History of Cincinnati and Hamilton County, Ohio; their past and present, Part 16

Author: Nelson, S.B., Cincinnati
Publication date: 1894
Publisher: Cincinnati : S. B. Nelson
Number of Pages: 1592

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In another place, the superintendent made a vigorous and wise protest against "verbatim recitations," in history and geography. The practice of the memoriter plan was introduced, he complained, by teachers in the recently organized Central High School.

The president of the school board, at the period of Mr. Guilford's admin- istration, was the Hon. Bellamy Storer. The board of examiners included William Greene, John B. Stallo, H. H. Barney, Henry Snow, D. Sheppardson, Joseph Ray, and E. S. Brooks.

Nathan Guilford was succeeded in office by Dr. Merrell, who, however, resigned before the close of the year for which he was chosen. A general State law was enacted in 1853, providing that superintendents of city schools should be appointed by the local boards of education. Under this law Andrew J. Rickoff was created superintendent of the Cincinnati schools, in April, 1854. The president of the board, at that time, was Rufus King, a most able and energetic officer, who held the position for some fourteen years, much to the advantage of the schools, and to the honor of the city.

A. J. Rickoff's Administration. - Mr. Rickoff, whose distinguished services in the cause of education constitute a worthy part of the history of this State and of the nation, was a positive and efficient superintendent of the Cincinnati schools, from April, 1854, to June, 1859. His will was strong, his opinions were definite and practical, his power was not much limited, and he worked with indefatigable indus- try. It may be said that Mr. Rickoff gave the school system of the city its fixed organization, its classifications, and most of its formulæ and regulations. The meth- ods of grading, of keeping records and school statistics, introduced by him, are essentially the same as are now in use in the schools. The question has arisen, of late years, whether indeed some of his rules and regulations may not have outlasted their usefulness, or whether the minute and restrictive organization which he gave to the schools has not impeded the progress it was intended to accelerate. Be the opinion of educators what it may, there can be no question that Mr. Rickoff fol- lowed his convictions and enforced his theories. Before entering upon the discharge of his duties he visited the schools of New York, Boston, Philadelphia, and Balti- more, and made a careful inspection of educational methods. In his first report, completed in June, 1854, he says: "My attention has been directed (1) to the class- ification of the schools; and (2) to the quality of instruction administered in the several departments." The superintendent put much stress upon the value of moral instruction, and thought the formal reading of Scripture, in school, was an essential support to the pupils' character. The security upon which he mainly depended for the real worth of the schools was the efficiency of the teacher, not the excellence of any system. He says: " If the teacher be incompetent or unfaithful, all is ineffec- tual." Mr. Rickoff recommended that there should be created a " Professorship of Didactics," in each of the city high schools, and the president of the board, Hon. Rufus King, endorsing the suggestion, urged the establishment of a Normal depart- ment in connection with the high schools. In March, 1857, a Normal class was formed in Hughes High School, for the training of teachers, with H. H. Barney as principal. The experiment was only partially successful, and the plan was aban- doned. But the effort led to the establishment, a few years later, of the Cincinnati Normal School.

Mr. Rickoff strongly insisted on the value of examination tests as a basis for the promotion of pupils from grade to grade, and as a measure of the competence and fidelity of the teacher. Much difference of opinion then existed and now exists, as to the soundness of his views on this important subject, but this is not the place to discuss the topic. However much thinking men and women may object to his mnode of employing examination tests, few or none will be found to disagree with Dr. Rickoff's opinion of the "memoriter " method of learning. In regard to this the

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superintendent says in his report of June, 1856: "In the most cases in which it is continued to be used, being as it is the consequence of incompetency, it will never be entirely corrected till we are supplied with teachers especially trained in their pro- fession." It appears from the School Report of 1857 that complaints against the abuse of the "memoriter" system, which Mr. Guilford named "verbatim recit- ing," and which is now called "cramming," became so clamorous that a committee was selected by the board of education to report on the subject. The chairman of this committee was Dr. C. G. Comegys, and other members were R. C. Cox, Will- iam B. Davis, William J. Schulz, and William H. Harrison. In their special report, dated May 23, 1857, these gentlemen say: "The genius of education sits, like Niobe, in our schools, weeping over the maltreatment of the minds which she would endow with so many charms; and memory, the deity to whom all incense is offered, palls at last, and rejects the . proffered sacrifice." The report closes with the emphatic resolution: "That this board is as much as ever opposed to the use of the ' memoriter' method only, because it injures the mind of the scholar, and greatly impairs the efficiency of the teacher; and that the superintendent make it a special duty to eradicate it from the schools."

