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Hughes and Woodward high schools were thus born at the same time, though Woodward had been organized nearly twenty years and was a going concern of great power in education of the secondary type when the public high schools were legally founded.
The stories of these two pioneer schools have been the theme of many splendid articles on public school education in Cincinnati and constitute an interesting and important chapter in every history of the city.
Limited space requires that the record of each be somewhat abbreviated.
Hughes High School —Mr. H. H. Barney, after conducting the Central School for four years, became the principal of Hughes in 1851, which, in June of that year, graduated its first class, and in the September following occupied the beautiful new building on West Fifth Street. Mr. Barney resigned in 1854, having been elected State School Commissioner of Ohio.
The record of Hughes from the beginning in 1851 to the erection of the present splendid and conspicuous building on Clifton Heights, in 1907, was marked by little change in curriculum, having held rather firmly to the old lines of study first adopted, which were chiefly for college preparation.
From 1870 onward to the general public school revival beginning in 1905, both Hughes and Woodward may be said to have suffered from lack of school interest and the failure of the taxing authorities to supply sufficient funds to keep up with the progress of schools throughout the Nation.
This school starvation was perhaps more notably marked in the failure to keep up the attendance of high school students. There were finally, at the end of this period only half as many boys as girls for the reason that the courses of study failed to meet the need of boys particularly, and they left school for industry, and were not even well prepared for that. Consequently the proportion of students in the high schools to the elementary enrollment was the lowest of all the large cities in America.
In 1904 Cincinnati's entire high school enrollment was only 1900, two-thirds being girls, while Dayton, Ohio, a city only about one-third as large, had a greater enrollment with more boys than girls. These two facts, failure to keep pupils in the high schools, and the marked withdrawal of boys, were a large factor in causing Cincinnati's loss of prestige in business and population in the succeeding generation.
The effect of the school awakening during the past twenty years is most convincingly demonstrated in a table of comparison between the school conditions of 1904 and those of 1924 printed elsewhere in this article.
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What would have occurred in the way of general progress in Cincinnati had the schools been provided for as they were in other cities after the close of the Civil War must be left to the imagination, but may be inferred from the record of progress and achievement in such cities as received just and generous school support.
When, in 1905, the demand for a new building became irresistible, the large board began to study the problem of its location. The old reactionaries favored a down-town site, and after much discussion, rather suddenly, in July, 1905, purchased a lot at Linn and Clinton, and Armory Avenue, z00 by 200 feet in area, adjoining the old Eleventh District Elementary School. The price was very low and attractive and the property was needed as an addition to the dreadfully cramped playground of the Eleventh District School, but it was entirely too small for what was required for a new modern Hughes School.
The members of the board at large were all absent on vacation at the time the purchase was made and on their return they began a campaign to change the location, and finally succeeded in securing the present lot, 405 by 420 feet, at Clifton and McMillan streets, one of the highest elevations in all Cincinnati.
A nation-wide competition of architects was planned and the present commanding and beautiful building of Tudor architecture was the result.
The erection of this commanding and outstanding building, although containing nothing new in its provisions and equipment, so far as general high school practice went in other cities, was a staggering realization of the smug contentment of old Cincinnatians, that they had been oblivious to their need and the Nation's progress.
Of course it was bitterly criticized but it has triumphed over its adversaries in demonstrating its values and now the critics are silent.
Its fine Tudor tower stands as an inspiring beacon on a high hill top and is one of the city's most attractive architectural features.
It provided for 1,600 students and was fully occupied as soon as finished, in 1910, and such was the flood of demand for high school facilities that, although Woodward had been built for 1,40o students, and Withrow for 3,000, it was necessary to build an addition for B00 more students in 1923.
Woodward High School —The name of William Woodward always excites the veneration of Cincinnatians. It is closely woven in the records of all the early history of Cincinnati. He was a fine type of suburban farmer, capitalist and first citizen. The subject of education always held his thought and finally became the chief object of his life.
The Pharisees in the pioneer community who thought of education as a special privilege had no standing in the court of William Woodward. He had no children but he was father to all children who had need of edu-
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cation and no means of getting it. He heard these fatherless when they cried.
