of improvement, which the most obtuse could understand and the most selfish could not gainsay, presented arguments in support of the new system, which neither indifference nor obstinacy could overcome. Free schools gradually made their way to every county of the State. No valuable feature of the school law was ever repealed, and the new system grew in favor in the State as rapidly, after its first few years of trial, as the friends of the cause had a right to expect from a movement of such size and importance. One of the most potent influences leading in this direction was the organization of the Indiana State Teachers' Association. No one who is careful to appreciate properly the forces which have made for the progress of education in Indiana will neglect the estimation of this organized body of teachers. They have been the recognized leaders in every forward educational movement. Usually a wise and conservative body of men and women, the association has always had a vigorous, if not a decisive, influence in shaping the school legislation of the State. No other influence has been more constant and beneficial in this direction. Never radical in its demand for change unless it was sure of being right, always conservative if there were probabilities of its going wrong, the voice of the association has invariably carried great weight in the legislative councils of the State. More than a thousand teachers gather at its annual meetings, and in the 33 years of its history it has produced an educational literature of no mean value. Through this society of Indiana teachers have been proposed and worked out various schemes for the improvement of the schools and the methods of teaching. The Northern and Southern Associations are offshoots from this, and the three annual gatherings exert an appreciable influence on the public toward deeper interest in educational affairs. The first convention of Indiana teachers of which we have record was held as early as 1836. Governor Noble presided at a teachers' convention in that year at Indianapolis, and Dr. Andrew Wylie, president of the State University, made the principal address. There was a Northern Indiana Teachers' Institute in 1849 and for several subsequent years, and there were a number of county associations organized under the operations of the old school laws. These were mostly temporary and spasmodic. The present organization, known as the State Teachers' Association, was organized at Indianapolis December 25, 1854. Mills was then State superintendent. In accordance with resolutions previously passed by "Teachers' Associations" which met at Shelbyville and Salem, a circular was issued for the purpose of calling a convention of practical teachers with a view to the organization of a permanent State teachers' association. This circular was signed by the following persons: Caleb Mills, M. M. C. Hobbs, B. T. Hoyt, E. P. Cole, Rufus Patch, Lewis A. Ester, B. L. Lang, T. Naylor, J. S. Ferris, O. J. Wilson, J. Bright, R. B. Abbott, G. W. Hoss, Cyrus Nutt, Geo. A. Chase, Charles Barnes, James G. May, Silas Baily, John Cooper. 12524-No. 10- -5 At the first sessions of the association steps were taken for the establishment of a school journal as an organ of the teachers, and in consequence of this organized effort, the Indiana School Journal began publication in 1856. For a number of years, until 1865, the Journal was the organ of the State Association, edited by committees appointed for that purpose at the annual meeting. It had a "Resident editor," a "Mathematical editor," and seven "Associate editors." The names of these on the title page of volume II, we find as follows: GEORGE B. STONE, Indianapolis. W. D. HENKLE, Richmond. Associates. George A. Chase, Brookville. E. P. Cole, Bloomington. Miss Cynthia M. Bishop, Richmond. Mr. E. P. Cole made a tour of the State in the interest of the journal, soliciting support for the new enterprise, collecting information and statistics on the condition of the public schools, and pressing the cause of free schools on the people. Though the journal at that time was a haz ardous financial enterprise, the vigor thrown into its first year's management assured its success. The teachers thereafter had a means of speaking to each other and to the people-a lever with which to raise the educational public sentiment of the State. Since that time the Indiana School Journal has been an indispensable agency in the peda gogical concerns and educational progress of Indiana, and while it has gradually and naturally passed to individual ownership, it is not less to-day than when inaugurated, except in a technical sense, the organ and representative of the State Teachers' Association and of the fourteen thousand teachers of Indiana. It has been for twenty-five years under the business management and editorship of Mr. W. A. Bell, who is probably personally known to every teacher of three years' standing in the State. The Indiana School Journal has grown with the State schools of which it is the organ, and it stands to-day with the times, or in advance of them, as an educational journal of the first rank. It has proven a constant source of strength in the defense of the free common schools, in the promotion of wise legislation, and for the advancement of a better and higher education. Its files contain a record of the progress of educational thought in Indiana for a third of a century, and its influence and agency as an element in this progress can not be overlooked. Turning from the history of the development of the Indiana school system, we have now to look to the operation of the system under the present school law of the State. This presents to us the system as it is. The claim has been repeatedly made by representative men of Indiana that their State has one of the best educational systems in the Union, and the excellency of the Indiana school law has been readily conceded by professional educators who have inquired into the relative merits of State systems. The law embodies two generations of experience. The educational polity of Indiana will be understood by noticing, in brief outline, the official bodies created by this law, and a summary of their most important duties under its operation. It is these bodies and the duties they perform under the law which constitute the "common-school system" of the State. The following outline1 will aid the reader in understanding the description of the officers and functions which the system comprises: Officers: Superintendent of public instruction. State board of education (superintendent being president). City and town trustees. Township trustees. Institutions, general: District graded schools. Town and city schools. University system: State University (at Bloomington). State Normal School (at Terre Haute). Purdue Industrial. University (at Lafayette). Institutions, charitable : School for the Blind, Indianapolis. School for Deaf-Mutes, Indianapolis. Soldiers' Orphans' Home, Knightstown. Institutions, reformatory : Boys' Reformatory, Plainfield. Girls' Reformatory, Indianapolis. Institutions, special: County and township institutes (compulsory). State Teachers' Association (voluntary). 