Later Administrations .- In 1859 Mr. Rickoff, having established a private school in Cincinnati, retired from the superintendency of the public schools, though he remained a member of the board of examiners for teachers, and in 1864 he was chosen from the First Ward to the board of education; in 1860 he was elected president of the board, on the retirement of Hon. Rufus King. His successor in the superintendency was Dr. Isaac J. Allen, who held the position for two years, and in whose administration the "Objective " method of teaching was in high favor in the schools. At this period the distinguished Rabbi, Rev. Dr. Lilienthal, a prominent member of the board of education, took a leading part in the new movement, and became one of the authors of a text-book on "Object Lessons."

Dr. Allen was succeeded by Lyman Harding who discharged faithfully, with wise moderation, the duties of the office, for a period of about seven years. His adminis- tration covered the disturbed years of the Civil war, during which public attention was much diverted from local interests. The schools prospered, and Mr. Harding possessed the confidence and esteem of everybody. He retired from the office and from educational work, in September, 1867. In July of that year, the board of education reelected Mr. Rickoff to the superintendency, but he declined the position, and soon after was called to Cleveland to become superintendent of the schools of that city. John Hancock was chosen by the Cincinnati board to the position of superintendent, in September, 1867. Samuel S. Fisher was at the time president of the Cincinnati board of education.

In the spring of 1868, the board granted to the superintendent a three weeks' leave of absence, and made an appropriation to pay his expenses, in order to afford him an opportunity to visit some of the eastern cities to study the workings of their public schools and other educational institutions. Mr. Hancock set out on this tour of inspection on May 15, 1868, and, after his return, embodied in his first annual report, for the year ending June 30, 1868, the results of his observations. The report is a lengthy one, extending over sixty-two pages, and is a valuable document of its kind. The first schools visited were those of Cleveland, Ohio, then recently reor- ganized by Mr. Rickoff; and of these a pretty full description is given. From Cleveland he passed on to Oswego, and saw the Normal and other schools, under the guidance of E. A. Sheldon. Proceeding to Boston, Mr. Hancock was entertained by Supt. Philbrick, who explained to him all the peculiarities of the common-school system as exhibited in the famous center of Yankee culture.

After recounting the particulars of this eastern sojourn in a graphic manner, the report for 1868 deals with several other topics, viz. : State Normal Schools; Education in France, Prussia and England; and the Condition of the Cincinnati schools. The

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superintendent dwelt upon the importance of "good reading " in the schools, and still more earnestly on the paramount necessity of "moral education " in all grades. A step in progress is marked in the announcement that, "It is proposed, the coming year, to begin the instruction of all the pupils in our public schools in drawing." "This," says the report, "is an experiment that has not been made in any other city in this country."

Mr. Hancock's semi-annual report, January, 1869, discusses the several branches of learning required to be taught in the city schools. It states that the experiment of introducing drawing in all grades had proven successful; and recommends that phonography be made a regular exercise in the intermediate schools. The superin- tendent took much interest in the City Normal School, which was first opened in 1869, with Miss Sarah D. Dugan, of Oswego, as principal. Discussing the condition of pupils in the lower grades, Mr. Hancock suggested to the board that fewer hours of study be required of the children. He said, "I believe they are kept in school too long."