When Samuel Lewis and Nathan Guilford joined him in consideration of these children of the wilderness he heard them gladly. When the pioneers discussed schools he was a willing listener. He often called on his neighbor, Thomas Hughes, the cobbler, who lived near by and had a little hillside farm on the southwest shoulder of Mt. Auburn. Hughes was also childless and both had a common interest in talking over what might be done to give all children a chance.
These were the years from 1818 to 1824. In the latter year Thomas Hughes died and it was found that his association with William Woodward had borne fruit which enrolled him among the immortals of the little city near his home. He bequeathed his small farm—his all—"for the education of the poor destitute children whose parents or guardians were unable to pay for their schooling."
After the death of his friend, Thomas Hughes, and the gift of his property for the education of the poor, William Woodwards' intention to do likewise became fixed and in 1826 he gave seven acres of land to establish a full grammar school.
He believed that as the public school law had been passed the preceding year, it would take care of elementary education of the poor and the next need of such children would be a higher grade of school. Three years later, in 1829, the public schools were established and, when Mr. Woodward saw that his idea of a grammar or intermediate school was included in the course of study of the public school, he conveyed his land gift with an additional tract of land for a high school, and the Woodward High School was erected and opened in 1831. It was a two-story brick building on the northeast corner of the present Woodward lot on Franklin Street. The donor, though an old man, removed the first shovel full of earth at the beginning of the construction. It was opened in 1831 and Mr. Woodward took part in the ceremony.
He died two years later and was buried in the cemetery where Washington Park is now located.
After the new and charming "old Woodward" High School was completed as a public city high school, in 1855, it prospered and created a body of graduates who are most zealous in preserving the old traditions of the school and honoring the memory of the real founder of the school, William Woodward.
In reverence for his generosity and devotion to his ideals for public education, the old Woodward boys removed the remains of William Woodward and his wife to the school lot and placed them in a stone vault in 1860, and erected a monument and statue of William Woodward over the tomb in 1878.
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Many and beautiful are the tributes paid the memory of this, perhaps the greatest of the early patrons of learning in Cincinnati.
The graduates of Woodward have loyally and reverently observed his birthday, March 8, as Founders Day.
As Old Woodward followed Old Hughes by about four years in their original constructions, so New Woodward followed New Hughes in the present substantial and impressive building which accommodates 1,400 students with all the modern equipment and facilities of a completely up-to-date high school, which was dedicated in 1910.
The cornerstone of this building was laid by an old Woodward boy, William Howard Taft, the day after he was elected President of the United States.
Old Woodward and Old Hughes buildings accommodate together, 1,400 students, while New Woodward and New Hughes were built for 3,000 students. The board of education was quite bitterly criticized for over building, and the objectors declared they would not be fully occupied for twenty years. The builders, however, had an abiding faith that the people of Cincinnati would eagerly grasp the opportunity for such really modern facilities as were supplied to high school students elsewhere.
The paint of these ample and modern buildings was hardly dry before they were filled and another high school, the Withrow, for 3,000 students, was completed only eight years later.
This most wonderful growth in demand for modern high school opportunity amply justified the belief of the builders that Cincinnati youth only wanted a chance.
Walnut Hills High School —The Walnut Hills High School was erected in 1894 to meet the increasing demand for high school students. It is the only school building in Cincinnati constructed of stone, and at that time was the only school building containing an auditorium and gymnasium, though for many years previously all new high schools contained both of these facilities in all cities of the country.
In 1919 Superintendent Condon recommended that the Walnut Hills High School be adapted in its course of study to meet the needs of those pupils who were more than usually capable in scholastic work and able to make more than the usual advancement required of the average pupil, and whose parents were willing that they should have opportunity for intensive preparation for the college liberal arts courses. It is sometimes called the classical high school, which is to some extent a misnomer, for it does not differ from the other high schools except in giving Greek to a few elective students and beginning Latin which is compulsory and Greek when taken in the seventh grade.
It has no vocational courses.
Cin.-23
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The other high schools fit students for the liberal arts courses in colleges, since Greek is no longer required by American colleges for the degree of Bachelor of Arts.
