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Published Monthly, except July and August, by the Department of the Interior, Bureau of Education
Secretary of the Interior, HUBERT WORK
Commissioner of Education, JOHN JAMES TIGERT

VOL. XI

WASHINGTON, D. C., MARCH, 1926

No. 7

George Washington Lavished Upon His Country a Wealth of Genius

Our World is Better than That into Which He was Born. Materially and Spiritually Things Were Then at a Low Ebb. Washington Took Leading Part in Directing Results of Intellectual Awakening. His Formal Education was Completed Early, but Powers were Developed by Experience, Observation, and Absorption. America Has Not Failed to Follow His Precepts

I

By CALVIN COOLIDGE, President of the United States

T IS DOUBTFUL if anyone outside of certain great religious teachers ever so thoroughly impressed himself on the heart of humanity as has George Washington. No figure in America has been the subject of more memorial tributes and more unstinted praise. And yet the subject never seems to be exhausted and the public interest never seems to be decreased. The larger our experience with affairs of the world, the more familiar we become with his life and teachings, the more our admiration enlarges, and the greater grows our estimation of his wisdom. He represented the marvelous combination of the soldier, the patriot, and the statesman. In the character of each he stands supreme.

Increasing Years Prove His Greatness

As a brave soldier he won the Revo

lutionary War. As an unselfish patriot he refused to use the results of that victory for his own benefit, but bestowed them all on his fellow countrymen. As a wise statesman, gathering around him the best talent of his time, he created the American Republic. All the increasing years only reveal to us how universally great he was. If to set a mark upon the minds of men which changes the whole course of human events is teaching, then Washington ranks as a prince of teachers.

The world is not the same as that into which he was born on that February day in 1732. It is a better world. The stately march of civilization which has since advanced so far, has proceeded in a course

Portions of address before the Department of Superintendence of the National Education Association, February 22, 1926, at Washington, D. C. 83988°-26-1

which he marked out. The imposing
edifice of human progress which has since
been raised so high rests to a large extent
upon the foundations which he wrought.
To those who wish more civilization and
more progress there must be a continuing
determination to hold to that course and
to maintain those foundations.
If any
doubt what benefit these have been, they
have but to compare the present state of
America especially, or even of the rest of
the world, with what it was when Wash-
ington was born.

Glory of Old Regime Was Passing

History seems to indicate that he led and directed a transformation that was growing with an increasing strength over western civilization. The fires of the Middle Ages had burned out. The reaction from the days of Cromwell had run its course in England. The glory of the old régime in France was declining. The power of Spain was shifting to other hands. But while the old was passing the new had not yet begun. Materially and spiritually, things were at a low ebb in the Old World.

The finances of the people were in a disordered condition. It was distinctly a transition period in America. The early settlers who had come from the old country had passed away. A very large proportion of the inhabitants of the Colonies, estimated by some as nearly 90 per cent, were native born. The pioneer crusading fervor was gone. The new awakening had not come. The attachment to those institutions that are represented by an order of nobility was breaking down. Both in the Old World and in

the New the ancient aristocracy was crumbling; but the modern democracy had not yet arisen. An era was approaching which was to give less and less attention to kings and more and more attention to the people. In that era Washington was to be the heroic figure.

Revival of Religion a Powerful Influence

No doubt the most powerful influence which was working to establish the new order was the revival of religion. Another very predominating influence, sup-' plementing religion and flowing from it, was education. This movement was not new in the Colonies but it increased in volume after 1732. It has been claimed that the Reformed Dutch Church of New York founded an academy in 1633 and that the Boston Latin School was established in 1635. In the same year Boston took action in a town meeting to support a school, and in Connecticut and Rhode Island schools were opened within a few years. In Philadelphia, New Jersey, Maryland, Virginia, and South Carolina, and other Colonies, early action was taken to provide schools, but the effort was not followed up so assiduously as it was in New England, where the clergy were very active in its promotion. This influence was seen in the first compulsory school law in America, which was passed in Massachusetts in 1647. Towns of 100 families were required to have a grammar school and a teacher able to prepare youths for the university. Penalties were fixed for the violation of this law.

