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For trough a dunce may doubtless be very
devott, a cultivated intellect is essential
to the deeper and higher exercise of re
ligions thought and feeling. This is why
intel ectual training is accompanied with
keener religious convictions than is the
shop, where the productive principle of
division of labor tends to repression of
thought and the reduction of man to a
machine. The great religious reform of
the eighteenth century came from Oxford
arid not from London.
There is, then, even among Protestants,
a demand for colleges which shall,- at least,
ford a moderate religious culture in a
positively religious atmosphere.
This demand is met in California as well
as in the other States of our Union, almost
altogether by denominational schools, and
these have much the same characteristics
here as east of the Rocky Mountains. The
direct religious training which they offer
consists usually in stated religious services
and the study of the Bible about once a
week in the regular curriculum. By inci
dental effort the necessity of vital faith
and personal religious experience is im
pressed.
If all . the 'Protestant colleges in the
State could be united into one institution
it might easily become as powerful and
attractive as its secular rivals. .* The differ
ent sects are becoming tolerant of each
other ano even moderately co-operative,
as is shown in the movement to give San
Francisco a Bible school ; but we have yet
to see religious denominations unite in
establishing a Christian university.
Our magnificent State University thrives
upon public funds gathered from the entire
State, and the members of the churches
bear their part of the burden of making
this secular instruction free. Then if they
want a religious college for their sons and
daughters they must provide it at their
own expense. This burden has been so
great that free tuition in such schools has
been found impracticable. Under these
conditions many Christian parents, who
think that they can give their boy or girl a
liberal education with free tuition and not
without, are practically excluded from the
institution of their choice.
The competition between the religious
college and the State University is very
unequal also because of the close alliance
of the State University with the leading
high schools of the State. The effort to
promote directly from the accredited high
schools into the freshman class at Berkeley
has been largely successful and is likely to
succeed in the future not less than in the
past.
Another disability of the religious
colleges is the instability of their teaching
force. One essential of a strong college is
that it shall secure the best available men
for its faculty, pay them enough to make
them content and keep them as long as
possible. The permanent instructors con
stitute the strength and continuity of
educational institutions and bind fast the
friendship of the graduates as would be
impossible if, on revisiting their alma
mater, they should find themselves among
entire strangers. Yet probably in none of
the Protestant colleges of California can
professors be found who have served as
long a term of office as many in the
• younger institution at Berkeley. A promi
nent cause of this instability in denomina
tional schools may be found in their
ecclesiastical government though not
essential to it.
The very weakness of religious colleges
is a source of some secular advantages. A
paucity of the students enables the teach
er to give more careful attention to the
needs of individual students. Lack of
funds prevents the elective system beirg
carried to excess.
A college without millions of endow
ment is in no danger of multiplying
courses so as to draw students away to
any great extent from the essentials of a
liberal education. In times past the bach
elor's degree has had definite significance as
regards the acquirements and competency
of the graduate. Now it may stand for
nothing in particular above the high
school course — except that whatever the
student has done, the faculty under which
he has worked judge it enough to occupy
a man for four years. This makes good
specialists at the expense of general cul
ture and sometimes of literary respecta
bility as well.
The tendency of the hour is to set back
four years the branching point where the
student turns from his general education
to preparation for his special calling
from the end to the beginning of the col
lege course. This is the usual American
extravagance. We overdo many things.
There is a need, already recognized by
some educators besides President Eliot of
Harvard, of some adjustment of college
methods that will bring the student
through his professional studies a few
years younger than the old curriculum
permits. Possibly two years may be res
cued from his baccalaureate course with
out crippling his general literary com
petency. But when the great universities
say that he may start as freshman upon
bis professional studies, the weaker college
financially may take higher ground and
scon furnish more than its proportion of
the statesmen and scholars of the future.
This is easily within the reach of the de
nominational colleges of California, if
they will but endow their chairs and in
sist upon the highest efficiency in their
instructors.
Beyond the college course proper the re
ligious attitude of instructors is regarded
with comparative indifference. A man is
never so old that he cannot become skepti
cal or immoral, but though Goethe's Faust
sold himself to the devil after taking his
Ph.D., yet most students either sell them
selves earlier or not at all.
•-. If any of our bachelors of arts wish to
pursue their professional studies under re
ligious auspices they usually patronize
some university in the East, although
California has theological schools which
should not be ignored. The great univer
sities whose foundations the Catholics,
Methodists and Baptists are laying so
broad and, deep at the National capital
and at Chicago will soon offer graduate
courses that Christian men are likely to
prefer to any other in the country.
The Young Men's Christian Association
is a valuable agency of religious training,
working with the churches and schools,
but not as a part of them, though even the
secular colleges have very helpful organi
zations of this sort among their students.
