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COMMON RECOVERY. 219 COMMON SCHOOLS. luaiulant alleged that the tenant had no legal title to the land and that he, the demandant, had been tnrned out of it. The tenant defended the suit, but at a subsequent staj>o of I lie prueecd- ings — which were in part conducted in open court — disappeared and had juil^'uient rendered against him by default, and the lands were thus 'recovered' by the demandant. This recovery, being a supposed adjudication of the rights of the parties, bound all persons and vested a free and absolute fee simple in the rccoveror. The ])rocess was known as "sufl'ering a common recov- ery.' A similar but less difficult and somewhat less efficacious proceeding was known as 'levying a fine.' The fine was by statute, in the reign of Henry VIII.. substituted for the more cumbrous and expensive common recovery as a means of barring entails, and both have now been super- seded by simpler and more modern conveyances. Kecoveries were occasionally employed in the early history of some of the United States, but are now everywhere obsolete, and in some States expressly abolished by statute. See Fine; Common Assurance: Convey. ce: Title. The common recovery is fully described by Black- stone, Comnieiitaries on the Lnirx of ICn(/laii<J, hk. ii., chap. 21. See also Pigot, Treatise of Common Recoveries, Their Xatiire and Use (Dub- lin, 1792) : Digby, An Introdiielion to the His- torn of the Lair of Real Property (5th ed., Ox- ford, Eng., 1900) ; Leake, Elementary Diycst of the Lniv of Property in Land (London, 1874). COMMONS. A name given to meals provided in Englisli colleges and inns of court for their members. It is used occasionally in the United States for the college dining-room when that is under college control. COMMONS, House of. See P.^rliasient. COMMON SCHOOLS. Since instruction has, at least in modern times, been provided for the great majority of the people, the term common schools implies that the schools are for the ma.sses of the people, or. where class distinctions are drawn, for the common people. The term, as used in the United States, implies, as well, that such schools are supported and controlled by the jieople and charge no tuition. The latter charac- teristic is now true for the most part of the common schools of Europe. The details of all such systems of schools are given in the article on Kational Education, Systems of. Previous to the beginning of modern history no people ever contemplated the education of the masses, though with most ancient peoples, as well as during the greater part of the Middle Ages, there were schools that provided the rudi- ments of education for a limited class. With the Greeks and Komans this class was not a special educational class, the priesthood, as with most other ancient peoples, but included all those entitled to full citizenship. At Athens the ele- mentary schools were private, and taught gym- nastics and music, the latter including reading and writing. At Rome the elementjiry schools were introduced at a much later date than at Athens, were also private, and gave instruction in reading, writing, and calculation. During the iliddle Ages such educational efforts as were made were wholly under the auspices of the Cliurch. Schools were established and main- tained by the Church, chiefly by monastic orders (see Monasticism), until the Renaissance of the Vol. v.— 15. twelfth century. After that time we find schools frequently controlled by the secular clergy. The mediieval' schools were either singing or gram- mar schools. The former were the elementary schools, and were designed primarily for training boys to assist in the Church service. A rudi- mentary knowledge of reading, and often of writing, Latin, as well as instruction in sing- ing, was given. Such schools were very numer- ous before the Reformation, and ollVrcd an op- portunity for an elementary eilucation in ahno:,l (•v<ry communit}', of which botii the peasantry and the poor could avail themselves. Until the middle of the eighteenth century the common schools still remained almost entirely under ecclesiastical direction. Later they were secularized, and attendance made compulsory. Til is was first accomplished on a large scale l>y Prussia in the latter half of the eiglitoenlh century. In France the system of public elc- ii.entary schools under the control of tiie State has been developed since 1833. In Scot- land common schools have existed very gen- erally since the latter part of the sevenieentli century, though it was not until 1872 that these were placed entirely uniler the control of the State and attendance made compulsory. Eng- lish common schools on any extensive scale date from the opening of the nineteenth centurj', and only since 1870 has there licen any concerted governmental effort toward building lip a com- mon school system. In the L'nited States common schools were early established in most of the Colonies. Often these were private schools taught by some woman as a means of support. They were consequently called, as in England, dame schools, or sometimes, from the place where held, kitchen schools. The early colonists, however, gave greater attention to the founding of secondary or giammar schools as be- ing of more immediate importance in the educa- tion of a ministr.v. this forming the chief motive to an education with them. In 1(343 JIassachusetts required that exery township containing fifty families should have a school for all the children, the tuition to be paid either by their parents or by general provision. While in Xew England such common schools became free in the sense of charging no tuition during the latter part of the seventeenth century, in most of the United States the free common school is a development of the .second quarter of the nineteenth century. During and since that time the system of free common schools has been systematically extended throughout all the States and Territories, and the course of instruction has been greatly enlarged. As each State has control of its own schools, there is great variety in the details of their management, but the following leading principles are the same in all : (1) A system of graded schools, embracing primary, grammar, and high schools ; ( 2 ) State superintendents, who deter- mine by examinations the qualifications .of the teachers and watch over the efficiency of the in- struction given; (3) uniformity of text-books; (4) public examinations; (5) school libraries and illustrative apparatus, and in many cases text-books supplied at public expense; (6) im- proved construction and furnishing of school- houses; (7) access to the school for all children of suitable age; (8) normal schools for the train- ing of teachers. Some of the States have funds to aid them in supporting their schools.