In 1732 there were already three colleges in America-Harvard, William and Mary, and Yale-with a combined at121

tendance which is estimated at about finally overcame this lack of early train275 students.

The intellectual awakening that went on between that time and the opening of the Revolutionary War could not be more plainly revealed than by the establishment during that period of only a little over 40 years of no less than 10 additional colleges. Then were laid the beginnings of such great institutions as Pennsylvania, Princeton, Columbia, Brown, and Dartmouth. When it is remembered that a knowledge of the truth has always been the maker of freedom, this remarkable quickening of the religious and intellectual life of the Colonies in these years just prior to the Declaration of Independence becomes of enormous significance. Rightly considered, it would have been an ominous warning to the British Government that America had long since begun to think for itself and unless justly treated would soon begin to act for itself.

While this intellectual and spiritual awakening was taking place during the youth and maturing years of Washington, he benefited by it not so much from taking part in it as in later directing the results of it. Although he lived in one of the most populous and perhaps richest of the Colonies, popular education around him was still undeveloped. Newspapers were almost unknown in the New World and permanent and regular lines of transportation did not exist. About the only regular visitors to his Colony were foreign tobacco traders, dealers in fur, and peddlers. The clergy were almost the only professional class. The people were very largely engaged in agriculture.

His Early Education Was Rudimentary

At the early age of 3, however, Washington was placed under the instruction of a tutor, who seems to have confined his teaching to the most rudimentary subjects. When he was 11 another man took charge of his education and began to instruct him in the fundamentals of the forms of business. Some of his copy books of that day are still in existence. There is evidence that he was taught some Latin, but his preliminary education was virtually completed when he was 13 years old. After this he studied surveying and pursued that occupation for several years. This was an exacting calling, training him in accuracy. But when he was 15 he came into close contact with Lord Fairfax, a cultured gentleman of 60 years, who had a considerable library. His diaries of that period show him reading English history and essays in the Spectator. But these early opportunities constituted only the beginning of his education, which he continued in one form or another almost

to the end of his days. His experience, his power of observation and absorption

ing, so that in his later days his writings, correct in form and taste, adequately revealed the great strength of character which he had developed.

His practical interest in education in his later life was manifest by his accepting the position of a chancellor of William and Mary College in 1788.

was 16.

In religion he conformed to the practice of his time. It is related that he was baptized when two months old and probably attended church regularly until he From that time until 1759 he was largely engaged in expeditions. After his marriage and settlement at Mount Vernon he was made vestryman in two parishes, for one of which he was instrumental in erecting a building. While he was not a constant church attendant, he was a constant contributor and always gave respectful consideration to the religious beliefs of others. He was tolerant in all things.

Was Tolerant in All Things

The mature opinion of Washington upon the importance of the intellectual, moral, and religious forces of the Nation is not only revealed by his actions, but is clearly set forth in his statements. He looked upon these attributes as the foundation which supported the institutions of our Republic.

The policies of Washington always had a national outlook. He warned his country against sectionalism. He promoted internal improvements calculated to bring together different parts of the Nation. When he came to the consideration of the problem of training the youth of the country he was not only in favor of education for its own sake, but sought to make it contribute to the national spirit. Believing thoroughly in American ideals and in the American Union, it early occurred to him that a national university would be beneficial both by the power it would have to present the principles on which the Republic was founded, and the power it would have to resist provincialism, by creating a forum for the exchange of ideals through a student body drawn from all quarters of the Nation. It is said that he expressed this thought soon after he took command of the Continental Army at Cambridge.

Made Bequest for National University

And he made a bequest to the National Government on condition that it cooperate in carrying out his wish for a national university. His desire for the increase of knowledge was further elaborated and reiterated in his will. In that instrument he even provided for educating the slave children which he set free. He made bequests to two academies besides that for the founding of a national university.

Although the Congress failed to cooperate, so that this wish was never carried into effect as he had contemplated it, yet the City of Washington has been made the seat of no less than 10 colleges and universities, and the larger institutions all over our country are more national than local in their precepts and teaching.

