Anti-slavery bugle. [volume] (New-Lisbon, Ohio) 1845-1861, 1852-04-03
NO. 90.
UNION SCHOOLS.
~ ne People Of Perry TOrrship,

- snip, 10 IecclNe y thOtObn euuCahOHs Az 10 Oui
duty to furnish the means Of such an education,
For the discharge Of this duty, we have abun.
dent means, and the Legislature of our state,
has wisely indicated the method, by which it can
be accomplished, We ask your consideration
Of the provisions for the establishment Of
Union, Graded Free Schools. We ask it.
Because, our present system of common school
education is entirely inadequate to the wants Of
the community. Our district schools, with
even the best Of teachers, are necessarily inferior
In character. The funds do not authorize their
b.. continuance, as large portion of the year as
IS desirable, ucsless, incompetent, and therefore
cheap teachers are employed. They have not,
and cannot have, anything like suitable apara-
tus for the illustration Of science. They have
not houses, recitation rooms, and other conve-
nicnces for classifying and arranging their
schools. In consequence of these and other
insupcrable difficulties, they do not profess to
give anything more than the mere rudiincnts Of
an cducation-and even these are communicated
under circumstances of so great disadvantage,
that much more time is spent OH them than
would be necdful under a better organization.
The consequence is that those of our citizens
who can afford il, either sustain, select and
high schools in their ncghborhoods, or send
their children abroad to get that education they
cannot set at homo and this at great expense
OF money, and the necessary inconvenience and
dangers attendant upon the removal Of youth
from the parental guardianship. Or if too poor
for this and many are so, they arc obliged to
deny their children all advantages of education,
except such as our common district schools
afford. And with this no intelligent parent is
cohtcnt.
We desire that you consider this question,
because we believe that the adoption of this
Union School Law will enable us to have in
our midst, and accessible to all our youth,
schools adapted to the various stages OF
their progrcss-which shall be equal in char
actcr and excellence to the best high schools and
acadamics, in the land. Aud all their advanta-
gcs will be as freely accessible to the children
Of tic poor, as of tho rich.
We ask you to consider and adopt this plan,
because it can bc done without oppression or
injustice to any. To those who have children
whom they arc now educating at select and
high schools-this will in the end, prove eDi-
nenfiy an economically, arrangement. The
buildings once erected, it will cost them less to
pay their proportionatc expense for the cduca-
ton Of all the chi drcn of the township their
own included, than it docs now to pay the tut
ton of their own children, in the high schools.
This will be found to be true except in some
cases, when there are but few children and
large amount of property, subjected to taxa
tion.
by comparing the expense Of education in
those towns which have adopted the Union
School System, with that where education is
conducted by the district and high school sys-
tens. 1t is found that the expense, is reduced
ffty per cent by the adoption of this law.
Such are the demands of the people fer somc-
thing more thorough and better than the pres
cnt district system that free schools, Independent
of the district system, have been sustained in
Salem during the whole or part Of the last year
at an expense to the citizens of the town of not
less than $500. And without disparagng in tho
least, the merits of these schools, we may say
that they have all been inferior to what they
would have been under the same teachers with
the advantages which theUnion school system
affords; let il be also borne in mind that many
of the youth have not had the advantages Of
oven these select schools but have been COM
pclled to content themselves with the six or
three months tuition of the district school.
We do not ask you, fellow citizens to adopt
Missionary theory or attempt an untricd expert
mcnt The law for the organization of schools
upon the Union system, was enacted in lS49.-
Previous to this. the experiment had been sue
ccssfully tried under tho sanction of special leg
islation in several towns of the State. 1t has
sincc been adopted by other towns, and SO far
as known has, wherever adopted, and sustained
with liberality, been productive of the most
satisfactory results. In Wclsvillc, Massillon,
New Philadelphia, Canton and Marlboro, in our
immediate vicinity, the law has been adopted,
buildings erected, apparatus procured and the
schools put in operation on liberal pian-and
they have resulted in moro than the anticipated
success of their friends, and many. who from
pecuniary and other considerations were opposed
10 the Adoption OF the law arc no" huihOeieu
among its most enthusiastic supporters They
have shools unsurpassed in excellence by any
IN the State. And they arc justly the pride and
glory of those villages
The following synopsis of the law, embraces
the important features of the system
Section l. That any incorporated City OF
Town, having in itself or in tho territory there
unto attached, or hereafter to be attached for
school purposes, 200 inhabitants may be orsani-
zed into and established as a single School Dis
trict, in the manner and with the power herein-
after specified.
SEC. 2. That in order to such organiza
ton, written notices shall be posted up u
three or inore of the most public places u
said contemplated district, signed at least b.
six resident lreehOlders OF the same, request