first as a private enterprise about 1873, but became an interest of the State in 1878. It is known as the Indiana Soldiers' and Sailors' Or- phans' Home, and is located in Rush County, about two miles south of Knightstown. It is managed by a board of three trustees, of whom one is a lady. Its Board of Visitors is made up of representatives of the Grand Army of the Republic in Indiana, the Women's Relief Corps of the State, the Sons of Veterans, and the J. B. Mason Corps No. 62, Knightstown.
The name of the institution describes the field of its patronage. Children under sixteen years of age belonging to the homes of deceased Union soldiers and sailors, whether having mothers living or not, and children of permanently disabled or indigent soldiers or sailors, may be admitted to the institution, and shall be entitled to support and educa- tion therein until sixteen years of age. The law further provides that the children so admitted shall, through " lit- erary, technical, industrial, art, and military education," be so taught and treated as "to promote their physical, intel- lectual, and moral improvement," and shall " be trained in habits of industry, studiousness, and morality."
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SUPPLEMENTARY EDUCATIONAL INSTITUTIONS.
A kindergarten is provided and classes organized corre- sponding to the eight grades in the public elementary school, and including a full course in vocal music. Teachers are required to hold the license exacted of those who are em- ployed by the public elsewhere, and the course of study "is designed to prepare any child leaving this school to enter the same grade in any school of the State." The institution employs eleven teachers.
The law further requires the trustees to "establish and maintain shops wherein suitable trades and arts shall be taught and practiced in a thorough and comprehensive man- ner." Under this provision and as a part of the system of education ten industrial departments have been organized, including the printing-office, working twenty-five composi- tors, and which publishes regularly the Home Journal; the sewing room; carpentering; floriculture and horticulture; a bakery; tailoring; a shoeshop; gardening; farming; and practical engineering.
The children number from five hundred to six hundred and average about eleven years of age. In the industrial schools are enrolled from one fourth to one third of them. Each county is entitled to have in the home a number of pupils "proportioned to the number of soldiers furnished by it to the Union service in the Civil War." And for the sup- port of the institution the State provides a permanent appro- priation of fifteen dollars per month for each pupil and em- ployé.
As deserving of " special attention " is the cooking school, in which are taught practical and scientific cooking by a graduate of the Boston Cooking School.
5. The School for the Feeble-Minded.
The immediate suggestion of a school for the incapables among children in Indiana seems to have come from Miss Susan Fussell, who in 1877 was in charge of the State Or- phans' Home at Knightstown, and saw the need of some such institution. Fortified with information from the sev-
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UNDER THE NEW CONSTITUTION, 1851-'91.
eral counties, she could emphasize her plea before the Legis- lature. Charles S. Hubbard, Representative from Henry County, was given the material, in the light of which he for- mulated a bill, and a committee visited the Ohio school at Columbus. The movement failed; but in 1879, being again presented, an act was passed establishing such school on the same premises occupied by the Orphans' Home.
It was almost immediately opened, November 1, 1879, one hundred children being admitted. In 1885 the school was temporarily moved to the newly erected but unoccupied buildings of the Eastern Hospital for the Insane at Rich- mond. In July, 1890, more than three hundred children were given permanent and commodious quarters in the new buildings specially provided by the State at Fort Wayne, Indiana. These were built at a cost of nearly $200,000, and have surrounding them a farm of fifty-five acres. The in- mates, averaging a little less than fourteen years of age, number about four hundred, though it is estimated that there are from twelve hundred to fifteen hundred more classed as feeble-minded in the State. About two thirds of those admitted are found capable of taking some form of training. This is chiefly industrial, and includes sewing (both with hand and machines), the care of rooms, ironing, baking, knitting (with machines also), laundrying, table- waiting, tailoring, care of stock, farming, gardening, shoe mending and making, carpentry, etc. In the schools are taught, also, gymnastics, marching, dancing, physical drills, vocal and band music, and numerous games. These last are found to be extremely valuable in cultivating habits of bod- ily control, cleanliness, attention, use of tools, self-helpful- ness, etc. For the more intellectual training, lessons are given (to the few stronger ones) in elementary subjects, in- cluding drawing and history, reading, writing, and calcula- tion, with something in language. Reading to the Fourth Reader is taught. The kindergarten treatment is found serviceable for most of the classes.
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THE TRAINING OF TEACHERS.
6. The Young People's Reading Circle.
Of a very different organization, and with different aims, but yet supplementary to the common-school system as legally constituted, is the Young People's Reading Circle. After discussion by the State Teachers' Association, and upon the favorable report of a committee appointed to con- sider the question, the circle was formally organized in 1888. Its management was intrusted to the Board of Directors of the Teachers' Reading Circle. Its plan includes the recom- mendation of books of five grades (Second, Third, Fourth, and Fifth Reader grades, and an advanced section), to be read under the direction and constant knowledge of the teachers of those grades. The reading involves no expense to pupils or teachers other than the purchase of books. The names of readers are reported to the directory by the local teacher, and to each reader is then issued a membership card. The books may be bought by individual pupils, by the school as a body, by the school authorities for the local library, or by interested patrons. The books once read form in many communities the nucleus of school libraries. The membership is now about fifteen thousand to twenty thou- sand annually, with twice this number of readers.
CHAPTER XXIX.
THE TRAINING OF TEACHERS.
THERE are few phases of the educational development in Indiana more interesting or more encouraging than the preparation of teachers, and the growth of public sentiment upon the question. What Indiana schools have become, ranking with the best among all the States, is chiefly due to what Indiana teachers have become.
What was done toward their improvement by the early
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seminary has already been mentioned. It remains to treat briefly the agencies in more recent years having the same purpose. These agencies include, notably, (1) Pedagogics in the State University; (2) The State Normal School; (3) The De Pauw University Normal School; (4) The Richmond Normal School ; (5) County Institutes ; (6) Township Insti- tutes; (7) The Teachers' Reading Circle.
1. Pedagogics in the University.
As early as 1839 it was resolved by the Board of Trustees of the University "to establish a professorship to prepare teachers for the common schools," and to that end petitioned the Legislature for an appropriation of the saline lands in the State, or their proceeds, with which to meet the extra expense. It was proposed that "once in two years the pro- fessor in charge should visit each school district in the State !" Great good was expected to accrue to the Univer- sity, as well as to the teachers, from this policy; but the movement discovers not more the good intentions of the trustees than the very inadequate conception they evidently had of the function of such a department, and its possibili- ties. The school was not opened. The need of it seems to have been frequently discussed, however, and in 1847 a simi- lar movement was started to prepare teachers, but without any immediate good result. Such official interest without popular or financial support was necessarily fruitless.
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