The Salvation Army works on a lower
plane and more remotely from educational
•aims, but its reformatory and evangelical
work is gaining an efficiency and appre
ciation which a few years ago seemed im
possible.
This Christmas season, amid pleasurable
festivities, reminds both small and great
of the fall and redemption of our race. .So
the Thanksgiving and Easter holidays,
the marriage and burial ceremonies, the
christenings, the church bells, the judicial
oaths and the chaplains in the army and
navy and in our legislative halls, all tes
tify "how deeply religion is inwrought in
our National polity. As a people we may
not be very respectful toward the work of
our fathers, but: these memorials of their
piety tend potently to shape the faith and
life of the rising generation.
OUR INSTRUCTORS.
No State in the Union Can Boast
a More Efficient Corps
of Schoolteachers Their
Work Is a Monument.
By PHILIP M. FISHER,
Editor of the Pacific Educational Journal.
The Call sends Christmas greeting to
the teachers of the State. There is a host
of them. The official report for the school
year ending June 30, 1894, gives the exact
number employed as 0237. At this writing
the number is easily 0500. Not a few, as
in other avocations, are unemployed. The
young teachers come along so rapidly, the
older ones get out of the way so slowly,
that some are pushed out of the current.
And the teachers who are not teaching are
peculiarly unfortunate, as those who know
them best" are fully aware. They come
from almost everywhere. Some are native
to the soil and sky, others come from the
States all along the way from Maine west
ward, from Canada and the States to the
north. None come from the south,'be
cause south of California they do not yet
export the product; and to the west— well,
we are the West.
They are found wherever fifteen children,
between 5 and 17 years of age, cluster; be
cause this is the number that the good
mother, the State, has decided is neces
sary to justify the expense of maintaining
a nursery. For these she appropriates $400
annually. If the number increases to
twenty, she provides $500 for them. In the
edge of the woods, deep in the shady can
yon, up on the breezy hilltop, out in the
fertile valley, in village, town and city,
with wide distances separating them, or
thickly clustered, the California teachers
are found. Working with the industry of
the beaver, but to the results of the coral,
enduring, hoping, succeeding; of the peo
ple, yet not of them; with their patrons
and yet often opposing them; blending,
yet leading; expressing public standards
and forming them.
This is their hazardous yet helpful
place; unique, trying, not without per
sonal sacrifice, but rarely without the
cheering reflection of the aggregate value
of the common service. In some counties
the variety is almost startling. In a visit
to Modoc some yeare ago I found Canada,
France, Maine, Pennsylvania and Virginia
touching elbow in the teachers' institute.
In San Diego last year it seemed that
every State east of us had sent its repre
sentative as the trains went through. . Of
these 0500 about 5200 are women, the ratio
being 4 to 1, and increasing with the years.
The schoolmaster of the Middle and South
ern States has given way to the school
mistress of New England. If she remem
bers him at Christmas he will be well re
membered.
Should he in his gallantry undertake to
remember her, where would it end? In
respect to sex curious local conditions ap
pear. Look at some typical counties: San
Francisco employs 74 men and 792 women,
a ratio of Ito 10; Los Angeles County, 100
to 440; Alameda County, 51 to 373; San
Diego County, 33 to 102; San Luis Obispo,
34 to 96; Nevada, 21 to 00; Humboldt, 43 to
95; Colusa, 21 to 34; Modoc, 19 to 21; Sac
ramento, 12 to 166, a ratio of 1 to 14, the
highest in the State; Siskiyou 45 to 45, an
amicable division. It was reported to the
writer a few years since that the city of
San Diego, in a corps of 70 teachers, em
ployed one lone man, and he was at the
head of the High School! About one
sixth of the number quit teaching in this
State at the end of each year. How are
their places filled ? There are three sources
of supply.
The semi-anual examination by the
county boards of education (57 in all) of
new applicants for certification; second,
the State normal schools and the State
University; third, immigration. The first
is the most convenient, least expensive,
and therefore the most popular. It is not
difficult for an expert teacher, who has
probably been a member of a county board
himself, to prepare a bright young man or
woman to pass the local examination suc
cessfully. Indeed some great reputations
have been made in this way by experi
enced teachers. These examinations have
been the chief source of supply for years
and will probably continue to be until the
time shall come forthe legislation that shall
require professional training. Graduates
of the pedagogical department of the two
universities of the State may be certificated
without examination by county boards.
