Public Schools In The United States Established 1854 1893 PDF Download

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1893 edition. Excerpt: ... THE PUBLIC-SCHOOL SYSTEM OF THE UNITED STATES * CHAPTER I THE PUBLIC-SCHOOL SYSTEM OP NEW YORK CITY IN describing the schools of our cities, I begin with the discussion of the schools of New York city because they represent a condition that may be regarded, in many respects, as typical of the schools of all of our large cities. They show clearly the elements that lead to an inferior order of schools; and, further, the remedy that I propose for the eradication of their evils is applicable to the school system of every large city. Before entering on the discussion of these schools, however, I desire, in order to prevent misunderstandings, once more to call attention to the fact that the degree of excellence of a school system is represented not by what is done by those teachers who are sufficiently interested to do more than is required of them, but by the degree of inferiority that the teaching may reach and yet be accepted as satisfactory. Therefore, in pronouncing a school system unscientific, I by no means desire to imply that no good schools can be found in that system, but simply that the good schools that do exist have been developed, not as a result of the system, but in spite of it. Now, what is the character of the instruction that will be passed as satisfactory by the superintendents of the public schools of New York city 1 Surely no one can call me unjust when I answer this question by describing the work of a school whose principal has been marked uniformly "excellent" during the twenty-five years or more that she has held her present position. I cannot say that this school is a typical New York primary school; I shall describe typical work later. But I do most positively assert that the mere fact that a superintendent is...