Probably an Institution for Research While there has been agitation lasting almost up to the present day for a national university, if the idea ever prevails it will probably not be an institution devoted to the regular collegiate courses, but one for postgraduate and original research work, for which there are such abundant sources and opportunities already located in the Capital City. The Federal Government, however, has not been remiss in the support of advanced learning and of vocational training, for which it has appropriated more than $90,000,000 in the last 35 years, while for general educational purposes it has donated about 95,000,000 acres of the public lands.

The country at large has not failed to follow the precepts of Washington. From the three institutions of higher learning in existence at the time of his birth the number has grown to 913, with a total enrollment of over 664,000 students and over 56,000 teachers, an endowment of nearly $815,000,000, and a property value of over $1,000,000,000. Our elementary and secondary schools have expanded until they provide for more than 26,000,000 pupils and require over 822,000 teachers. In 1912 the total amount expended yearly for all educational purposes was about $706,000,000. This has been increasing with great rapidity, until in 1924 it reached $2,400,000,000. The source of this enormous expenditure, so far as public money in concerned, is almost entirely from the local and State governments.

His Policies Were Policies of Peace This represents the result which has been setured by the carrying out of some of the most important policies of our first President. It should be noted that these are the policies of peace. They are based on a desire for intellectual and moral enlightenment. They are the only means by which misunderstandings, suspicions, hatreds, and wars can finally be eradicated from the earth. They are the foundation of order, of law, and of an advancing civilization. It is these elements of domestic tranquility and foreign harmony that Washington helped to build into the structure of our institutions. There is no other structure on which they can rest.

Envy, malice, uncharitableness, class jealousies, race prejudices, and international enmities are not realities. They do not abide. They are only the fictions of unenlightened comprehension. Those

who preach them are not safe advisers institutions. More than that, they are Joyous Demonstrations at Pacific

and not sound leaders. Nothing but discord and disaster at home and abroad can result from following these policies. Washington was the antithesis of all this. His writings and teachings breathe a higher, broader purpose, a more inspired leadership. No man clung more tenaciously to what he believed was right, or was prepared to make greater sacrifices in its support. But he viewed the right as a universal principle, to be applied not only to himself but to others, not only to his own State but to the Nation, not only to his own countrymen but to foreigners. There was nothing about him of the small American.

Believed that Obligations are Mutual

He believed our own political institutions were superior to those of other countries, but he never preached hatred of all things foreign and he made large concessions in the negotiation of treaties for the settlement of disputed questions which were for the advantage of foreign nations. He believed that obligations were mutual; that what we expected to receive we should be ready to give, both in the field of citizenship and in the larger domain of international relations. He clung to the realities. That was his greatness.

Washington has been known as one of the most practical of leaders. He was not emotional. He was possessed of that broad comprehension of a situation which made his judgment eminently sound. With the possible exception of the field of Monmouth, when disobedience to his orders amounting almost to treachery was losing the day, history always reveals him as calm, cool, and collected. He always knew what he was doing. He was not a sentimentalist. But he was a man capable of deep and abiding affection and of exalted and inspiring ideals. He loved his country with an abounding devotion. He lavished upon it a wealth of genius.

Desired Intellectual, Moral, and Spiritual Life

We are wont to think of him as a military commander and a civil administrator--as a man of public affairs. He was surpassingly great in all of that. But he was very much more. He wished to see his country not only materially prosperous and politically successful, but beyond that, and above it, he wished to see the intellectual, moral, and spiritual life of the people developed. This is the side of Washington to which too little attention has been given. He did not fail during his lifetime to give the most painstaking thought to these subjects. In his farewell address he solemnly warned his countrymen that these are the foundations on which rest all American

the foundations on which all civilization must rest. It is as an expounder of these great principles that he performed. the greatest service for the world

Our country has prospered, our Government is secure. But that prosperity and that security flow from the school and the church. They are the product of the mind and the soul. They are the result of the character of the American people. Through and through Washington is the great example of character. He sought to bestow that heritage upon his country. We shall fail in our estimation and understanding of him unless we remember that during his lifetime he helped to build a place of religious worship; in his will be provided for institutions of learning, and in his farewell address he emphasized the spiritual values of life. But what he did was even more eloquent than what he said. He was a soldier, a patriot, a statesman; but in addition to all these he was a great teacher.

