State,
schools are erected in districts according to the educational necessities
of the population, which are periodically ascertained by a census.
To give some idea of the system adopted, I will just give a sketch of the
condition of education in the State of New York, as being the most
populous and important.
There is a "state tax," or "appropriation," of 800,000 dollars, and this
is supplemented by a rate levied on real and personal property. Taking as
an authority the return made to the Legislature for the year ending in
1854, the total sum expended for school purposes within the State amounted
to 2,469,248 dollars. The total number of children in the organised
districts of the State was 1,150,532, of whom 862,935 were registered as
being under instruction. The general management of education within the
State is vested in a central board, with local boards in each of the
organised districts, to which the immediate government and official
supervision of the schools are intrusted.
The system comprises the common schools, with their primary and upper
departments, a normal school for the preparation of teachers, and a free
academy. In the city of New York there are 224 schools in the receipt of
public money, of which 25 are for coloured children, and the number of
pupils registered is given at 133,813. These common or ward schools are
extremely handsome, and are fitted up at great expense, with every modern
improvement in heating and ventilation. Children of every class, residing
within the limits of the city, are admissible without payment, as the
parents of all are supposed to be rated in proportion to their means.
There is a principal to each school, assisted by a numerous and efficient
staff of teachers, who in their turn are expected to go through a course
of studies at the Normal School. The number of teachers required for these
schools is very great, as the daily attendance in two of them exceeds
2000. The education given is so very superior, and habits of order and
propriety are so admirably inculcated, that it is not uncommon to see the
children of wealthy storekeepers side by side with those of working
mechanics. In each school there is one large assembly-room, capable of
accommodating from 500 to 1000 children, and ten or twelve capacious
class-rooms. Order is one important rule, and, that it may be acted upon,
there is no overcrowding - the pupils being seated at substantial mahogany
desks only holding two.
The instruction given comprises all the branches of a liberal education,
with the exception of languages. There is no municipal community out of
America in which the boon of a first-rate education is so freely offered
to all as in the city of New York.