This high school is regarded as a wise and forward looking innovation, in that it allows the gifted student opportunity to shorten his course, saving his time and the school's funds.
It is also a logical application of the principle which the schools adopt for the retarded pupils in the elementary grades, by meeting individual needs and capabilities of pupils.
Withrow High School —The high school on Madison Road and Erie Avenue was completed in 1918, and was at first called, though never officially named, East High. After Dr. J. M. Withrow, for nearly twenty years a member of the Board of Education, resigned in 1924, the Union Board of High Schools and the Board of Education unanimously voted to name the school the Withrow High School. It was built to accommodate 3,000 pupils, and is constructed on the pavilion plan, with a separate building for the gymnasium and another for the heating plant and shops.
Although the latter part of this erection was carried over into the period of war prices, it cost less per pupil to be accommodated than any other high school in Cincinnati, and it is the general opinion that the pavilion plan of its construction has proven a great triumph in comfort and administration.
The buildings are located on a tract of land comprising twenty-seven acres, and are placed well back from the street with a natural gently sloped valley in front of them, and are approached by a slender ornamental bridge over the valley. The architecture is consistently colonial and one of the most beautiful specimens of this distinctly American type in the country. It is constructed of plain brick with a small amount of gray Bedford stone trimming, and not marred by over ornamentation or the use of costly materials. The main group of buildings are held together by a slender and graceful axis tower with a belfry bearing the clock and bell. The grounds, which are ample and charmingly landscaped, make a most harmonious setting and give a retired and restful feeling quite in harmony with the idea that this is a place where there may be joy in work. A modern stadium, seating 6,000, is placed in the rear of the main pavilions, between the gymnasium and shops, and is the only one for high school games in the city.
Mr. Richard K. LeBlond, one of Cincinnati's best citizens, presented this school with perhaps the greatest organ in Cincinnati, which is a source of pleasure and entertainment not only for the students and teachers but for the community as well. The Hyde Park Community Center makes most extensive use of the school and its equipment for study and entertainment at night.
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Dr. Calvin E. Stowe's Report —Dr. Calvin E. Stowe, husband of Harriet Beecher Stowe, was a young minister thirty-three years old teaching in Lane Theological Seminary in Cincinnati in 1836. His father-in-law, Rev. Lyman Beecher of the same institution, had just appealed to the people in behalf of better general education for all the people, with the ringing statement : "We must educate or we must perish by our own posterity."
Young Stowe was going abroad on a journey of study for the seminary, and he was officially requested by the Legislature of Ohio, through "His Excellency Governor" Lucas "to collect, during the progress of his tour in Europe, such facts and information as he may deem useful to the State in relation to the various systems of public instruction and education which have been adopted in the several countries through which he may pass, and make report thereof with such practical observations as he may think proper, to the next General Assembly." He visited England, Scotland, France, Prussia, and several States of Germany, and the title of his report was: "On Elementary Public Education in Europe," and largely influenced the Ohio system of education, especially in Cincinnati.
He was most favorably impressed with the Prussian system, the rigid economy, love of order and
strict discipline.
In 1838 he made a later communication to Governor Lucas on the Prussian system and its applicability to the United States. This article stressed the teaching of an additional modern language, but emphasized the importance of immigrants learning English. He urged the adoption of the compulsory school attendance practice of Prussia, as well 'as "instruction in music, drawing, gardening, mechanics, and the useful arts. In this way a vast amount of talent and attainment is secured to the Nation which would have been forever unknown."
His report further advocates the Prussian method of religious instruction, and teachers' responsibility to the government as in detailed records of all school activities, etc.
It is well to note the influence of these articles of Dr. Stowe upon the work and development of school curricula and practice in Cincinnati. Not long after they were submitted and published a considerable and finally an enormous immigration of Germans began and continued.
Music —Music, drawing and athletics of the Turnverein type were more developed here than elsewhere, and made an impress upon the schools and population which is still commendably present, particularly in music. In this social, cultural and artistic branch of learning, Cincinnati still maintains a superiority which is a matter of general recognition.