California's History Shown in
Pictures

A pictorial history of California has been compiled by the University of Southern California, Los Angeles. The 271 pictures assembled present the Indian and mission periods in California, the days of '49, and include agricultural and industrial activities past and present. The collection is arranged in groups in looseleaf form in order that they may be available for simultaneous use in the study of

College

Recognition by the Oregon State Department of Education of Pacific College, Newberg, Oreg., as a "standard college" was made the occasion of an enthusiastic demonstration. The students paraded the streets with noise makers in great variety and gave every evidence of joy. A formal official celebration was held later.

In accordance with an act of the Oregon Legislature the Bureau of Education of the Department of the Interior was requested to classify the higher educational institutions of the State, and it was in pursuance of this act that Pacific University was recently rated as "standard".

Dutch Educational Congress at
Amsterdam

American teachers are specially invited to attend the meetings of the Dutch Educational Congress to be held in Amsterdam April 8, 9, and 10. Full information concerning it may be had of P. A. Diels, editor of Pædogogische Studien, 80 Jacob Obrechstraat, Amsterdam, Holland. Mr. Diels is a frequent contributor to SCHOOL LIFE, and through him the recent developments in Dutch education have been made well known to American school men. The congress will undoubtedly offer much to those who are able to attend.

To prepare teachers for training apgeography, civics, domestic science, agri- prentices in the plumbing trade, a two

culture, and economics.

Wichita, Kans., a city of about 72,000 people in 1920, has built a million-dollar high school upon a campus of 68 acres. The grounds include experimental agricultural plots and an athletic field.

LET

weeks' intensive teacher-training course was offered in Pittsburgh, Pa., from February 22 to March 6. The faculty of eight instructors is drawn from the University of Pittsburgh, Carnegie Institute of Technology, and the National Trade Extension Bureau of the Plumbing and Heating Industries.

Dedicated to Pious Uses

ET US NOW with earnest hearts and with exalted faith and hope solemnly consecrate this building to its high and holy purpose. May the youth of this community for generations to come gather in this place to receive instruction in knowledge and training in virtue. May they find here every condition necessary to a true and enlightened education. Especially, may their teachers be examples of excellence in scholarship and character, seekers after goodness and truth, lovers of children, enthusiasts and adepts in the finest of all arts-the development and inspiration of human souls. May these rooms always be pervaded with an invigorating atmosphere of mental and moral life, and may no child pass from these schools to higher grades or to the outer world without having been made more intelligent, more thoughtful, more courageous, more virtuous, and in every way more capable of wise and just, of useful and noble, living. To this end may the blessing of God be upon child and parent, upon pupil and teacher, upon principal and superintendent, and upon every one whose influence will in any degree affect the work of education as it shall be conducted within these walls.-W. H. Scott.

Agent of the Divine Plan

To Celebrate the Birthday of the Beloved Dead is to Observe a Rite Higher than Any Found in a Ritual Written by Man. Features of Lincoln Won the Affection of a Race that After Half a Century Holds Them as the Emblem

THE

HE CELEBRATION of a birthday is a family custom, born of affection for the living, but when we observe it for the dead we have loved it becomes a sacred thing, a human sacrament, an ordinance that even nations recognize as a mass oblation.

Human events pass in rapid succession and those contributing to them are temporary, but the spirit of them returns to us again and again, if in fact it is ever away.

No name has lived long in history unless associated with human relations. The security of ourselves and our Nation is safeguarded by the heart and not alone by the head. When the natal day of the great Emancipator reappears on Time's dial I feel that we are called to observe a rite higher than any to be found in a ritual written by man, rather than to celebrate an accident of birth.

