Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1912-11-27
Education in Arkansas.

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That industrial training, often sup
posed to be a recent innovation in
American education, was introduced
into Indian schools in Arkansas so or
80 years ago. IS shown by stephen b.
Weeks in a bulletin, History of Pub
lie School Education in Arkansas, -
just issued by the United States Blu
reau of Education. The boys in these
early schools were taught the elements
of agriculture, the girls needlework
and domestic science, and all We're in
structed in habits of industry, neat
ness, and order. At least one school
was almost self-supporting. As early
at 1910, Governor Yell sent a message
TO the assembly containing recon-
mendations for agricultural and me
chanical training that mark him as a
pioneer in this significant phase of
modern education.
Schools of the ante bellum days in
Arkansas were not free" in our
sense, since the poor We're 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 reli-
gion, was left to personal inclination.
, The population was small Indifferent
to culture, bent on the conquest of
nature and very widely scattered.
Progress was soon halted by the Civ
il War During the war education re-
ceiveG scant attention. The recon-
struction period, likewise, was neees-
sarily a period of adjustment rather
than of achievement, but during this
epoch certain important principles
were definitely adopted: Public taxa
ton for the support of the schools;
establishment of the position of SUI
perintendent of public instruction as
a separate State office: the education
of the whole people, both black and
white; and the ultimate ideal of COM
pulsory education.
With the restoration of home rule
in 1874 and the Incorporation of the
| public school system :, uneauivoeally
into the constitution of that year, the
permanency of public education was
assured. Since that time it may fair
ly be said that the school system has
been administered in the interests of
all the people under "a policy more or
less uniform.
The slow but steady Improvement in
educational conditions in Arkansas
reached a climax in 1909. when the as
sembly passed two compulsory atten-
dance laws. and two acts on agricul
tural education, one requiring the
teaching of elementary agriculture and
horticulture in the schools, the other
|appropriating 100000 for special
schools to teach agriculture, horticul-
ture, and textile manufacturing. The
legislature of 1911 passed no less than
10 education acts. covering consolida-
ton of rural schools, compulsory at
tendance, the creation of high schools,
and the establishment of a State
board of education
In summarizing the purpose and as
pirations of Arkansas in education, DR..
Weeks says: THE people of Arkansas
have been thoroughly honest with
themselves; they are not in the habit
of claiming that their system is better
than it is or better than that of other
States: they have boldly and honestly
sought to know the true situation, re-
gardless of their relative rank Their
educational leaders have recognized
their shortcomings, their blunders
their failures, their injustice to them
selves. and with steadiness of purpose
sometimes exceedingly slow, it is
true, but none the less sure-they have
sought to amend the errors of earlier
days and to lay broad and deep the
foundations of a school system that
shall grow and develop with the in
creasing strength and power of the
State
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