In 1844 the school authorities appointed a supervisor of music in the person of W. F. Colburn, who served until 1848. He was succeeded in
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1848 by Chas. Aiken, who was followed in 1879 by G. F. Junkermann, who was supervisor for twenty-one years, and in 1900 was succeeded by Walter H. Aitken, the present supervisor.
The regime of Mr. Walter H. Aitken is one of most admirable examples of fine constructive and artistic contributions to the musical fame of our city.
Physical Culture —The department of physical culture, one of the branches of education stimulated by Dr. Stowe's study of education in Germany, and by the later increase of German immigrants, was formally created in 1857 during the administration of Superintendent Rickoff. It was, at the beginning, only the practice of calisthenics in the class rooms for five minutes each day, and the use of some gymnastic apparatus such as bars, ladders and swings in the school yards of four schools in the German district.
Louis Graeser, of the North Carolina Turn Verein, was in charge of the instruction from 1860 to 1874 when it was abolished, but the calisthenics were carried on without supervision until 1884.
From 1884 to 1887 some volunteer instruction was carried on by Oscar Speth and William A. Stecher in the normal school and the 16th and 23d district schools.
In 1892 small gymnasia were built in the yards of Woodward and Hughes high schools, and Dr. Carl Ziegler was elected supervisor of physical culture and has been in charge ever since.
The work has been extended to all the schools, and gymnasia have been constructed in all high schools and the majority of the elementary schools. The instruction and work still has a background of the German type from which it was originally developed and is quite well supplied with space and equipment.
Only one stadium has been built for the five high schools of Cincinnati but another is planned for the near future.
The recent establishment of extensive playgrounds by the Board of Education and the Park Board, and their general use by the school children in supervised play and outdoor games, is gratifying evidence of modification and extension of the physical culture branch of school activities in a most wholesome and beneficial manner.
The contribution of this training to constructive and law abiding citizenship is inestimable.
German Teaching —The teaching of German in the public schools was provided for by law in 1840. This law was passed on the initiation of German citizens and not at the suggestion of the Board of Education, which remained somewhat unsympathetic until a sufficient proportion of school board members of German extraction had been elected. When this occurred the introduction of German teaching increased rapidly until
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there was a larger proportion of German teachers in the schools than in any other American city. Much controversy, however, was engendered by the persistence of its advocates, and the decision of policy was, in the main, based upon their political influence rather than on the value of the teaching.
At all events the subject kept its place in the curriculum, though the number of pupils electing it diminished gradually until the United States entered the World War and the teaching of German in the elementary schools was abolished by the unanimous vote of the Board of Education. It was never abolished as an elective in the high schools, but the demand for it by students was so small that the teaching was discontinued.
In 1926 Dr. Condon, superintendent of schools, recommended that German teaching be made an elective subject in the high school course, and the Board of Education adopted the recommendation. In 1918 the Legislature of Ohio passed a law abolishing the teaching of any modern language except English in the elementary public schools. This law apparently has the approval of a vast majority of the teachers and citizens of the United States.
Drawing —Although drawing was one of the branches of school study in Germany which Dr. Stowe, in 1838, especially noted and commended in his report as a part of public school activity, it was not till 1864 that it was given a special place in the curriculum. It doubtless came as a result of the increased German membership of the School Board, stimulated by his report.
Lyman Harding, a former member of the Board of Education, who was elected superintendent of schools, made the recommendation. The progress of the department was so satisfactory and successful that its exhibit, submitted at the New Orleans Exposition in 1885, received high commendation, and at the request of the French Commissioner the entire exhibit was presented to the Paris Pedagogical Museum. Mr. W. H. Vogel was appointed supervisor of drawing in 1886 and still occupies that position. In 1895 the exhibit of the Cincinnati Schools won the highest award given at the Atlanta Exposition. The work of this branch of school activity still ranks well and the results attest the ethical ideas of the supervisor.
Colored Schools —No chapter in the school history of Cincinnati records more trials and triumphs than the story of the education of colored people. Much of it reads like a barbaric tale of persecution and some of its annals are an inspiring chronicle of great courage, sacrifice and devotion. It is now almost impossible to believe that for thirty-five years after free public schools were established in Cincinnati colored human beings were sold at the auctioneer's block across the Ohio River only a mile away.
