The Indiana State sentinel. [volume] (Indianapolis) 1868-1895, 1881-02-02
education which has been successful


these experiments have been tried. Yer
some where about $50 Michigan
necticut also has a compulsory law, but have
not been able 70 learn when it was passed, though
i Is certainly eight or ten years since.
CONNECTICUT and New %e YORK S' city fy' is 1T It
that the operation of the law has been such rs to
have any appreciable effect upon school attend
ance. CONNECTICUT is small State and e has a
enthusiastic advocate of compulsory measures.
Up to 1879, however. only four prosecutions had
one Of manufacture for Illegal empioymen a'S Of
children OF school age. Secretary NOrthrOp
frankly says: Instead ofbrandishing the penal
ground and urged mainly the great advantages of
education" He 'naively adds that these per
Sr S are often enforced
desire to avoid the painful duty" etc. etc.
which delicate hint he thinks sometimes works
very potently. With this law. and all other
means which have been employed in Connect
cut since the passage of the law. comparing
that an increase of .S75 in the number of school
age in the State -l6). there has been an increase
OF only $50 on the Public School roll. Total in
322l7. IL would be instructive TO make COM
parisOn between Connecticut and our own State
ms S, nol ns uone aecuLately oecs.use inc IegaI
ure for the two States You may draw some in
, ference, however. from the following facts: In
Schools sos per cent. of the children between
four and sixteen years of age. In 1876 three years
earlier, Indiana had on her rolls SIS per cent OF
, cuts attendance is manifestiy higher than In
diana's or would appear TO be so, if measured by
the same standard. But considering
and other differences which would
, have an important bearing upon matters of this
kind, the showing is not one which need greatly
alarm or mOrtify citizen of the HOosier State.
Under the NewYork law, as far as i can learn,
side OF the city of New York. After the law had
been in operation one year, Dexter A. Hawkins,
, Chairman OF Educational Committee of New
York Council of Political Reform" gives to the
public summary of results. He estimates that
in one year, by the operation of the law, nearly
5000 children were induced to abandon course
of idleness and vagrancy. rut a careful analysis
of facts brings to light the fact that II is not to the
compulsory clause TO which credit for this result
is TO be given II is rather to the truant act Ii Is
stated that, TO the happy surprise OF the iruant
Agents, they soon found that parents, instead of
I opposing their efforts, were ready to aid them
many Instances the parents themselves
would send to the truant officer 70 come and help
them put their children III school. Every par
ent" the report goes on to say, however poor, Is
DESTROYS TO have his children get on better In the
world than he has himself"
year later a statement covering the years lS76
and 1877 contains the following paragraph: In
quiries made of city Superintendent as to the
carrying out of the provisions of the acts TO secure
to children the benefits of an elementary educa-
tion show that no effective steps have been taken
to endores them EXCEPT IN TIE e1y OF New aoTE
agents were employed to enforce the law, and
l., 500 cases were Investigated. In nearly halt of
these cases the children were found TO have been
kept at home by parents by reason of poverty
sickness or physical disqualification, while in
1,159 cases the homes of absent children
we're placed in school, and seventy nine
were committed to institutions where they
however, that this result, which is certainly
benefcent one, was brought about so much by
pressure brought to bear upon parents, as by the
activity of the truant agents in looking up
truants aud Migrants. No prosecutions OF parents
are reported.
Ouriufonnation
IN REGARD TO VERMONT
is less explicit, but there figures from which
| we may draw a conclusion. In the year lS77-S
| Vermont enrolled in her Public Schools a. per
cent of the children of school age. During the
the apparent superiority OF Vermont is probably
only apparent for the reason that the school age
in Vermont is from five to twenty. while in In
diana it is from six to twenty-onc. Every one
conversant with school matters knows that where
attendance Is permitted between the ages of five
and six there will be very mxch larger attend
ance at this age than between the ages of twenty
and twenty-one. think the figures indicate
gnie as high Vermont percentage in ShIs
shows better percentage of attendance; but
observe that the late reports of that State make
ding the employment of children who have not
attended school three months in any given year,
and not at all to the compulsory law which was
! The conditions in Michigan afford a better anal
ogy for our instruction than any in the Eastern
States. The compulsory law there has been on
the statute books now seven years. During that
time no prosecutions have been made and, as i
am informed by persons who are in circumstances
to judge, there has been no appreciate effect
upon school attendance resulting from the law.
There certainly has been no improvement that
comparfng the statistics of ISIS and is7e we find
that with an increase of 10 1S7 in the school popu-
lation reported at the latter date, there was an
ment. At its best, Michigan never quite
reached Indian8's figure, and now IL Is or per
cent below: it being impossible to make an exact
comparison on account of the difference in the
| school age in the two States.
Now, this decrease need not be attributed to the
compulsory law; that is not claimed; but II Oc-
CURED in spite of that. The reason probably is to
be sought III the unwIsdom of the Legislature that
abolished County supervision in that State and
thus lowered the standard of qualification re-
quired of teachers and thus rendered many OF
the schools inefficient and unpopular. At least,
thisis the reason assigned by the State Superinend
eat and by many of the Township superintendent
Counties.
have now given you the argument priori in
this case, and also, in part, the argument from
facts and experiment. II seems 10 Inc tnat
sers 9oubt as sG ~ the nrobabiitV Of
efecting total suppression OF illiteracy by COM
pulsOry legislation. The truth is, the habits and
temper of our people are not such as TO invite any
great amount ofinquis;iveness into family affairs
on the part of the powers that be- Ii was this
feeling probably more than anything else. that
secured the repeal of the income tax, the most
equitable form of taxation devised ii II could
be honestly collected.
! The delicacy of making the inquiries necessary
to the enforcement of the law under consider
alton, is such as 10 inspire school officers univer
sally with an Inyincible repugnance to pursuing
the Necessary Investigations IL Is true, they are
liable to a penalty for neglect to perform their
duty but there is no case on recor1 OF any prose-
cution of an officer for neglect OF this kind, nor Is
there likely to be any.
But let us indulge the superstition that all the
difficulties of execution are surmOunted, and that
we have an educational executive man on board,
as the may be, without fear or favor, with as
many eyes as Argus and as many hands as BriaTe-
us-in other words. that we have an AdminisTa-
ton
AS PERFECT AS THAT OF PRUSSIA.
Should we. then, have reason to expect an ideal
state Of society In 1885, twenty-six years after
the present system of public education went into
effect in Prussia per cent. OF the young men be
tween the ages of twenty and twenty-five were
destitute of an elementary education. In 1913,
the average number attending the elementary
schools Of Prussia was COS, 97S little more than
% per cent less than the whole number of cnild-
rem in the Empire between the ages of seven and
fourteen which Is the age during which cOmpul-
sorry attendance is supposed TO be enforced. In
1855, the whole enrolment of the Primary Schools
was lS4 10 less than the number between seven
and fourteen. This is about per cent. OF the en-
tire number. In 1875, only about IL per cent of
the children of Indiana between six and fifteen
were not senrolled in the Public Schools. II
- L.Na~