This number has been small up to date
and has gone mainly into the high schools;
therefore the professional training falls
largely upon the normal schools of the
State, of which there are three, named in
the order of their establishment; San
Jose, Los Angeles, Chico. Of the 0257
teachers of the State in 1894, 1366 were
graduates of California State normal
schools, 427 of normal schools outside of
California; a total of 1793, or 28 3-10 per
cent of the whole number employed. This
percentage is steadily increasing. The
experience of the teachers of 1894 may be
judged from the fact that 982 held educa
tional diplomas, representing five years'
work, and 1426 life diplomas, representing
ten years' service. Their scholastic quali
fication appears in the fact that 473 held
high school certificates, 4187 grammar
grades and 1206 primary grades. Their
spirit may be inferred from the further
statistics that 5110 read some educational
journal. Accepting the belief that the
State should have professionally trained
teachers, some interesting facts are re
vealed by the following table, in which the
"Bay Counties" are compared with those
of "Southern California:"
COUNTIEB.
2S
83
It
= -
■I
(9
?
n
g
Los Angeles -.
San Diego
Orange
Riverside
San Bernardino
Ventura...
Santa Barbara
540
200
84
110
133
82
104
318
60
52
28
30
33
25
69
33
Alameda.....
Santa Clara
San Mateo
Contra Costa.
Sonoma
Solano
Marin ;
.Napa I
1253
546
Ay. 43.47
424
224
67
76
201
97
53
82
179
158
:8
18
40
18
20
42.21
70.35
"" 50 "
"41.3
1214 I
A v. 39.3
The contributions that our normal
schools make annually may be measured
by the. reports for 1894-95, according to
which San Jose graduated 156, Los Angeles
70, and Chico 36. The enrollment and
teaching force of these schools for 1894-95
is indicated by the following table:
Pupils ill train- Teachers.
Students. . ing depu Men. Women.
San Jose... 672 216 11 14
Los Angeles... 476 433 8 22
Chico 232 205 • 6 8
The apparent disproportion of pupils
and teachers at Los Angeles is explained ,
THE SAN FRANCISCO CALL, WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 25, 1895.
Dy the fact that the training classes are
part of the city system and are subject to
inspection and report by the City Superin
tendent of Schools. Nine of the thirty
teachers belong to the city corps, receiving
only $120 per annum each from the Nor
mal School funds, the major part of their
salary being paid from the school funds of
the city district. At Chico they have
introduced the experiment of, training
classes, organized upon the plan of a
typical country school.
The San Francisco Normal School is
maintained by the municipality. Its ca
pacity is limited to' x eighty, and it trains
for service in the City schools.
The course at the State Normal schools
has been extended to four years. Connec
tion is made with the elementary schools
by admitting pupils who present diplomas'
of graduation from the highest grammar
grade of any county.
The high schools by furnishing academic
instruction locally are enabling students to
abridge this four years' course to three,
possibly two." The growth of these high
schools throughout the State since 1891
has been phenomenal. In that year the
union district and county high-school bills
were passed by the Legislature. The two
universities were ready, the time seemed
propitious; weak districts united, ambi
tious towns and counties were aroused,
and at the close of 1894 there were eighty
three high schools in operation. The Leg
islature of 1895 strengthened the acts, and
confidence and a new impulse have come
and the outlook is most gratifying. The
increase in the number and efficiency of
these schools is already having its influence
upon the general teaching body as well as
the general public.
At this date the counties territorially
best covereo by high schools are Alameda,
Solano, Los Angeles. Sonoma, Riverside,
San Diego, Sania Clara, San Luis Obispo,
Kings, Fresno, Del Norte. Nevada, Santa
Cruz, Santa Barbara and Orange. Nor is
any enumeration of the agencies that
mold and equip the California teacher
complete without mention, first, of the
annual County Teachers' Institute, pro
vided by law. It furnishes a common
ground upon which teachers with pro
fessional training meet those fashioned in
the school of experience. Each learns of
the other; eccentricities are softened or
eliminated and the general level of ef
ficiency is raised. Second— The State As
sociation, a professional organization,
which meets annually and in a larger way
performs functions somewhat similar to
those of the local bodies.
Working in connection with the associa
tion is the educational council, composed
of fifteen members, three of whom are
named at each annual meeting by the ex
ecutive committee to serve for five years.
The special business of the council is to
discuss questions of administration and
legislation and present to the general body
carefully considered plans for improve
ment. The large membership, long terms
and gradual change of the personnel of
the council promise good results.
The association holds its next session in
Oakland January 2 to 4, inclusive, and a
large attendance is expected.
The third source of supply, immigration,
is no longer a strong factor, except as
some able teacher or.superintendent called
to a prominent place in the State makes
his influence felt. Yet, granting that the
doctrine of strict exclusion is neither
sound nor wise as enforced against other
localities of our common country, it is
largely true that California is to-day pre
pared to supply its own teachers.