In plain view from the window where I work stands the Lincoln Memoriala consummation of artistic conception, artisan skill and patriotic pride, hewn from perfect marble from the mountains to indicate the affection of his countrymen. It is emblematic of this child of nature, an angular boy of the forests who was developed by the chisels of vicissitude in the hands of human events and polished by an immortal soul into a human monument.

This Place is Holy Ground When I stood by his tomb, at the place made historical by his life and consecrated by his last sleep, where no doubt every good thought has been expressed and every eloquent tribute paid to his character, I seemed to hear again the words: "Put off thy shoes from off thy feet; for the place whereon thou standest is holy ground."

The memory of a great soul is not dimmed by distance. As the tints of a master's painting are blended and softened into harmony by Time's invisible brushes, a family name, no longer spoken, may be haloed and sweetened and become our shrined mentor.

When those who have in life inspired us become that intangible presence we call memory, like the fragrance of a flower

Prepared for Lincoln Day ceremonies at Howard University, February 12, 1926.

of a Religion

By HUBERT WORK, Secretary of the Interior

it recalls and reproduces on the screen of recollection those lost to human vision, then we remember the first meeting, the time, associated incidents, and the characteristics distinguishing them.

Memory, like happiness, is something we can not explain, but it is the unbidden guest that comes when we are alone, to walk with us, sit down to dine, or perchance to sooth a broken slumber. It comes in compensation for the lost illusions of youth, when imagination has failed, and is a refuge for the loneliness of old age. None having seen Abraham Lincoln ever forgot him. His indescribable personality impressed the mind as the flash on a sensitized plate, and thereafter no one wondered at his great achievements.

His Face an Index to His Character

Men respond much in the same way to the ordinary usages and events of life. It is their behavior in supreme moments that discloses their quality? The vision to see and the courage to do distinguish men in public life. The spirit of our reaction to human relations among our fellows either submerges or sets us apart while from within it draws the lines of character on the human face. Unlike the title of a book which conceals the contents of a volume the face reveals character at a glance, that each may read for himself. The features of Abraham Lincoln, though set by responsibility and lined by sorrow, yet withal toned by the kindly light of reason, enlisted the confidence of a nation, the admiration of strangers, and the affection of a race that after half a century draws and holds them as the emblem of a religion.

The memory of him, although to most of us of historical conception, impresses men as no other. The traveler standing where he went out from into the world he was destined to glorify, and was afterwards returned to, crowned with the wreath of immortality, wonders at a logic that assaults our faith and finds no response in the human heart to the argument that death is oblivion.

Without thought of irreverence and influenced by centuries of transmitted belief in divinity, I have no mental process that dissociates the enduring characteristics of the Carpenter's Son

from those of this child of the woods. From the birth in the manger under the Star of Bethlehem to the promise of immortality to the thief; or from the cornshuck mattress to a nation in tears; neither is a far cry in years as we measure time. Yet it was long enough to immortalize two names and cause universal celebration of their natal days.

The one sat at the feet of the elders "hearing them and asking them questions;" the other was self-taught. The one was anticipated through prophecy; the other came unheralded.

Emancipated a Race from Slavery

One came to emancipate a world from sin; the other emancipated a race from slavery. The one a redeemer for all men; the other redeemed a nation.

It may be that we are purposely limited in vision so that we may only measure that which is human. Our minds wander if we attempt to discover the border line of the spirit world as they do when we for ourselves approach it. Otherwise we might attribute to Abraham Lincoln a divinity designed as an instrument to meet human needs. Or it may be we are yet so near to him that we can not see him. Or because the manner of his death, although it broke the heart of a nation, was less tragic than a crucifixion. I do not know. But he did implant beliefs in immortality in the human heart as no other man save that of the lowly Nazarene.

Perhaps it was his likeness to our human equation, and because of its limitations, that we can not understand his spiritual relations. That belief which asserts the divinity of Christ to be one of degree only and that the spirit of God is within us is not without its appeal, and the life of the Great Emancipator would support it.

The silent figure of a President of the United States, obscured from public gaze by the draperies of a pulpit, seeking courage and inspiration from the prayers of the church when the crisis of a civil war pended, was not far removed from the Master in the garden of Gethsemane.