In his report of June, 1869, he calls attention to the fact that the gap is too wide between the intermediate and the high schools, and proposes a better adjustment of the courses of study. He warns the board and the teachers against the danger, always imminent in the schools of a large city, that modes of instruction may fall into mechanical routine; and deprecates such a result as fatal to the best ends of human training. He would have more attention paid to cultural studies such as lead to generous ideas, wide sympathy and lofty aspiration. As regards school govern- ment he declares, with the emphasis of experience, "Too much importance can not be attached to discipline in a great school system. It lies at the very foundation of both intellectual and moral success. A more thoroughly demoralizing institution does not exist than a disorderly school."

The superintendent's reports for 1870 are devoted largely to general discussion of the philosophy of education, and to an urgent presentation of the importance of higher learning as supplementary to the common-school courses. The merits and claims of the Cincinnati University are set forth with much force. Another question considered is that of compulsory laws to secure school attendance, which Hancock strongly favored.

The report for 1871 devotes many pages to school statistics. It also enters into the practical consideration of several minor details of advice, suggestion and criticism concerning methods and motives of school teaching and management. Objection is made to concert reciting, to mere memoriter tests of knowledge, to the abuse of the percentage system, and to a blind and mechanical dependence upon text-books and records. Dr. Hancock's opinion respecting the inutility of records of recitation is very positive. He says: "I am sure that the record of recitations of the pupils kept by the teachers of the higher grades of the district schools, and in all the grades of the intermediate and high schools, might be profitably dispensed with." In order to break up the prevailing tendency to parrot-like repetition of words without ideas, the method of objective teaching, to which the Normal School of Oswego, N. Y., had given a new impulse, was adopted in Cincinnati, and, for a time, it produced excellent results. The method was applied especially to language teaching, with the design to animate the observing powers and to elicit original expression. Mr. Hancock wrote with enthusiasm: "If the Cincinnati schools possess one distinguishing trait above all others, it is the prominence that language culture occupies in the course of study."

Following out the theories suggested by the objective method, and persistently combating rote study and perfunctory teaching, the superintendent made the most of drawing, music, and language lessons, as means of awakening the mind and firing a genuine interest in school work. With a similar purpose he introduced a new plan of imparting the facts of history-a plan of continuous and animated reading,

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instead of the cut-and-dried method in vogue. It was hoped the experiment would relieve the pupils of drudgery hateful to them, and as ineffectual as repulsive; but the new departure was only partially successful.

Taken throughout, the administration of Mr. Hancock, covering a period of seven years, was characterized by his policy of opposition to dullness, routine, "cram," and, in general, to mechanical as distinguished from vital education. The superintendent. thought constantly of the development of the children's faculties, and measured the value of all books and methods by their result in producing mental power and moral conduct. He saw no probability of much good to be derived from any study or system that was not intelligently applied by competent and conscientious teachers. His reports insist again and again upon the necessity of professional fitness on the part of instructors in every grade, and therefore upon the paramount importance of Normal Schools, Teachers' Institutes, and above all, the habit of reading. One of his reports strenuously urged the city teachers to make a systematic study of the science of education, and counsels every teacher to possess himself of a collection of reference books. The principal test that he would apply to ascertain the char- acter and culture of teachers and pupils is the test of a liberal, but pointed and suggestive written examination.

Dr. John B. Peaslee (1874 to 1887) became superintendent of the Cincinnati schools in 1874, and served until August, 1887, a period of thirteen years. He is a. native of New Hampshire, a graduate of Dartmouth College, and of Cincinnati Law School, and, before his election to the superintendency of the public schools, he had been principal of the Fifth District School, and afterward of the Second Interme- diate School.

Dr. Peaslee brought to the office of superintendent great energy and enthusiasm, good scholarship, decided views on the subject of education, and a remarkably invent- ive and versatile genius for arousing the ambition of children, and directing the current of school work in profitable channels. Perhaps the schools were never more in touch with the general interests of the city and with the demands of practical every-day life, than while under his control.

In the first year of his administration he instructed the teachers not to require home study of children in the lower grades. The number of hours of tuition was cut down also, and the length of the school year was reduced to forty weeks.

