1 16 THE AMERICAN JOURNAL OF SOCIOLOGY
turn to their teachers. The tyranny of the superintendent consisted in demanding that every teacher should become free through self-effort.
The onus of all things disagreeable, such as the dismissal of teachers, the board took upon itself, merely asking the superintendent to make sugges- tions, which were sufficient for action. It gave generously an efficient sup- port at all times ; it did not hesitate to criticise, advise, or suggest. The first annual report was written under the frank and wise criticism of the commit- tee ; it was rewritten several times. The command was: " Make the people understand what you are doing." Through forty-six years I have never found another such efficient school committee.
The new superintendent had an immense faith in the possibilities of human growth by means of education, a faith which has grown with his years and is now stronger than ever. He had also a great faith in free govern- ment, brought about by educating children into freedom through self-activity. The battle for freedom, he thought, is not to be fought out in cruel, bloody wars, not by armies and navies, but in the common-school room, the camp and training ground for citizenship. The lessons of the Civil War were to him lessons that taught how such awful horrors may be prevented by education.
Such faith led naturally to a spirit of work, of struggle, of research, of open-mindedness, for the truth. He had instinctively an all-controlling love for children and a strong desire to help them to good lives. Twenty-one years in the common schools as a teacher, including three years in country schools and three as principal of a normal school, had taught him very thor- oughly the fact that he knew very little about the art of all arts. Every book upon education, printed in English, was on his shelves, but in them was scant knowledge of how to teach an American school.
I will not attempt to describe the educational situation in New England. One fact illustrates it fully : A diligent search was made on the rich and loaded shelves of Boston booksellers. One educational work, and one only, was found, a second-hand copy of Currie's Grammar School Education. Do not misunderstand. Very much had been done in building up the common school. Most school systems were thoroughly organized. That of Boston has furnished the pattern of organization for all time. There were excellent teachers, noble, disinterested men and women ; but naturally tradition con- trolled, and there was a general, though unconscious, belief that most things in education were fixed and finished. Among thoughtful people, however, there were grave doubts as to the profitable expenditure of school moneys.
The superintendent had an overwhelming desire to find out what was true and what false, what should be eliminated and what brought into the lives of the children. He longed for an opportunity to study with thoughtful teachers, to study children in order to ascertain that which was best adapted to them. There was not one question of progress about which he was fully decided, except to study education with the right attitude toward genuine development He found thoughtful teachers, some of whom
