and in furnishing the fullest information upon every conceivable phase of educational activity to whomsoever would accept it. Its operations have by no means been confined to the United States. It has become the great educational clearing house of the world. The commissioners who have been at the head of this bureau have been eminent men and great educational leaders. The present commissioner, Dr. William T. Harris, stands without a peer as the most philosophical thinker and the readiest writer upon educational subjects in the world. Under such fortunate direction the bureau of education has collected the facts and made most painstaking research into every movement in America and elsewhere which gave promise of advantage to the good cause of popular education.

So, while the government of the United States is not chargeable under the constitution with providing or supervising schools, and while it does not exercise authority in the matter, it will be quickly seen that it has been steadily and intelligently and generously true to the national instinct to advance morality and promote culture by its influence and its resources.

PRIVATE INSTITUTIONS

Up to this time we have been treating of the American public school system, using the term in its strictest sense. We have been referring to the schools supported by public moneys and supervised by public officers. Yet there is an infinite number of other schools which comprise an important part of the educational system of the country and are of course subject to its laws. Any statement concerning American school organization and administration, even of the most general character, would be incomplete which did not cover these, but obviously it is not desirable in this connection to do more than touch upon the relation in which they stand, by common usage and under the laws, to American education.

In the first half of the century just closing many private "academies" or "seminaries" sprang up in all directions

where the country had become at all settled. This was in response to a demand from people who began to reach out, but could not get what they wanted in the common schools. Any teacher with a little more than ordinary gifts could open one of these schools upon a little higher plane than usual and very soon have an abundance of pupils and a profitable income. Many of these institutions did most excellent work. Not a few of the leading citizens of the country owe their first inspiration and much help to them. The larger part of these schools served their purpose and finally gave way to new public high schools. Some yet remain and continue to meet the desires of well-to-do and select families who prefer their somewhat exclusive ways. A considerable number have been adopted by their states and developed into state normal schools, and not a few have by their own natural force grown into literary colleges.

The earlier American colleges were, in the beginning, in a large sense the children of the state. Yale, Harvard, Princeton, Columbia were all chartered by and in some measure supported by their states at the start, and are yet subject to the law, though they have become independent of such support. A vast number of colleges has been established by the religious denominations for the training of their ministry, and, so far as possible, for giving all their youth a higher education while keeping them under their denominational influence.

In recent years innumerable schools have arisen out of private enterprise. Every conceivable interest has produced a school to promote its own ends and accordingly adjusted to its own thought. So professional, technical, industrial and commercial schools of every kind have sprung up on every hand.

All such schools operate by the tacit leave of the states in which they exist. The states are not disposed to interfere with them, as they ask no public support. Some of them hold charters granted by the legislature, and more secure recognized standing by organizing under general cor

poration laws enacted to cover all such enterprises. In some cases the states distribute public moneys to some of these institutions by way of encouragement, and perhaps impose certain conditions upon which they shall be eligible to share in such distributions. But ordinarily a state does no more than protect its own good name against occasional impostors who wear the livery of heaven to serve the devil more effectually, and it is feared that some states have not yet come to do this as completely as they ought.

The tendency to regulate private schools by legislation, to the extent at least of seeing that they are not discreditable to the state, is unmistakable. New York, for example, has prohibited the use of the name "college" or "university' except when the requirements of the state board of regents All of the reputable institutions, and they constitute nearly the whole number,—desire reasonable supervision, for it certifies their respectability and constitutes them a part of the public educational system of the state.

are met.

EXPERT SUPERVISION

It has not been convenient in tracing the preceding pages to treat of an exceedingly important phase of the American school system which distinguishes that system from any other national system of education, and which has come to be well established in our laws; that is, supervision by professional experts, both generally and locally.

From the beginning the laws have provided methods for certificating persons deemed to be qualified to teach in the schools. This has ordinarily been among the functions of state, city, and county superintendents or commissioners. Sometimes boards of examiners have been created whose only duty should be to examine and certificate teachers. The functions of certificating and of employing teachers have, for obvious reasons, not commonly been lodged in the same officials. Superintendents began to be provided for by law in the early part of the century. The first state superin

tendency was established by New York in 1812. Other states took similar action in the next thirty years. Town, city and county superintendencies came along rapidly, and by or soon after the middle of the century had been set in operation in most parts of the then settled country.

The main duty of these officials in the earlier days was to examine candidates for teaching, report statistics, and make addresses on educational occasions. In later years, however, they are held in considerable measure responsible for the quality of the teaching. In the country districts the superintendents hold institutes, visit the schools, commend and criticise the teaching, and exert every effort to promote the efficiency of the schools, until a discreet and active county superintendent comes to exert almost a controlling influence over the school affairs of his county.

In the cities, and particularly the larger ones, the problem is much more difficult. The teachers are much greater in number and the task of securing persons of uniform excellence is much enlarged. The schools are less homogeneous and instruction less easy. Frequently the superintendent cannot know the personal qualities of each teacher, or even visit all of the schools. Yet a system must be organized by which, through the aid of assistants, the superintendent's office will be advised fully of the work of every teacher in the system. And if the system is to have anything like uniform excellence, if the rights of children are to be met, and the instruction is to have life in it, all teachers must be upon the merit basis, the most deserving must be advanced in rank and pay as rapidly as practicable, and the weak must be helped and trained into efficiency or removed from their positions.

The laws are coming to recognize the responsibilities and difficulties of the superintendent's position, and are continually throwing about that officer additional safeguards and giving him larger powers and greater freedom of action. The great issue that is now on in American school affairs is

between education and politics. The school men are insisting upon absolute immunity from political influence in their work. It would doubtless seem strange to people of other nations not familiar with our political conditions, that such insistence may be necessary. Pure democracy has its troubles. The machinations of men who are seeking political influence constitute the most serious of them. However,

the good cause of education against political manipulation is making substantial progress. The law books of all of the states show provisions recognizing the professional school superintendent: in many of the states they contain provisions directing and protecting his work: and in some of them they are beginning to confer upon him entire authority over the appointment, assignment and removal of teachers, while they impose upon him entire responsibility for the quality of the teaching.

It is this professional supervision, by states and counties as well as by towns and cities, taken up almost spontaneously at the beginning and early established and compensated by law, which has given the American schools their peculiar spirit. As intelligence has advanced and the people have come to know the worth of good teaching and have been unwilling that their children should be associated with teachers who have not the kindly spirit of a true teacher, or be kept marking time by incompetents, they have favored larger exactions and closer supervision over the teaching, to the end that it might be in accord with the best educational opinion. All this is yearly becoming more and more apparent in the laws, and it is advancing the great body of American teachers along philosophical lines more steadily and rapidly than any other great body of teachers in the world is advancing. American teachers have always had freedom. Now they are learning to exercise it, and they are being permitted to exercise it, in accord with educational principles.