Every Child Should Attend School
The plan of this nation was not, and is not, to see how many individuals we can raise up who shall be distinguished, but to see how high, by free schools and free institutions, we can raise the great mass of population.
—Rev. John Todd.
I promised God that I would look upon every Prussian peasant child as a being who could complain of me before God if I did not provide for him the best education, as a man and a Christian, which it was possible for me to provide.—School-counselor Dinter.
Good school-houses maybe built, well-qualified teachers may be employed, and schools may be kept open the entire year, but all this will not secure the correct education of the people, unless those schools are patronized; patronized, not by a few persons, not by one half, or three fourths even of a community, but by the whole community. As was said in a former chapter, there is no safety but in the education of the masses. A few vile persons will taint and infect a whole neighborhood. In the graphic language of the Scriptures, One sinner destroyeth much good.
The better portions of the community every where provide for the education of their children. If they are not instructed at home, they are sent to good schools, public or private, where their education is well looked after. Unfortunately, those children whose education is most neglected at home are the very ones, usually, that are sent least to school, and when at all, to the poorest schools.
But how shall the evil in question be remedied? How shall we secure the attendance of children generally at the schools, provided good ones are established? In the first place, diligent effort should be made to arouse the public mind to an appreciation of the importance and necessity of universal attendance. This will go far toward remedying the evil. It should be made every where unpopular, and be regarded as dishonorable in a member of our social compact, and unworthy of a citizen of a free state, to bring up a child without giving him such an education as shall fit him for the discharge of the duties of an American citizen.
But there is a portion of almost every community who feel hardly able to allow their children the necessary time to pursue an extended course of common school education, and who are really unable to clothe them properly, furnish them with useful books, and pay their tuition. This class, although comparatively small, is not unimportant. The legal provisions made for such children vary in different states. Wherever the free school principle is adopted, their tuition is of course provided for. This provision in some instances extends further. The statutes of Michigan relating to primary schools make it the duty of the district board to exempt from the payment of teachers’ wages not only, but from providing fuel for the use of the district, all such persons residing therein as in their opinion ought to be exempted, and to admit the children of such persons to the school free of charge not only, but the district board is authorized to purchase, at the expense of the district, such books as may be necessary for the use of children thus admitted by them to the district school. The entire expense incurred for tuition, fuel, and books, in such cases, is assumed by the district, and paid by a tax levied upon the property thereof.
We have now arrived at an interesting crisis. We have exhausted the legal provision, generous as it is, and yet the blessing of universal education is not secured to those who will succeed us. Good schools may every where be established, in which the wealthy, and those in comfortable circumstances, may educate their children. Provision—yes, generous provision, though but just—has been made to meet the expense of tuition and books for the children of indigent parents. Still, they may not sufficiently appreciate an education to send their children; or, if this be not so, they may keep them at home from motives of delicacy, being unable to clothe them decently. How shall such cases be met? How shall we actually bring such children into the peaceable possession and enjoyment of a good common school education, that rich legacy which noble-minded legislators have bequeathed to them, and which is the inalienable right of every son and daughter of this republic?
Legislation has already, in many of the states, done much—perhaps all that can be reasonably expected, at least, until a good common education shall be better appreciated by the community at large, and be ranked, as it ought to be, among the necessaries of life. The work, then, must be consummated chiefly by the united and well-directed efforts of benevolent and philanthropic individuals.
Benevolent females—and especially Christian mothers, who have long been pre-eminently distinguished for their successful efforts in protecting the innocent, administering to the wants of the necessitous, and reclaiming the wanderer from the paths of vice—have felt the claims of this innocent and unoffending portion of the community, and have, in some instances, organized themselves into associations to meet those claims.
Benevolent and Christian females can doubtless accomplish more, by visiting the poor and needy in their respective school districts, and making known unto them their privileges, and encouraging and assisting them, if need be, to avail themselves of these privileges, than by the same expenditure of time and means in any other way. They have long and very generally been accustomed to clothe the children of the destitute, and accompany them to the Sunday-school, and there teach them those things which pertain to their present and everlasting well-being, and have thus accomplished incalculable good; but by co-operating with the civil authorities in securing the attendance of every child in their respective districts at the improved common school, they can hardly fail to accomplish vastly more.
Several associations have been formed for this noble purpose, and many children who, but for their fostering care, would have remained at their cheerless homes, have, by this labor of love, been sought out, properly cared for, and led to the common school, that fountain of intellectual life, and of social and moral culture, which is alike open to all. Gentlemen should everywhere encourage the formation of such associations, and, when formed, should offer every facility in their power to increase their usefulness. Clergymen might help forward such benevolent labors, where they are entered upon, by preaching occasionally from that good text, Help those women.
But there are two classes of our fellow-citizens—perhaps I should say fellow-beings—who, notwithstanding the abundant legal provisions to which I have referred, and the utmost that the benevolent and philanthropic can accomplish by voluntary effort, will utterly refuse to give their children such an education as we have been contemplating. These are, first, men in comfortable circumstances, who have so much blindness of mind, and such an utter disregard for the welfare of their offspring, as to deprive them of the advantages of even a common school education; and, secondly, those who have such an obduracy of heart as absolutely to refuse to allow their children to attend school, and who, although the abundant provisions of the law are made known unto them, in meekness and love, by “man’s guardian angel,” prove utterly incorrigible.