Having thus briefly sketched the field of
opportunity and indicated the avenues of
preparation it may not be amiss to ask the
question how the teacher feels when the
holiday season comes? When the heart is
quickeped and the responsive hand opens
in the gracious act of giving, can he
afford to give as prompted, or does his
poverty seem to grow with each recurring
Christmastide?
This opens a train of practical questions,
of which this article will admit the consid
eration of but a few. The average school
term in the State is 7.95 months. This
leaves from two to six months for expen
sive vacation or temporary change of re
munerative labor. There is no twelve
months' employment, except, in some of
the northern counties, where the climatol
ogy admits of a six months' summer term
in the mountains and a six months' win
ter term in the valleys. Indeed, some
thrifty teachers have in this way taught
thirteen months in a year, and they loaned
their savings years ago at one and even
two per cent a month and grew well-to-do.
Others, caught in the whirl of the common
mania, bought lots and farms and houses.
Many attempted the costly experiment
of planting and cultivating an orchard or
vineyard by proxy. In the City they
bought lots; in the valleys, ranches and
fruit farms, usually upon a falling market,
because their preoccupation precluded
quick movement. In the mountains they
located placer and quartz claims. "What
are you all doing with your mining
claims?" was asked of a party of lady
teachers at a social gathering during a
mountain institute. "Waiting for an
Englishman," was the grim reply. It may
be safely said that there are few teachers
employed in the State during the past ten
years who have not invested in real estate.
Special colonizatioa and . co-operative
schemes were got up for their benefit.
All are the wiser for the experience.
Some are sadder. Few express any doubt
but that success would have come could
they but have given the investment per
sonal attention. Such is the average teach
er's confidence and optimism! Not a few
in the cities and in the hot and treeless
valleys turn with hopeful longing to the
snow line of the Sierras on whose middle
slopes lies the quarter section of sugar pine
holding sweet promise of future compe
tency.
How about the recognition of real merit
and the tenure of place? The bow of
promise is in the skies. No better indica
tion appears than the report adopted by
the Stockton Board of Education last sum
mer. < It is well worthy of record here as
expressing the high tide of the best senti
ment upon the qualifications of teachers:
1. A general education equivalent at least
to that afforded by a, high school of good
standing.
2. A course of professional training in a
State Normal School or university, or in
equivalent at least two years successful
experience in training.
3. A reasonable amount of current profes
sional study, sufficient to keep the teacher
in living touch with the educational move
ments of the day.
4. A kindly regard for children, a knowl
edge of the workings of the young mind,
and a successful degree of tact in manag
ing classes. Added to this, a moral char
acter above reproach, and a sufficient de
gree of social culture to afford the pupils
a desirable example in dress and bearing.
■ ''•; 5. A capacity " for professional improve
ment and an earnest desire to improve.
Your committee are in favor of retaining
the teachers already in service wherever
these qualifications arc present in prefer
ence to considering fresh applicants.
NORMAL SCHOOLS.
This Branch of Our Educational
System Is Yearly Ex
tending Its Great Power
and Its Wide Influence.
By Mrs. K. A. WILSON,
Trustee of the State Normal School.
The establishment of pedagogical de
partments at our two universities has re- j
sulted in increasing the demand for teach- j
era who have a philosophical understanding
of the fundamental principles of the
science and art of education. A full equip- i
ment includes also a comprehensive knowl
edge of the leading educational authori-'
ties of the past and present and . an
acquaintance with the order in which the !
different powers of the mind are awakened
and tne time best adapted for their devel
opment.
All applicants presenting diplomas from
grammar schools, no matter how deficient
in scholarship or how physically unfit to
become teachers, have been accepted, with j
but few exceptions, in the past.
Naturally there is a wide difference in
the qualifications of such pupils, owing to !
the variety of instruction and the lack of |
any uniform course of study in the differ
ent counties.
The result has been that after a few
weeks or months many are obliged to drop
out and return to their homes.
The formation of union high schools
throughout the State will probably afford
a solution of this problem, as graduates I
from these schools would require less time
for academic work, and -would, therefore, !
be better prepared for a more purely pro
fessional training.
Great stress is laid upon the necessity
for teachers being physically strong and
free from any serious defects of the senses,
as they are expected to represent ideals to
the youth of our State.
The effect of the constant intercourse of
PROFESSOR W. C. SAWYER.
[Drawn by a "Call" artist from a photograph.]
delicate, sensitive children . with teachers j
afflicted with tuberculous diseases, certain j
afflictions of the nasal and respiratory pas
sages, which are considered contagious,
etc., has become a serious question with
parents and our more intelligent boards of
education.