1. THE SUPERINTENDENT OF PUBLIC INSTRUCTION. This officer is elected biennially by the voters of the State. It is his duty to exercise a general superintendence of the school affairs of the State, to manage the funds and revenues, to guard against deficits to the fund in any county, to interpret the school law, to make reports to the Governor and the general assembly, to apportion revenue among the counties, to publish and distribute the school laws, to compile school statistics, and to visit for supervision the various counties of the State. 1 1 Smart's Report, 1880. The circumstances connected with the origin of this office we have already related. During the 38 years of its existence it has been filled by leading educators of the State. While the office is the object of party candidacy, it has not suffered from malign partisan influences, and the people exercise a large measure of independence in their election. The office has been filled as follows: November, 1852, William Clark Larrabee; November, 1854, Caleb Mills; February, 1857, William Clark Larrabee;1 February, 1859, Samuel Lyman Rugg;' February, 1861, Miles Johnson Fletcher;' May, 1862, Samuel Kleinfelder Hoshour (appointed to fill vacancy); November, 1862, Samuel Lyman Rugg; March, 1865, George Washington Hoss; October, 1868, Barnabas Coffin Hobbs; March, 1871, Milton Bledsoe Hopkins;1 August, 1874, Alexander Campbell Hopkins (appointed to fill vacancy); March, 1875, James Henry Smart; March, 1881, John McKnight Bloss; March, 1883, John Walker Holcombe; March, 1887, Harvey M. La Follette; March, 1891, H. D. Voris. 2. THE STATE BOARD OF EDUCATION. This is an ex officio body of professional educators. The membership of the board consists of the following officers: 1. The Superintendent of Public Instruction, president ex officio. 2. The Governor of the State. 3. The President of the State University. 4. The President of Purdue University.2 5. The President of the State Normal School. 6. The Superintendents of the city schools in the three largest cities, of the State. These cities, since the organization of the Board, have been Indianapolis, Evansville, and Fort Wayne; but Fort Wayne has been lately supplanted by Terre Haute. It is the duty of this Board to examine applicants for State certifi cates, to prescribe examinations for professional eight-years' licenses, to prepare uniform questions to be used by county superintendents in their examinations of teachers, and to take cognizance of and determine all other matters in the administration of the school system not otherwise provided for. The State Board was created in 1852, and consisted at first of the State Superintendent of Public Instruction, the Governor, Secretary, Treasurer, and Auditor of State. The Attorney-General became a member in 1855. It was not until 1865 that the Board was given its professional constituency, since which time it has been composed as at present, excepting that the President of Purdue University was not made a member until 1875. It will be seen that the authority and province of this Board are not very clearly defined. There is a growing sentiment in the State, noticeable in the expressions of educational assemblies, in favor of an exten 1 Deceased. Purdue University is the State Agricultural and Mechanical School. sion and a more accurate definition of the powers of the State Board of Education. The proposition is seriously considered of increasing its membership by the addition of three county superintendents to be appointed by the Governor, only two of whom may be members of the same political party. This was first proposed by Hon. J. W. Holcombe, State Superintendent, in 1885, and was endorsed the following year by the Board itself. The proposition has since been endorsed by the State School Journal and the State Teachers' Association. With the enlargement of its membership Superintendent Holcombe suggested the following extension of its jurisdiction, all of which go to show the tendency toward the control of local education by the State: 1. It should be given full powers to fix the qualifications of teachers for the different classes of schools, to determine the grades and dura. tion of their licenses, and, through the county superintendents, to provide for and direct their examinations. 2. It should be empowered to prescribe courses of study for the schools of different grades and classes. 3. It should be empowered to make general rules and regulations regarding the location and construction of schoolhouses. 4. It should be given full supervisory control of the county and township institutes. 5. It should be empowered to make general rules and regulations for the government of county boards of education, in the adoption of text-books and apparatus, and for the government of trustees in the purchase of school furniture and supplies. The following is the list of members of the present (1889) State Board of Education: Harvey M. La Follette,1 President, Superintendent of Public Instruction. J. W. Layne, Superintendent of Evansville Public Schools. 3. THE COUNTY SUPERINTENDENTS. These supervising officers, one in each county, are appointed biennially by the township trustees. In this election the county auditor has the casting vote in case of a tie, and the board of county commissioners has the power of dismissal for immorality or incompetency. It is the duty of the county superintendent to examine and license the teachers, to direct and superintend their work, to revoke licenses for cause, to hold county institutes, to attend and preside at township institutes, to compile educational and financial statistics for the county, and to report these statistics to the State department of public instruc 'Succeeded in 1891 by H. D. Voris. |