Page:LA2-NSRW-2-0103.jpg

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page has been proofread, but needs to be validated.
EDUCATION, STATE-AID IN
585
EDWARD I

been appealed to as a source from which correct method should be derived. In general, mechanical memory-work has been replaced by such as appeals to reason and stirs interest and spontaneity. The inductive method, involving the idea of development lessons (see Method of Teaching), library-methods, laboratories, workshops, illustrations, all rouse self-activity (q.v.), excite interest (q.v.), involve the constant application of what is learned, and aid in producing a progressive, alert and adaptable rather than a mechanical and passive character. The idea of formal mental discipline (q.v.) has been discredited by psychology, and more and more abandoned for that of discipline through valuable and interesting subject-matter. The course of study has been organized to appeal more to the powers, instincts and interests of the child at various stages in his development. Finally, trained psychologists have been to some extent employed in connection with school-systems.

In organization the most marked advances of modern times have been the development of state-systems of popular education (practically the creation of the 19th century), the transfer to a large extent of education from church or private control to that of the state, the expenditure of enormously greater funds for educational purposes, the development of supervision, very close in the advanced states of Europe, professional training for teachers, the differentiation of schools according to the aim of the instruction, and the better organization and unification of national systems. In all these directions an enormous amount remains to be done.

See Apperception, Correlation, Child Study, Interest, Method in Teaching, Mental Discipline, Psychology for Teachers, Self-Activity and Schools, Elementary. Consult Text-Book in the History of Education, Monroe.

Education, State-Aid in. In the United States, education is one of the matters which falls within the control of the several states, and not of the Federal government. The result of the power lodged in the states is that they tend to give aid in money and land to the schools; while, in return, their control over the schools increases, and the educational system in this way becomes more uniform. Thirty of the states make the education of children compulsory for an average term of five years. Most cities have their own superintendents of public instruction, and their own school-systems under a charter from the state. Each state, however, has a superintendent of public instruction who is given this title in 29 of the states, other titles in others. One of the benefits of state-control in education is that the more prosperous sections help to improve the schools of less prosperous places. The state generally supports normal schools for the training of teachers. In the west and south the states go so far as to support universities, which is done nowhere else in the world to anything like the same extent. Secondary education often receives special attention from the state. Massachusetts requires the townships to maintain secondary schools. The University of the State of New York, however, is the best example of how the state may organize secondary education. The regents examine the high-schools, and allot vast sums in their aid. In Indiana, Minnesota and other western states the state-board of education accredits high-schools, which may then send their graduates direct to the state-university without examination. Each state admitted to the Union since 1800 has ceded land for a state-university and for common-schools. In 1836 many of the states distributed the surplus revenue that was returned to them by Congress wholly or partly among the schools. Of the land-grants for education made by the states, the chief is the 16th section of each township and, in states admitted since 1848, the 36th section also. In all, the states have granted about 68,000,000 acres of land; and to this they have added vast grants also in money.

Ed′ward, surnamed the Confessor, the last Anglo-Saxon king of the old royal line, was the elder son of Ethelred the Unready. On the deaths of Ethelred and Edmund Ironside, in 1016, Canute obtained possession of the throne and married the wife of Ethelred. Until Canute's death, in 1035, Edward lived in Normandy, but in 1042 he succeeded his half-brother, Hardicanute, as king. He was continually under the influence of favorites, who usually were foreigners; and the history of his reign is a record of the struggle between the Norman or court party and the old Anglo-Saxon party under Earl Godwin and his son Harold. Edward also carried on wars with the Welsh. He died on Jan. 5, 1066. He was canonized in 1161 by Pope Alexander III. With him the old English monarchy perished, save for the few months of the energetic rule of his successor, Harold II.

Edward I, king of England, the elder of the two sons of Henry III, was born at Westminster, June 17, 1239. At the parliament of Oxford (1258) he took part with his father in his contest with the nobles, but later seems to have sided with Earl Simon de Montfort, the leader of the barons or national party, but soon joined his father again. It was his rash eagerness which lost the battle of Lewes (1264), in consequence of which he was imprisoned as a hostage for his father's pledges. He made his escape soon after and gained the battle of Evesham (1265), which ended the great struggle between the king and the barons