Advocates of manual training claim
that any system of education is one-sided
that provides for a purely mental training
and will inevitably fail to produce the j
most symmetrical character, as the pup 1 "!
has learned merely to think and not to act.
The study of botany without the an
alysis of the plant, of zoology without dis
section or of chemistry without laboratory
work can never be mastered thoroughly.
Manual training, liKe the kindergarten,
is based upon object teaching; that is,
teaching with the things themselves in
stead of their symbols.
Critics justly charge that our system of
education is superficial; that our . city
schools are fitting our boys for colleges and
not for artisans; that our pupils have a
decided prejudice against industrial work
in spite of the fact that a large percentage
of our people are engaged in the useful
arts.
It is also claimed that the storing up of
knowledge without any practical applica
tion to the use of things is a waste of power
and that the cultivation of the absorbing
side of the brain without the expression
side results necessarily in a one-sided de
velopment.
It is only a question of time before the
work in our public schools will be broad
ened by the general adoption of a system
of manual training in connection with
the mental work, and then the charge will
cease to be heard that there arc no Ameri
can craftsmen.
It has been demonstrated that the boys
who spend half the day in the workshop
and laboratories, working out the truths
they are learning, attain fully as high a
standing in their studies as those of equal
ability who spend the entire day in study
and recitation. How much better equipped
to cope with the world is the boy who
leaves school familiar with the use of the
principal tools and with an understanding
of the subjects taught from a scientific and
practical standpoint!
i Aside from the purely socialistic side of
•this question is the influence upon char
acter.
The concentration of thought, steadi
ness of nerve acquired, the patience exer
cised in working for days upon some
model to illustrate some mathematical
truth, the judgment developed which will
prepare the pupil for a truer moral esti
mate of* life, are only a lew of the moral
results of manual training. :^V; /-/.;; •
The Hampton Normal School in Glouces
ter County, Va., founded by General Arm
strong for Indian and colored students,
has more nearly attained a practical stan
dard than any other institution of its kind
: in the United States. .
Previous to entering the normal proper,
the student is expected to work in the shops
from 7 a. m. to 5 p. m., where ; the various
trades arc taught. After the first; month
or so, he is paid an amount not to exceed
$18 per month, out of which he receives a
certain per cent for. current expenses, and
the balance is retained to defray, a three
I years'- normal course. If he fails to take
this higher course, one-third of the
amount reserved is refunded.
The evenings are devoted from 7 tol9
o'clock to study and preparation for the
normal course."
•A pupil graduates from, this institution
not only qualified to earn his livelihood as
a teacher of his own race,' but also actually
prepared to work at his trade if necessary.
Closely allied to the subject of manual
training is drawinc, as it cultivates the
sense of form,' trains the eye to.be ac
curate, steadies the hand and renders it
skillful.
Many of the drawings and patterns used
as working models are also fcased upon the
principles of geometry, and the working
out of these models in the workshop
clearly demonstrates many a difficult
proposition over which the pupil has ab
stractly struggled. ;';"'.- ,';■; *;■-
. It is almost impossible to estimate the
value of drawing as an educational factor.
Its influence is threefold in character, viz. :
Its esthetical value as a civilizing and re
fining factor; its ethical influence because
study and preparation for tne
urse.
graduates from this institution
[iialified to earn his livelihood as
jf his own race, but also actually
;o work at his trade if necessary,
allied to the subject of manual
s drawine, as it cultivates the
form, trains the eye to be ac
adies the hand and renders it
the drawings and patterns used
; models are also L'ased upon the
of geometry, and the working
lese models in the workshop
emonstrates many a difficult
'ii over which the pupil has ab
rogated.
nost impossible to estimate the
rawing as an educational factor,
cc is threefold in character, viz.:
k-al value as a civilizing and re
or; its ethical influence because
of the inherent necessity for correct repre
sentation; and, lastly, its value merely as
an income-producer.
Take the. interior of any well-appointed
living-room as an illustration of the above.
The paper 'that covers the wall, the
frieze work upon the ceiling, the gasjet,
the carved mantel and framework •of the
chair in which you sit and the designs of
its softly padded cushion, the carpet upon
which your feet rest, the pattern of your
dress and the pictures upon the wall, that
please and rest your eye, are all the prod
uct of drawing.
The new education also calls for a very
different line of language work from that
required in the past. In place of a list of
such subjects as Hope, Faith, Benevolence,
the lessons, etc., given in former years
to the bewildered pupil from which to
make his selection, a systematic line of
nature-study is pursued, each grade basing
its language work upon actual observation
and experiment. W"-j^
Children readily explain in simple lan
guage the result of personal investigation,
and thus greater freedom of expression is
attained.