Two thousand years from now, when human traits attributed to Abraham Lincoln and regarded as frailties have been forgotten, then the world may see him also as an agent of the divine plan.

Thirty-two State Superintendents
Discuss Rural Education

Consolidation Favored in Many States but Little Sentiment for it Appears in Others.
All Recognize that One-Teacher Schools can not be Wholly Eliminated. Efforts to Bring
Them to Minimum Standard

C

By EDITH A. LATHROP

Assistant Specialist in Rural Education, Bureau of Education

ONSOLIDATION of small schools and districts; standardization of buildings, equipment, and organization of one-teacher schools; and supervision of instruction are the topics which are foremost in the reports of the 32 State departments of education covering the year 1924 which have reached the Bureau of Education. Consolidation is discussed in 20 of the reports, improvement of oneteacher schools in 14, and supervision of instruction in 13.

These discussions state that consolidation is making progress in 12 of the 32 States, that its advance is hindered in 6 because of lack of funds, poor roads, and other conditions, and that there is but little movement for it in 2. The following paragraphs contain statements from the reports of State departments of education in the 12 States in which consolidation is specifically mentioned as a factor in rural school improvement:

Florida. With consolidation as the prime factor, many good rural schools are being evolved.

Most Significant Movement of Recent Years Kansas.-There has been no movement in educational progress in recent years in Kansas that has been more significant than the consolidation of rural schools.

Iowa.-The 388 consolidated schools of Iowa are distributed over 90 counties. ** * On account of economic conditions many Iowa farm communities have felt the consolidated school tax to be a burden. It is explained in the report that the department of public instruction has assisted consolidated school boards in reducing costs by recommending and approving the combination of certain classes in the smaller consolidated schools, the offering of many subjects in alternate years, and by eliminating surplus high-school teachers rather than lowering teaching standards.

Louisiana. The policy of consolidating small country schools into larger central schools was adopted in this State many years ago, and the system of consolidation has gone steadily forward, until now the number of one-teacher schools (white) is but little in excess of 600.

Minnesota.-The consolidated schools have brought improved educational op

portunities to one-seventh of the rural
children.

New Mexico.-The number of one and

two teacher schools are gradually being
reduced through two agencies (a) in-
creased school population and enrollment
and (b) school consolidation.

Oklahoma.-There are near 400 central-
ized schools-that is, union graded or
consolidated. This means that in 400
rural communities of Oklahoma a graded
elementary school and a high-school
education have been put within reach of
the country child.

Steady Improvement in Rural Schools

South Carolina. From the standpoint of organization there is steady and rapid improvement in the rural schools, as is evidenced by the decrease in the number of one-teacher schools and a corresponding increase in the number of rural consolidated and high schools.

South Dakota.-The increase in consolidated high schools as compared with the number of the preceding biennial is only a slight indication of how extensively rural eighth grade graduates are taking up high-school work.

Washington.-This State has made a remarkable gain in the number of its consolidated school districts since the first one was organized in 1902.

West Virginia.-There has been a steady increase in the number of consolidated schools during the past two years. It has been our policy to encourage this movement only when a consolidation was considered feasible, with the result that the progress has been stable.

Wyoming. The department has encouraged consolidation whenever feasible. This year 3,922 children were transported. Several rather extensive consolidation

projects are under way.

The reports from Delaware, Georgia, Nevada, North Carolina, Texas, and Wisconsin express opinions to the effect that consolidation is one of the great needs for rural school improvement, but that its progress is dependent upon other factors.

Growth Dependent on Building Program

The growth of the movement in Delaware is entirely dependent upon a building program, and ". 'were it possible," says the report, "to supply transportation and adequate rooms in new buildings consolidation would move on apace."

The department of education in Georgia does not believe that consolidation is a panacea for all the ills that afflict the school system, but it does say that it is no longer a problem of public sentiment but of the ability of school officials to finance it.

Consolidated schools are recommended in Nevada for the consideration of the few communities in which they can be worked out to decided advantage.

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