CHAPTER XXV — Section 221

[1] "The Constitution," as John Quincy Adams expressed it, "was extorted from the grinding necessities of a reluctant people" to escape anarchy and the ultimate entire loss, of independence, and many had grave doubts as to the permanence of the Union. It was not until after the close of the War of 1812 that belief in the stability of the Union and in the capacity of the people to govern themselves became the belief of the many rather than the very few, and plans for education and national development began to obtain a serious hearing.

[2] After the beginning of the national life a number of States founded and endowed a state system of academies. Massachusetts, in 1797, granted land endowments to approved academies. Georgia, in 1783, created a system of county academies for the State. New York extended state aid to its academies, in 1813, having put them under state inspection as early as 1787. Maryland chartered many academies between 1801 and 1817, and authorized many lotteries to provide them with funds, as did also North Carolina. The Rhode Island General Assembly chartered many academies, and aided them by lotteries. Ohio, Kentucky, and Indiana, among western States, also provided for county systems of academies.

[3] The study of Latin and a little Greek had constituted the curriculum of the old Latin grammar school, and its purpose had been almost exclusively to prepare boys for admission to the colony colleges. In true English style, Latin was made the language of the classroom, and even attempted for the playground as well. As a concession, reading, writing, and arithmetic were sometimes taught. The new academies, while retaining the study of Latin, and usually Greek, though now taught through the medium of the English, added a number of new studies adapted to the needs of a new society. English grammar was introduced and soon rose to a place of great importance, as did also oratory and declamation. Arithmetic, algebra, geometry, geography, and astronomy were in time added, and surveying, rhetoric (including some literature), natural and moral philosophy, and Roman antiquities were frequently taught. Girls were admitted rather freely to the new academies, whereas the grammar schools had been exclusively for boys. For better instruction a "female department" was frequently organized.

[4] Thomas Jefferson's name appears in the first subscription list as giving $200, and he was elected a member of the first governing board. The chief sources of support of the schools, which up to 1844 remained pauper schools, were subscriptions, lotteries, a tax on slaves and dogs, certain license fees, and a small appropriation ($1500) each year from the city council.

[5] This organization opened the first schools in Philadelphia for children regardless of religious affiliation, and for thirty-seven years rendered a useful service there.

[6] All at once, comparatively, a new system had been introduced which not only improved but tremendously cheapened education. In 1822 it cost but $1.22 per pupil per year to give instruction in New York City, though by 1844 the per-capita cost, due largely to the decreasing size of the classes, had risen to $2.70, and by 1852 to $5.83. In Philadelphia, in 1817, the expense was $3, as against $12 in the private and church schools. One finds many notices in the newspapers of the time as to the value and low cost of the new system.