The First Normal School in America

It is stated that the progress of Germany is marked by manufacturing plants, that of France by railway stations, that of Great Britain by customs offices, and that of the United States by school houses. Captious critics are sometimes inclined to question the beneficial results of the latter; and they cite in vindication of their doubt the facts that in literacy the United States stands way down in the tenth position among the civilized nations of the world, and that our moral status seems unaffected by our boasted public school system since the burglary insurance risks have increased five hundred and fifty per cent within a few years, and in number of homicides per hundred thousand of population Chicago has twenty-two times as many as London, Cleveland fourteen times as many as Berlin, and the United States eight times as many as Canada. But, when all of the conditions are considered, these statements are not disconcerting. They reveal a temporary condition and not a policy; an incident in the policy rather than a result.

Cite This Article as: Teachers College Record Volume 24 Number 3, 1923, p. 263-271
http://www.tcrecord.org/library ID Number: 6069, Date Accessed: 9/2/2010 10:01:36 PM