The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1912-11-29
EDUCATION IN ARKANSAS.

That industrial training, often sup. posed to be a recent innovation in American education, was introduced finto Indian schools in Arkansas eighty or ninety years ago.. is shown by. ste- phen B. Weeks in a bulletin, History of Public School Education in Ar
 States Bureau of Education. The boys in these early schools were
 taught the clements of agriculture. the girls needlework and domestic science, and all were instructed in habits of industry, neatness, and or- der. At least one school was almost self-supporting. As early as 1s40. Governor Yell sent message to the
 assembly containing recommendations
 for agricultural and mechanical training that mark him as a pioneer
 in this significant phase of modern
 education.
 pr. Weeks traces in an interesting
 and scholarly way education in Ar
 kansas from the earliest days of pri-
 undertakings. on through the blight.
 ing period of the Civilg War and re-
 construction. down into the active
 present, with it's remarkable record
 of educational progress in the face
 of great difficulties. 'i- | Schools of the ante bel1un days in Arkansas were not free in our sense
 since the poor were to be educated, not for the protection of the State.
 but as charity. The ideal at first
 was of a school rendered. free by en-
 dOWmGnG TaEnGc- than SuppOFled OY
 public taxation Educati-n, like re- .ligion, was left to personal inclination. The population. was small indifferent to culture, bent O the conquest of is not surprising, then,s says Dr. Weeks, that no general system of ed- ucation was developed during this periOd.',
 What progress, did take place was soon halted-by the Civil War. During the war education received scant at tentfon. The reconstruction period, likewise, fas necessarily a period of adjustment rather than of achieve
 nent, but during this epoch Certain important principles were definitely 1 support of the schools; esta blish- l ment of the position of superinten-l dent of public instruction as a sepa- rate state oI1'cs; So+ Jne bfaen 9aIeauon or the and the ultimate ideal of compulsory l education.
 with the restoration of home rule in 1874 and the Incorporation of the l system unequivoca1ly in l to the constitution of that year, the | permanency of puSlic education was fairly be said that the school system l has been administered in the inter l ests of all the people under a policy | more or less uniform.
 The slow but steady =improveme ent 1 in educational conditions in Arkansas | a. climax in 1909, when the 1 assembly passed two compulsory at tendance laws, and two acts on agri- cultural education, one requiring the l teaching. of elementary agriculture l and horticulture in the schools. the | cial schools to teach agriculture. hor- ticulture, and textile manufacturing The legislature of 1911 passed no less than 13 education acts. covering con solidation of rural schools, scornpul- l sorry attendance. the creation of high | and the establishment of a | State board of education
 In summarizing the purposes and | aspirations of Arkansas in education, 1 Dr. Weeks says: taThe people of Ar 'sansas have Hoeens thoroughly hon st with themselves; they are not in | he habit of claiming that their sys- lem is better than it is or better than |