Their hands are also trained at this
early stage in "the art of experiment" and
the innate love of children for birds,
flowers, insects, etc., becomes a source of
purest happiness and yields a most bene
ficial moral influence.
The introduction also of myths into the
work adds to their vocabulary, stimulates
the imagination, widens their information
and places before them many noble ideals.
Preparation for this work is also one of
the requirements of our normal schools.
Attached to each normal school is a
training department, consisting of all the
grades of a primary and grammar school.
Student teachers are obliged to practi
cally apply in these grades, under the su
pervision of the critic teacher, all theo
retical knowledge obtained from their
normal teachers. ; ,
Each Normal teacher, in addition to her
class work, should be required to careful
observe the working out of her methods of
instruction by these student teachers, and
sec if they are successful in practice.
The fcritic teachers also have charge
of the government, classification, reports,
etc., but the .teacher at the head of the
pedagogical department is expected to su
pervise the method work and direct the
practice work \of the } critic and student
teachers. .': ..vT-_r-:
The subject of physical training is such
a serious one that it must not be omitted.
This department should be in the
charge of one who understands not only
the principles of physical exercise, but
also one who has had a professional train
ing in some first-class medical college.
Pupils have been permanently injured
by many of these so-called physical exer
cises, and only by the greatest wisdom can
such disastrous results be prevented.
There should be apparatus in each gym
nasium for testing and recording respira
tory movements, circulation, etc., and the
effects of exercise on these processes should
be carefully watched.
There should be methods of measuring,
testing and examining to determine the
fitness of any pupil for any given exercise.
I A careful study must also be made of
any emotional disturbance or excessive
mental strain. ..-;;'
Tests of sight and hearing are necessary,
as many times these defects are the cause
of apparent stupidity.
The growth of children at different ages
and their mental and moral states at these
periods if carefully noted would be of
great pedagogical value.
The time is not far distant when every
pupil in the State will be as familiar with
shorthand as he now is with his alphabet.
What a pleasure will it then be to take
notes of an interesting lecture
Three exercises per week during the last
five . years of the primary, and grammar
school work would so familiarize the pupil
with shorthand that he 'would use it un
consciously; it would become by ; force of
habit a part of him.
Add to this type-writing, which is easily
acquired, and the great mass of pupils who
never : reach . the high schools would r be
prepared to take an active part in life.
This is one more subject for the progres
sive normal student to master.
A GRAND SYSTEM.
California's Public Schools Sys
tem Ably Discussed From
a Financial and Sta
tistical Point of View.
By SAMUKL T. BLACK,
Superintendent of Public Instruction.
In treating this question I shall do soon
a. financial and statistical basis chiefly, as
it occurs to me that the people prefer ac
curate information on all public questions
to elaborate articles made up of theories
and the opinions of writers. In traveling
over the State I find that there is consid
erable misapprehension regarding the rela
tive cost of higher and elementary educa
tion and the salaries paid to the teachers
in our common schools. Herewith is sub
mitted exact information on these points.
The public school system proper consists
of the elementary (that is, the grammar
and primary) schools, but for the purpose
of this articla the normal schools and the
State University, together with the local
high schools, are included. It must be
remembered that the high schools receive
no aid whatever from the State, being sup
ported entirely by local taxation. The
normal schools are largely technical in
their nature, being designed solely for the
preparation of teachers. Under present
conditions it is deemed necessary to ad
mit to these schools graduates of gram
mar schools, hence professional training
must be supplemented by much academi
cal study, thus making necessary a four
years' course. Were it possible to require
a high school preparation for admission to
the normal schools much of the academic
work might be dispensed with, the course
shortened by at least two years and the
expense of maintenance materially re
duced. Besides these advantages these
schools would become what they ought to
become, purely professional schools just
as much so as law schools or schools of
medicine.
With regard to the State University, no
account is taken of the affiliated colleges
in San Francisco, which receive no State
aid.
The school census of the State includes
all children between the ages of 5 and 17
years, and is designed solely as a basis for
the distribution of school funds to the
various counties and school districts, and
ought not to be taken into consideration
in connection with school attendance.
The schools are open to all persons be
tween the ages of 6 and 21 years a period
of time one year shorter at one end and
four years longer at the other than that
which determines the school census. In
cities where the kindergarten has been
established children may be admitted at 4
years of age.
School Census. 1894. 1895.