As regards courses of study to be pursued by the young, Dr. Peaslee held that " The greater the range of studies that can be taught well, the better." And that "The fault of too much study for little children lies in the direction of cramming in some of the branches, and not in the variety of studies."

The abuse of "Object Lessons," of which Dr. Hancock had complained, was an evil which Dr. Peaslee also labored to correct. Rules were devised forbidding a resort to forced and mechanical methods of employing a pedagogical principle designed to prevent routine. The superintendent substituted the phrase "Object Method," for the misleading term "Object Lessons."

In 1875, originated a lively movement to introduce systematic moral instruction in the schools. A special report on the subject was prepared by Thomas M. Dill, prin- cipal of one of the schools, and public attention was for a time strongly directed to ethical training. Nor was the the physical condition of the children neglected. The sanitary needs of the schools were looked into, and the eyes of the school children were examined by the expert oculist, Dr. D. B. Williams.

The School Report for 1876 outlines several of Dr. Peaslee's opinions and enter- prises in education. A new method of teaching addition and subtraction, called the "Tens Plan," designed to secure quickness and accuracy in arithmetical calcula- tions, was put in practice. The method came to be known as the "Cincinnati plan," and was adopted in other cities. The superintendent zealously advocated the study of the German language in the public schools, he himself acquired the language,

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standing in scholarship and of promoting them from grade to grade. It will be remembered that, in 1884, Dr. Peaslee recommended the board to pass a rule mak- ing the average between the teachers' estimate of the pupils' standing, and the result of the final written examination, the basis for promotion in all grades below the F. Superintendent White depended wholly upon the teachers' estimate as the basis of promotion in all grades .. Written examinations were not done away with, but, to quote the Report for 1887: "The written test is no longer made the basis for the promotion of pupils, and it no longer occurs at stated times, but it is con- tinued as an element of teaching where its uses are many and important." In the Report for 1888 we find the method stated thus: "The monthly estimates are made on the scale of 1 to 10, the number 4 and below denoting very poor work, 5 to 6 tolerable, 7 good, 8 very good, 9 excellent, 10 perfect. In reporting estimates the initial letters are used, Pr. denoting perfect work; E, excellent; G, very good; G, good; T, tolerable; P, poor; P, very poor."

In the period of Dr. White's administration a law was passed making it the duty of the superintendent to appoint all the teachers in the city, with the consent of the board. In the discharge of this delicate function Dr. White did not escape embar- rassment. As a rule, old teachers were reappointed, though some were dropped, and a few were quietly removed for cause. Discussing the subject the superinten- dent says: "The fact has been too often overlooked that the possession of a posi- tion by a teacher is of itself a claim to reappointment, if there be no good reason against it. But neither possession nor length of service can be urged as a claim in the face of inefficiency or incompetency, or moral unworthiness."

The law in regard to colored schools was so altered in 1887, as to do away with the distinctions of privilege that had existed, and to permit the black children to enter any of the schools on the same footing as the white.

The year 1888 was the centennial of the settlement of Ohio, and a great central Exposition was held in Cincinnati to commemorate the event. The grand Fair was opened July 4 and closed on November 10. The exhibit of the public schools was superior in every way, and its excellence was recognized by the commissioners of the Exposition who awarded it several prizes. "School Children's Day " proved one of the most notable of the distinguished days of the Fair.

The law requiring special instruction to be given in the public schools of the State, on the nature and use of alcoholic stimulants, and narcotics, went into effect while Dr. White was superintendent, and he was active in enforcing its provisions. One of his services in this line was to propose a special Report calling the attention of the school board to the violation of the law forbidding the sale of cigarettes to school boys.

Dr. White devoted his energies, with great vigilance, to the direct task of visit- ing schools, and instructing the teachers on all possible occasions. So vast and varied did he find the field of labor, that, in the Report for 1888, he declares that "The experience of the past two years shows conclusively that no one man can fully perform the duties now imposed upon the superintendent of schools in the city." He gives it as his opinion that at least two assistants should be employed.

