Perth Amboy evening news., 1912-11-25
EDUCATION IN
OTHER STATES.
Indian schools In Arkansas
Began Industrial Training
That Industrial training, often
supposed to be a recent ~innoyStion
in American educatto1- intro

That Industrial training, often
supposed to be a recent innovation
in American educatioDx~- intro
duced int Iadisn es6ooissAr kan-
6snety years ago, Is
shown 81 stephen B. Weeks, In q
bulletin, History Of Public School
Education in Arkansas" just Issued
by the United States Burea OF Edu-
cation. The boys In these early
schools were taught the elements OF
agriculture. the girls needlework and
domestic science, and all were In
structed in habits Of industry, neat
ness and order. At least one school
was almost self-supporting. AS early
as 1910, Governor Yell sent a mess
age to the assembly containing re-
Communications for agricultural and
mechanical training that mark his as
a pioneer in this significant phase OF
modern education.
DR.. Weeks traces in an interesting
and scholarly way education in Ar
kansas from the earliest days Of priv
ate academies and UNCONVENTIONAL
undertakings, on through the blight
ing period of Civil War and recon
struction, down into the active pres
ent, with it's remarkable record of
educational progress in the face of
great difficulties.
Schools of the ante-bellum days in
Arkansas were not free" in our
sense, since the poor were to be edu-
Gated, not for the protection Of the
State, but as charity. The ideal at
first was of a school rendered free
by endowment rather than supported
by public taxation. Education, like
religion, was left to personal inclina-
ton. The population was small, in
different to culture, bent on the con
quest of nature, and very widely
scattered. at is not surprising,
then" says DR.. Weeks, that no
general system of education was de-
veloped during this period"
What progress did not take place
was soon halted by the Civil War.
During the war education received
scant attention. The reconstruction
period, likewise, was necessarily a
period of adjustment rather than of
achievement, but during this epoch
certain important principles were
d~efneitely adopted; Public taxation
for the support OF the schools; estab-
liShment of the position of superin-
tendent of public instruction as q
separate State office; the education
of the whole people, both black and
white; and the ultimate ideal OF
compulsory education.
With the restoration Of home rule
in 1874 and the Incorporation Of the
public school system unequivocally
into tho pnnafitIIfinn Of that Unop thc
~permanency of public education was
assured. Since that time it may
fairly be said that the school sys-
tenn has been administered in the in
terests of all the people under a
policy more or less uniform.
h slow but steady improvement
In educational conditions in Arkan-
sas reached a climax in 1909, when
the assembly passed two compulsory
attendance laws, and two actson
agricultural education, one requir-
ing the teaching of elementary agri-
culture and horticulture in the
schools, the other appropriating
100000 for special schools to teach
agriculture, horticulture, and tex
tile manufacturing. The legislature
of 1911 passed no less than 13 edu-
of rural schools, compulsory attend
ance, the creation of high schools
and the establishment of a State
board of education.
In summarizing the purposes and
aspirations of Arkansas in education,
DR.. Weeks says: THE people of Ar
kansas have been thoroughly honest
with themselves; they are not in
the habit of claiming that their sys-
tenn is better than it is or better than
that of other States; they have bold
ly and honestly sought to know the