New-York tribune., 1904-09-17
Il PIONEER WORK.
n First Chronicle of Educational
EndeaUor an the United States.
A HISTORY OF EDUCATION IN THE UNITED
STATES. BY Edwin Grant Dexter. IN " eVO'
M s1 S8 The Macmillan Company.

In q remarkably compact work DR.. Dexter
has marshalled all the salient points in the edu-
cational development OF the United States from
the earliest Colonial times down to the present
Gay. It is in fact. he declares. more OF
chronicle than a history. Yet, under its various
headings. It is possible 20 gain a very oompre-
Lensive View OF our educational history gen.
orally, locally or along any special line Such
q work as this has long been needed by students
OF education. It is impossible to generalize
without facts and the facts relating to the
progress OF education IN America have been
until now widely scattered hard to get at ana
Ear from complete. With the thorough survey
OF the field now made by Dr.. Dexter. and aided
by his extensive photographed references the
student IS afforded abundant material upon
which 70 base his own generalizations. or TO in
terpret those Of others.
The beginnings Of education in America were
sn Virginia when, through the efforts Of Sir
Edwin sandys treasurer Of the Virginia Com
many funds and land were furnished for the
founding OF college early as 1919. But the
massacre Of 1922 put an end 10 the project, and
DR. Dexter doubts II any actual instruction was
ever given by this earliest prospective Ameri-
can university" Another abortive effort was
made in 1924, a year memorable as marking
the initiation of school legislation in this coun-
try, through an act Of the General Assembly
children. which probably resulted IN the estab-
liFhTnent OF a few schools. Ten years later
began an era OF schools founded by private be-
quest. From Virginia the course OF educational
history moves northward; southwark there were
no schools until after the opening years Of the
eighteenth century. The Dutch in the New
Netherlands were the first to follow the lead OF
the English in Virginia. and the school estab-
ished IN New-Amsterdam, with Adam Roeland-
a. %
being not only the first IN the colonies Of which
We have any record. but the one with the long
est continuous record fits lineal descendant being
;n active operation to-day. 1t not until
two years later that the first school was estab-
iished in Massachusetts,, by the foundation Of
the Boston Latin School in 1855, five years after
the settlement OF the town.
Conditions in New-England were much moro
favorable for the encouragement Of learning
than IN the other colonies. Never since In the
history OF our country says DR.. Dexter, has
the population a class been so highly edu-
Gated as during the first half century Of the
Massachusetts settlements. one man in every
two hundred and fifty had been graduated from
an English university" In fact the first steps
toward the foundation of a college had been
taken as early as 1890 though the moneys voted
for the purpose by the General Court of Massa-
chusetts were paid in, and the project
only materialized through the aid OF the bequest
OF John Harvard in 1888. 1T IS" comments
Or. Dexter. Undoubtedly largely to the intense
admiration for and loyalty 10 Emmanuel College
IOx6ordl the part OF these old worthless that
we are Indebted TO the exact type Of educational
Institution known as the American college"
The author then traces the trend Of the educa-
tionai movement in the colonies TO the time
when decline in the efficiency OF the grammar
schools and the demand for more advanced in
rtruotion led 70 the founding Of the academies.
These were first largely private schools, though
later the more important OF them were generally
endowed and were semi-ofncially under State
supervision. They gave way in turn TO the
modern high school. To Horace Mann, the first
secretary OF the Massachusetts, School Board,
IS due the credit for the educational revival
which followed the establishment Of the govern
rnent on a secure foundation. The development
OF the school system In the West was compare
lively more rapid than In the East, owing to the
fact that the pioneer settlers Of the regions be-
yond the AIleghanes took their schools. SO to
speak. with them. The schoolhouse was the first
public building erected in many Of the frontier
towns. In the South owing to the peculiar con-
ditions there existing. the history of the public
school movement is Of very recent date. cover
sng indeed, scarcely more than the last thirty
years. Considering the short time that has
elapsed since Its educational machinery was
really started. Dr. Dexter is OF the opinion that
magnificent progress" has been made. The
South to-day taxes itself more heavily for its
schools IN proportion TO its wealth than does
the great western portion of our country, though
not as yet quite so heavily the North and
East"
Interesting chapters are devoted 10 the de-
velopment IN elementary and secondary educa-
tion from the district to the graded school which
followed the concentration of nearly half the
population IN towns and cities. What the
T1culum was IN the earlier schools it is hard TO
determine. In the earliest records no reference
IS made 10 the study OF arithmetic. I'm the
seventeenth century the only subjects taught by
legislative requirement in New-York and New
England were reading. writing, religion and
capital laws" Comparing their opportunities
with the courses offered to-day from kinder
sarten TO commercial and manual training high
schools we receive startling impression OF the
difficulties under which our forefathers labored
sn the pursuit OF knowledge, and feel the more
keenly appreciative Of the rapid strides that
have been made from those crude beginnings.
One OF the most significant factors I'm this
tuition has been the unifcation and standardiza-
ton OF school organization and administration.
which Dr. Dexter follows through it's growth IN
all sections OF the country There is much yet
70 be accomplished in this direction, but the
work is constantly going
The latter half Of the book treats OF higher
and special education. the history OF the col
leges and the development of some of them into
the new type Of American university the train
ing OF teachers. professional and technical
schools. the education OF women, and the func-
tons of Libraries. newspapers and learned soci-
eties IN the working out OF the American educa-
tiOnal problem. DR.. De1ter's work is itself
useful contribution 10 the cause.