On retiring from office, at the close of his third year, the superintendent sur- veyed the whole situation of popular education in Cincinnati, in a full report, in which he says: "The most gratifying fact, in the progress of the schools in the past three years, is the increasing appreciation of true methods of instruction, by the teachers, as a body, and their earnest efforts to get out of the ruts of mechanical routine."

The present superintendent of the public schools is William H. Morgan, who came into office in 1890. The history of his administration, of course, can not yet be written with completeness. Mr. Morgan came to Cincinnati with his parents in 1838. He entered the Third District School in 1844, passed through the several

Pendleton

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grades of the schools, graduating from Woodward High School in 1856. Entering the schools within one year after their organization, Mr. Morgan has since occu- , pied almost every relation to them. He was at one time president of the school board; for sixteen years he was principal or assistant, and was elected principal while he was still one of our country's defenders in the Civil war. Thus he was fitted by an experience in school affairs, of more than forty-five years, to understand the history and conditions of education in this city.

Though a review of Supt. Morgan's official acts and policy would be premature, there are some features of his Reports that may properly be mentioned. His judgment in regard to the utility of written examinations, and their value as fur- nishing a basis for promoting pupils, differs from that of his predecessor. In his first Report he writes: "It is my firm conviction that the progress made in the efficiency of the public school work in the last half century in our land has been largely the result of the influence of a regular and judicious system of examinations -examinations not for curiosity's sake, but for that of thoroughness of the pupils' work."

Mr. Morgan recommended to the board, that promotions should rest upon the combination of "estimates " by the teacher, and " examinations;" and in his report. for 1892, he reiterates the same belief. He says: "The exclusively estimate plan has been tried and found wanting, and the same may be said of the 'one examina- tion' plan, although I think the latter has less of sin than the former to atone for. The first has surfeited our grades with unprepared pupils, while the second has probably retarded some, who, if relieved of the embarrassment of examination, might have been advanced to higher grades and to advanced work, although I do not think this is pertinent to cases where the promotions sought were from grade to grade in the same department. It is, however, safe to assume that a pupil who is an applicant for promotion, should, at the year's close, be able to tell something of what he has been studying during the year. The excess of damage done is, in my opinion, fairly chargeable to the plan of promotion based exclusively upon 'esti- mates.' The main charges laid to the door of the examination system is that pupils will, in anticipation of the trial, pursue a method commonly styled 'cramming,' which in some mysterious manner may become something of doubtful service to. them."

Supt. Morgan's Report for 1892 is a vigorous document, and sets forth clearly his fundamental doctrines on education. The tenor of it is emphatically in favor of sound, practical training, which, he maintains, is only to be obtained by down- right hard work. "Pupils," he says, "must not live in expectancy of becoming scholars by playing school." In another paragraph he says, wisely: "I care little what may be the rules governing the schools, or what may be the narrowness or wideness of the course of study; or how elaborate or attractive the text books may be, the result of school effort will be a failure unless these implements or accessories be in the hands of a teacher, an educator."'

Supt. Morgan's latest Report, for the year ending June 30, 1893, again returns to the discussion of the irrepressible question "Promotion of Pupils," holding firmly to his original views on the subject. In his opinion, "The best and most. faithful teachers are not willing to have their year's labors measured by their own estimate; nor is the world at large willing to promote under the advice of one who, very naturally, might be biased." He affirms that "Instead of examinations being a bugbear, most pupils enjoy them. They have proved their efficacy with us for sixty years, and still the Colleges and Universities in our land are looking for grad- uates of our schools." Of course the superintendent's theory and practice in regard to the matter of examinations met with opposition in some quarters, and elicited much debate. But no voice of dissent was raised against his earnest declaration that " The pupil must be taught to think," and that " No public money is better

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History of Cincinnati and Hamilton County, Ohio; their past and present, Part 16

Author: Nelson, S.B., Cincinnati Publication date: 1894 Publisher: Cincinnati : S. B. Nelson Number of Pages: 1592

Author: Nelson, S.B., Cincinnati
Publication date: 1894
Publisher: Cincinnati : S. B. Nelson
Number of Pages: 1592