Boys 158.535 163,074
Girls 155,102 160,056
Totals 313,637 323,1
Increase 9,493
As the following statistics are for the
year ending June 30, 1895, the census taken
April, 1895, must not be taken into ac
count:
Total number of pupils enrolled 241,322
Average daily attendance 170,861
Total current expenses $4,875,175 35
Average cost per pupil enrolled 20 20
Amount paid for teachers' salaries... 4,081,340 44
Number of male teachers employed. . .1,188
Number of female teachers employed. .5,1 17—6. 305
Average annual salary per teacher. .... $647 32
Average monthly salary per teacher (19
months).. 53 94
As teachers must live twelve months
during the year — they cannot hibernate
during vacations is the only fair basis
on which to compute the average monthly
salary. Now, San Francisco, Oakland,
and a few other places pay higher monthly
salaries than are paid elsewhere, and pay
for twelve months each year. Were they
stricken from the list, this already small
average would be materially decreased.
Again, strike from the list also the teachers
in our larger towns, where longer terms
prevail than in the rural schools, and we
find that the average annual salary of
the country teachers of California is (ap
proximately) $435, or a trifle over $30 per
month for twelve months in the year. In
the face of these figures, then, it is no
wonder that so many bright young men
use teaching as a mere stepping-stone to
some more remunerative calling, leaving
the important business of teaching our
children largely in the hands of inexperi
enced girls. Notwithstanding these un
favorable conditions it is an acknowledged
fact that the rural schools of California are
the best in the United States. This is
largely due to faithful and conscientious
supervision on the part of the County Su
perintendents, many of whom are men (or
women) of education, ability and pro
gressive ideas. The teachers, as a class,
even the inexperienced girls referred to
above, are faithful and conscientious.
Again, the gathering of teachers together
in teachers' circles, institutes, associa
tions, etc., when they come in contact
with the best educational thought of the
State, has- had a wonderful stimulating
effect on the teachers as a body.
Of the total number of teachers em
ployed—o3os—only 1633, less than 25 per
cent, are graduates of normal schools. Of
these 1320 are from the normal schools of
this State.
The records show that 583 teachers in
the elementary schools hold high
school certificates, 4591 hold grammar
grade certificates and 1131 hold primary
grade certificates. ;'■;
Total number of school districts 3,182
Total number of schools 5,033
Total number of school houses 3,460
The average number of months schools
have been maintained is 8.71, ranging all
the way from 6 months in some of the
thinly settled counties to 10 months in
many of the cities and larger towns.
RECEIPTS FROM ALL' SOURCES.
Amount received from state $2,829,005 74
Amount received from county taxes. 1,676,451 50
A mount received from district taxes. 797,088 91
Amount received from miscellan
j . eous 50urce5........ .i 62.427 18
j Amount received from sale of /bonds
j for building purposes 445,776 04
Total receipts $5,809,749 37
Valuation of school sites and furni- • '
tare 115,291,365 00
Valuation of apparatus 415,216 00
Valuation of books (.library) 702,048 00
T0ta1......... $16,408,629 00
Number of volumes In libraries 725,824
Amount expended fur building and
furniture $698,215 59
Under the laws of this State each school
district having ten to twenty "census chil
dren is assured- of $400 per annum. Dis
tricts having twenty to seventy census
children are assured of $500. Each addi
tional census child between seventy and
ninety is worth $20 per annum to the dis
trict. Districts with ninety children re
ceive $1000, and so on, there being an ad
ditional $500 ; for each additional seventy
children. These are the minimum
amounts. In addition, there is a pro rata
apportionment on the averag; daily at
tendance, which very materially increases
these amounts, particularly in the larger
districts.
i : There were in California in 1894-95 eighty -
seven high schools, employing 315 s teach-
I ers at an average annual salary of $1029,
or $85 75 per month, still counting twelve
months to the year. These high schools
have in the. way of buildings, sites and
equipment property worth $1,573,053 56.
The total current expenses for the past
year' amounted to $425,174 20, of which
$324,342 was paid for teachers' sala
ries. The number of pupils attend
ing the high schools was 9379. Divid
ing the total expenditure by the num
ber enrolled gives $45 33 as the aver
age annual cost per . pupil in the high
schools of California, which is a little more
than double the average annual cost per
pupil in the elementary schools. The
average daily attendance in these sec
ondary schools is nearly 77 per cent
of the total number enrolled, whereas, in
elementary schools the average daily at
tendance is not quite 71 per cent of the to
tal enrollment. As stated. before, these high
schools receive no State aid— the constitu
tion providing that all State and county
school moneys shall go to the support of
elementary schools exclusively. ■ Those
communities that have thus voluntarily
taxed themselves in the interests of their
sons and daughters are casting bread
upon the waters that shall return, not only
to them, but to the State and Nation after
(not) many days. The high school idea is
growine in California, and the time is not
far distant when the State will come to the
assistance of this much needed secondary
education, as it has already seen the neces
sity of aiding the elementary schools, the
normal schools and the university." Free
States, to be lasting, must educate their
future citizenship their very existence
depending upon the intelligence and
patriotism of the masses.
