The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1933-09-21

Nearly CeICuIy alter IIle Immortal
textbooks of McGuffey, Ray and Har-
vey had made their imprint upon
American education, a country school
master, who, at the age of IA, had be-
gun to support his mother and four
brothers, lay awake in his tiny bed
room in house in Monongalia county,
Virginia, now West Virginia, envisag-
ing a system of graded elementary
schools that was to revolutionize the
school system of the United States
and come down to the present genera
ton practically unaltered.
This man was Alexander L. Wade,
who for more than half century de-
voted his life to teaching in Virginia
and West Virginia. Until his appear
ance the elementary school system of
America was, in fact, no system at
all, but rather sort of listless hodge
podge, with pupils passing Indifferent
ly from one textbook to another with
no particular goal in view. Wade rea-
lized the fallacy of this method and
set about to give every pupil def
mite goal toward which to work
Today, wherever there are public
schools in the United States, parents,
pupils and teachers talk of the
grades" 1t is with joy that children
everywhere are promoted from one
grade to another-from first to eighth
yet few people are acquainted with
how the schools of the nation came to
be classified by grades, how long the
system has been in vogue, and to
what county and state, historically,
the honor belongs.
Before one can fully understand
how Wade worked out his system Of
grades, however, it is first necessary
to have some conception of the Ameri-
can educational field as it existed
when he first appeared upon the scene.
That field was, to say the least. I'M
satisfactory. Multitudes Of school
lowing 1880 passed through the
progressive stages Of study required
to master the McGutfey Readers, from
first to sixth. Systematically, Ray al
so divided arithmetic into books and
parts; he grouped the mental
processes in one book, and in others
he included the calculations which
scholars" were accustomed to make
with slate and pencil. But there the
system ended.
In Virginia the old field and sub
scription schools existed prior to 1910
without system or regulation, and IN
that year the General Assembly Gre
ated the Literary Fund" from which
appropriation was made for the edu-
cation of poor children. This came to
be known as the poor or primary
school system, which the Assembly OF
1845 enlarged into system OF Tree
schools which towns and counties had
the opinion of adopting by vote. And
there it ended in lethargic condition.
But twenty years later, across the
mountains in that region which had
become known as West Virginia,
new turn was taking place in the field
of primary education. The members
of the convention which framed the
first Constitution of the sister state
of the Old Dominion conceived the
idea that schools should be free, uni
form and systematic. Therefore,
thew wrote into the Constitution this
command:
The Legislature shall provide, as
soon as practicable, for the estab-
hshment of a thorough and efficient
system of free schools, supported
by school fund and local tax.
4 +
Then, after the Legislature OF 1860
authorized the state superintendent Oh
education to prescribe a series of text
books. the Code of 1868 specified that
the uniform series of studies should
consist of photography, reading, writ
ing, arithmetic, English grammar, and
geography. Soon children began at