Such persons are unworthy to sustain the parental relation, and the safety of the community requires that the forfeiture be claimed, and that the right of control be transferred from such unnatural parents to the civil authorities; for, as Kent says, “A parent who sends his son into the world uneducated, and without skill in any art or science, does a great injury to mankind as well as to his own family, for he defrauds the community of a useful citizen, and bequeaths to it a nuisance.” How true is it that “the mobs, the riots, the burnings, the lynchings perpetrated by the men of the present day, are perpetrated because of their vicious or defective education when children! We see and feel the havoc and the ravage of their tiger passions now, when they are full grown, but it was years ago that they were whelped and suckled.”
In the very expressive language of Macaulay, the right to hang includes the right to educate. This is not a strange nor a new idea. It long ago entered into civil codes in the Old World not only, but in the New. In Prussia, when a parent refuses, without satisfactory excuse, to send his child to school the time required by law, he is cited before the court, tried, and, if he refuses compliance, the child is taken from him and sent to school, and the father to prison.
Similar laws were enacted and enforced by our New England fathers more than two hundred years ago, which history informs us were attended with the most beneficial results.76 Although their descendants of the present generation should blush for their degeneracy, still we should be encouraged from an increasing disposition of late to return to these salutary restraints and needful checks upon ignorance and crime. Said the Honorable Josiah Quincy, Jr., late mayor of the city of Boston, in his inaugural address, “I hold that the state has a right to compel parents to take advantage of the means of educating their children. If it can punish them for crime, it should surely have the power of preventing them from committing it, by giving them the habits and the education that are the surest safeguards.” Similar sentiments have been recently promulgated by the heads of the school departments of several states in their official reports, and by governors in their annual messages; and we have much reason for believing that the time is not distant when an enlightened public sentiment shall demand the re-enactment of these most salutary laws of our ancestors.
Compulsory Attendance upon School.—Since the preceding paragraphs were prepared for the printer, the author has received the statutes and resolves of the Massachusetts Legislature of 1850, relating to education, which recognize the principle here contended for. Each of the several cities and towns in that commonwealth is “authorized and empowered to make all needful provisions and arrangements concerning habitual truants, and children not attending school, without any regular and lawful occupation, growing up in ignorance, between the ages of six and fifteen years; and, also, all such ordinances and by-laws respecting such children as shall be deemed most conducive to their welfare and the good order of such city or town; and there shall be annexed to such ordinances suitable penalties, not exceeding, for any one breach, a fine of twenty dollars.”
It is made the duty of the “several cities and towns availing themselves of the provisions of this act, to appoint, at the annual meetings of said towns, or annually by the mayor and aldermen of said cities, three or more persons, who alone shall be authorized to make the complaints, in every case of violation of said ordinances or by-laws, to the justice of the peace, or other judicial officer, who, by said ordinances, shall have jurisdiction in the matter, which persons thus appointed shall alone have authority to carry into execution the judgments of said justices of the peace, or other judicial officer.”
It is further provided that “the said justices of the peace, or other judicial officer, shall, in all cases, at their discretion, in place of the fine aforesaid, be authorized to order children proved before them to be growing up in truancy, and without the benefit of the education provided for them by law, to be placed, for such periods of time as they may judge expedient, in such institution of instruction, or house of reformation, or other suitable situation, as may be assigned or provided for the purpose in each city or town availing itself of the powers herein granted.”
This principle has been incorporated into several municipal codes. Children in the city of Boston, under sixteen years of age, whose “parents are dead, or, if living, do, from vice, or any other cause, neglect to provide suitable employment for, or to exercise salutary control over” them, may be sent by the court to the house of reformation. By the late act, establishing the State Reform School, male convicts under sixteen years of age may be sent to this school from any part of the commonwealth, to be there “instructed in piety and morality, and in such branches of useful knowledge as shall be adapted to their age and capacity.” The inmates may be bound out; but, in executing this part of their duty, the trustees “shall have scrupulous regard to the religious and moral character of those to whom they are bound, to the end that they may secure to the boys the benefit of a good example, and wholesome instruction, and the sure means of improvement in virtue and knowledge, and thus the opportunity of becoming intelligent, moral, useful, and happy citizens of the commonwealth.”
The Massachusetts State Reform School is designed to be a “school for the instruction, reformation, and employment of juvenile offenders.” Any boy under sixteen years of age, “convicted of any offense punishable by imprisonment other than for life,” may be sentenced to this school. Here he may be kept during the term of his sentence; or he may be bound out as an apprentice; or, in case he proves incorrigible, he may be sent to prison, as he would originally have been but for the existence of this school.
The buildings erected are sufficiently large for three hundred boys. Attached to the establishment is a large farm, the cost of all which, when the buildings are completed and furnished, and the farm stocked and provided with agricultural implements, it is estimated will be about one hundred thousand dollars. A citizen of that state has given twenty-two thousand five hundred dollars to this institution, partly to defray past expenses and partly to form a fund for its future benefit.