California supports three normal schools,
located at Chico, San Jose and Los An
geles. The number of students enrolled
for the last fiscal year was 1383, taught by
sixty teachers. The total current expenses
amounted to $10-1,140 58, and the average
cost per pupil was $75.10. In connection
with each of these schools there is a train
ing school, where the students do practice
teaching under the guidance of expert or
critic teachers. These training schools
cost the State little or nothing. In Los
Angeles they are a portion of the regular
public school system of the city, and are
taught by teachers engaged and paid by
the City Board of Education. In San Jose
and Chico these training schools are sup
ported largely by tuition fees, and are in
charge of teachers selected by the respec
tive boards of trustees of these normals.
The State thus recognizes the fact that the
highest form of skill comes by combining
theory and practice.
There were graduated from the three
schools last year 187 teachers, of whom 19
were men, a trifle over 10 per cent. The total
amount paid for salaries was $89,158 32,
being an average of $1485 97 per annum, or
$123 83 per month.
COST OF BUILDINGS AND EQUIPMENT.
San Jose Normal ...$267,282 95
Angelas 173.884 39
Chico 189.371 45
Total $586,538 79
THE STATE UNIVERSITY.
There were enrolled during the fiscal
year of 1894-95 at Berkeley (the university
proper) 1027 students, and the current ex
penses were:
From the general fund $264,545 53
, From the special fund 46,032 48
Total $310,578 01
Of this amount $182,545 95 was for sala
ries of professors, etc., including those em
ployed in the Lick: Observatory. The av
erage annual cost per student was $302 02.,
Recapitulation of total current expenses
and the average annual cost per.pupil :
Current Kxpenses.
Elementary schools 35
High schools 425,174 20
.Normal schools 104,046 58
State University 310,578 01
Average
From what Source. Cost per I'upil.
Ele. schools— state. County, local. $20 20
High schools— Local taxation 45 33
Normal scnools— State «75 30
State University— State and special 302 02
The course of study for the elementary
schools must include (I quote the exact
language of the Jaw) "'reading, writing,
orthography, arithmetic, geography,
grammar, history of the United States, ele
ments of physiology • and hygiene, with
special instruction as to the nature of al
coholic drinks and narcotics and their ef
fects upon the human system ; vocal
music, elementary bookkeeping, industrial
drawing and civil government: provided,
that instruction in civil government,
physiology and hygiene, and elementary
bookkeeping may be oral, no textbooks on
these subjects being required to be pur
chased by the pupils.
"Other studies may be authorized by the
Board of Education of any county, city,
or city and county; but no such studies
shall be pursued to the neglect 'or ex
clusion of the studies in the preceding sec
tion specified."
Among the "other studies" many of the
schools have added a little constructive
geometry and some elementary algebra,
and in still others some general history
and experimental physics and some form
of manual training. The course, as a gen
eral thing, covers nine year's work, but in
several counties, where longer terms pre*
vail, the course is finished in eight years,
while a few devote ten years on account of
the shortness of the school terms, caused
by a lack of school funds, which is un
avoidable in counties covering a large ter
ritory sparsely populated.
The high-school course covers a period of
three or four years, and the curriculum is
such that the graduates are prepared to
enter the State University. The univer
sity has issued a skeleton curriculum cov
ering the actual requirements for ad
mission, which gives ample room for the
insertion of such additional branches as
the local conditions may demand. , thus
making the high school the "People's Col
lege," as President Kellogg would say.
In regard to the various courses in the
State University, it is not necessary, to go
into detail, as any one desiring complete
information on this point can obtain it by
writing to the recorder of . the faculties at
Berkeley. So high is the standing of the
university that President Eliot of Harvard
has placed it among the first six great
schools of America.
The ethical side of education is not lost
sight of in our admirable school system.
Section 1702 of the Political Code, which is
just as binding as the statute providing
for scholastic work, is as follows:
"It shall be the duty of all teachers to
endeavor to impress upon the minds of
the pupils the principles of morality,
truth, justice and patriotism; to teach
them to avoid idleness, profanity and
falsehood, and to instruct them' in the
principles .of a free government and to
train them up to a true .comprehension of
the rights, duties and dignity of American
citizenship."
I must not close this article without re
ferring to the inspiration our elementary
and secondary schools are deriving from
the two great universities and three Nor
mal schools, particularly from the peda
gogical departments of these institutions.
The influence of these departments is
being felt in the remotest districts of the
State through the .teachers' institutes, in
nearly all of which are found one or more
professors representing the highest and
best educational thought of the day.
17
