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mechanical; and that the information gained was the result of formal memory work. There was absolutely no conception of the psychological aspect of the work and no intimation whatever of the newer, broader, and truer conception of education that was developing on the continent.

In 1805 the Lancasterian method was introduced into New York City. Within a few years almost every city from Boston to Charleston, in the South, and Cincinnati, in the West, had its monitorial or Lancasterian schools. Lancaster himself came to this country and assisted in the New York, Brooklyn, and Philadelphia schools. In the third decade of the century, the system was introduced in New York and Boston into a new type of schools, the newly founded high schools. For this and the two following decades the system was widely popular in the many academies throughout the country. As in the case of the Fellenberg system, with which it was often combined, the system disappeared in consequence of the arousing of public opinion on the subject of education, with the growing material prosperity of the people and their willingness to contribute more liberally to the cause of education. The Infant School Movement was of similar import. Origi nating with a French country curé in 1769, these schools were soon introduced into Paris and became the progenitors of the maternal schools, so common in all French cities at present. In England the infant schools originated independently with Robert Owen about 1799 at New Lanark, Scotland, as a means of checking the evil effect of the factory system on children. The factories of England at that period employed a large number of children that were bound out to them by the poor commissioners, at five, six, and seven years of age for a period of nine years. As these children were. employed from eleven to thirteen hours a day in the factory, and at the end of their apprenticeship were turned free into the ignorant mass of the city population, their educational condition can be imagined. The infant schools were con

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THE INFANT SCHOOL: INTRODUCED INTO THE UNITED STATES, 1820-1830.

trived to meet this situation. In 1818 the new idea was carried to London by James Buchanan, the teacher of Owen's school, and soon in the person of Samuel Wilderspin found an enterprising exponent who was at the same time a voluminous writer. In 1834 "The Home and Colonial Infant School Society" was formed for the multiplication of schools based upon Wilderspin's ideas. Almost ten years before this time the schools had appeared in New York, and were soon imitated in most of the other large cities of the country. Even where public schools were established no provision was made for children of the earliest years; the monitorial schools in most places similarly restricted their clientele. In the early nineteenth century the public schools of Boston were forbidden to receive children who could not read and write. The Infant School Societies found abundant work to do in most cities. In many places, as in New York City, they were the progenitors of the primary department of the public schools; and to the present day, the independent organization of the primary department and the sharp division drawn for it in the school building is but a survival of the distinct origins of the grammar and primary grades.

Public School Societies in the United States.- All of these educational interests were promoted and by far the greater part of educational opportunity was furnished, by the organization of citizens into quasi-public societies. The history of schools in one city will serve as a type. With the exception of Church schools, and a school for negroes founded in 1787 and supported by the African Free School Society, there were no free schools in New York City until 1805. During that year, under the leadership of De Witt Clinton, the mayor of the city, a free school society, later called the Public School Society, was organized. The aim of this institution was to offer educational opportunities gratis to the children of the poor who were not provided for by the existing Church schools. The Lancasterian method of organization and in

struction was adopted. In 1827 an infant school society was formed for the support of schools for children from three to six. While the Wilderspin organization was followed, there was an attempt to adopt the Pestalozzian method. Within a few years these schools were incorporated into the Public School Society as primary departments. In addition to funds contributed by private parties and those raised by lotteries, the state, from 1816, had contributed from the common school fund to the work of this society, and the city had made annual appropriations. In 1842 a city school board was formed and public schools were established under its control. It was not until 1853 that the schools of the society were transferred to the control of the school board and a free public school system was really established. While the transition was somewhat more tardily accomplished in New York than in other communities, yet every American city, except a few of New England, passed through a similar development. Public school societies, not always bearing this exact title, existed in Philadelphia, Buffalo, Albany, and even as far west as Cincinnati.

In Boston, where elementary schools had existed in connection with the Latin Grammar School since 1666, and probably from an even earlier date, and where such schools had long been free, primary schools were no part of the public school system. The reason for this is somewhat peculiar. The law required that the child could not be admitted into the grammar (or public vernacular) school until he could read and spell. While it also authorized the establishment of these primary schools, none had been formed. Such instruction was gained through the Church schools, the numerous private schools, and through one other form of school fostered by societies, the Sunday-schools, established at first for secular instruction. In 1817 it was found that while 2365 children attended the public grammar schools, there were 3767 children attending private schools, 365 attending charity

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