“In visiting this noble institution, one can not but think how closely it resembles, in spirit and in purpose, the mission of Him who came to seek and to save that which was lost; and yet, in traversing its spacious halls and corridors, the echo of each footfall seems to say that one tenth part of its cost would have done more in the way of prevention than its whole amount can accomplish in the way of reclaiming, and would, besides, have saved a thousand pangs that have torn parental hearts, and a thousand more wounds in the hearts of the children themselves, which no human power can ever wholly heal. When will the state learn that it is better to spend its units for prevention than tens and hundreds for remedy? How long must the state, like those same unfortunate children, suffer the punishment of their existence before it will be reformed?”
Kindred institutions have existed in several of our principal cities for a quarter of a century, among which are the House of Reformation for Juvenile Delinquents in New York, the House of Refuge in Philadelphia, and the House of Reformation in Boston. Considering the degradation of their parents, the absence of correct early instruction, and the corrupting influences to which the children sent to these institutions have been exposed, becoming generally criminals before any effort has been made by the humane for their correct educational training, one may well wonder at the success which has crowned the efforts that have been put forth in their behalf, for the greater part of them are effectually and permanently reformed. This, however, only shows more clearly the power of education, and the advantages that may be derived from the establishment and maintenance of improved common schools throughout our country.
But how are these reforms effected? The means are simple, and are slightly different from those already described for the correct training of unoffending children. Take, for instance, the House of Reformation in the City of New York. In the first place, they have a good school-house, embracing nearly all the modern improvements. The yard and play-ground are of ample dimensions, and are inclosed by a substantial fence. This constitutes a barrier beyond which the children, once within, can not pass. But the clean gravel-walks, the beautiful shade-trees, the green grass-plats, the sparkling fountains, the ornamental flower-garden, all conspire to render the place delightful. It is, indeed, a prison in one sense, but the children seem hardly to know it. Then, again, well-qualified teachers and superintendents are employed. The spirit which actuates them is that of love. By proving themselves the friends of the children, the children become their friends, and are hence easily governed, considering their former neglect. Being well instructed, they love study, and generally make commendable progress. Their habits are regular, and they are constantly employed. A portion of the day is devoted to study; another portion to industrial pursuits; and still another to recreation and amusements. Strict obedience is required. This may be yielded at first from restraint, but ultimately from love. The love of kind and faithful teachers, the love of approving consciences, the love of right, the love of God, separately and conjointly influence them, until they can say ultimately of a truth, “The love of Christ constraineth us.”
Their industrial habits are of incalculable benefit to them. They all learn some trade, and acquire the habits and the skill requisite to constitute them producers, and thus practically conform to this fundamental law, “that if any man would not work, neither should he eat.” The other conditions that have been stated as essential to success are also complied with, the scholars being kept under the influence of good teachers, and of the same teachers from year to year, during their continuance in the institution.
The well-qualified and eminently successful teacher who has long been connected with the Refuge in New York, in a late report says, “The habits of industry which the children here acquire will be of incalculable benefit to them through life. Yet we look upon the School Department as the greatest of all the means employed to save our youthful charge from ignorance and vice. As it is the mind and the heart that are mostly depraved, so we must act mostly upon the mind and the heart to eradicate this depravity.
“The education here is a moral education. We do endeavor, it is true, by all the powers we possess, to impress upon the mind the great importance of a good education; and not only to impress it upon the mind, but to assist the mind to act, that it may obtain it. But our principal aim is to fan into life the almost dying spark of virtue, and kindle anew the moral feelings, that they may glow with fresh ardor, and shine forth again in the beauty of innocence. Our object is not to store the memory with facts, but to elevate the soul; not to think for the children, but to teach them to think for themselves; to describe the road, and put them in the way; never to hint what they have been, nor what they are, but to point them continually to what they may be.
“We feel assured that our labor will not be lost. Judging the future from the past, we are sanguine in our belief that our toils have left an impress upon the mind which time can not efface. Scarcely a week passes but our hearts are cheered and animated, and our eyes are gladdened at the sight of those whom we taught in by-gone years, who bid no fairer then to cheer us than those with whom we labor now. Yet they are saved—saved to themselves; saved to society; saved to their friends—who, but for this Refuge, would have poisoned the moral atmosphere of our land, and breathed around them more deadly effluvia than that of the fabled Upas.”
The success which has attended well-directed efforts for the reformation of juvenile delinquents, and evening free schools for the education of adults of all ages whose early education has been neglected, ought to inspire the friends of human improvement with increased confidence in the redeeming power of a correct early education, such as every state in this Union may provide for all her children. When this confidence is begotten, and when a good common education comes to be generally regarded as the birth-right of every child in the community, then may the friends of free institutions and of indefinite human advancement look for the more speedy realization of their long-cherished hopes. For one generation the community must be doubly taxed—once in the reformation of juvenile delinquents, and in the education of ignorant adults in evening schools, and again in the correct training of all our children in improved schools. This done, each succeeding generation will come upon the stage under more favorable circumstances than the preceding, and each present generation will be better prepared to educate that which is to follow, to the end of time.