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We find that as early as 1830 "the people of Colour in the first ward pray that a school may be opened in it for the benefit of their children," was the substance of a petition in the minutes of the Board of Trustees and Visitors, which constituted the Board of Education in this second year of free public schools in Cincinnati.
Strange to relate, however, there is no record of any distinction on account of color ; in fact "colored children of a lighter hue" were received in private schools as late as 1835, when Mr. Funk kept such a school at the southeast corner of Sixth and Vine streets.
The colored population at that time numbered about 500, and, though several small ventures at separate private schools for colored children had failed, a colored man from Virginia, named Owen T. B. Nickens, opened such a school on Sixth Street Hill in 1834. The charge for tuition was one dollar a month, when he could get it, and, although many never paid, no one was turned away on that account. This school was removed to New Street a few years later when Mr. Nickens was succeeded by John McMicken.
About this period, 1835, it is evident that the Abolishionists must have been active in this section, for the faculty of Lane Theological Seminary, alarmed by the threats of "Kentucky Mobists," forbade their students to discuss the slavery question. A large number of the students rebelled and some went to Oberlin, whose doors were open to all races and both sexes and there was no limit to discussion. Three of the rebellious students found employment in private teaching in the East End.
Rowdyism and the mob spirit at times attacked the places where colored pupils were being taught, in a determined effort to prevent these persecuted people from having any educational opportunities. This opposition went to the extent of heaping indignities upon the teachers, who were refused accommodations in boarding houses, and were forced to seek separate quarters and board themselves. Notwithstanding this reign of outlawry the friends of colored schools persisted with fine courage and in 1841 they had a school of two or three hundred pupils in Baker Street, though it struggled through a rather difficult existence.
Some influential people rose up from time to time and helped the poor teachers in keeping the work from dying. One of these good and capable friends, in 1844, the Rev. Hiram S. Gilmore, a philanthropic citizen of some wealth, built a house of five rooms and a chapel, on Harrison Street. Mr. Gilmore, as principal, conducted what was called a high school with serious and intelligent endeavor, and though it was educationally helpful it was financially barely able to keep going. During the vacations some of the classes went out giving entertainments through Ohio, New York and Canada, collecting money for the support of the school.
In 1849, owing to a tie in the Ohio Legislature between the Whigs
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and the Democrats, the Free Soilers, a third party, had a few members which gave them the balance of power, saw a chance for a political deal, and declared they would vote for the party which would, among other things, establish free schools for colored children. The Democrats accepted the offer and passed the law, but the Cincinnati authorities maintained that the law was unconstitutional and wouldn't pay over the taxes, although the colored people, who had proceeded with the election under the school board law, employed teachers and fixed salaries.
These taught for three months and, as pay was refused, the schools closed. The contention went to the courts and the decision was delayed until 1852, when the law was upheld and the salaries were ordered to be paid.
The schools were conducted separately until the right of suffrage was given to colored citizens by the 15th amendment to the United States Constitution in 1870.
In 1874 the colored school board was abolished and two years later the position of colored superintendent of colored schools was abolished, and in 1887 the separate colored schools were followed by the same fate, and colored children were admitted to the schools with white children. This gave the appearance of fair treatment but it, for a long period, was quite otherwise ; in fact, the two races in a region directly on the boundary of the old slave states, irritated each other in the schools to the manifest detriment of the education of both, but time and custom gradually reduced the prejudice, though it has never entirely disappeared. The real renaissance in school conditions for colored children has been brought about by voluntary segregation in two school districts at least.
The school supervisors who come in contact with all the schools of the city are quite convinced that the colored pupils in the segregated schools make much better progress than in the schools that are largely white. The Board of Education has gone upon the principle here as well as elsewhere of giving every child a chance and making the chance fit racial as well as individual needs. It, therefore, has supplied these two schools, the Douglass and the Harriet Beecher Stowe and their colonies with not only all the equipment furnished other schools, but also some additional facilities particularly meeting the needs of the colored communities. The work of these schools in Cincinnati has made a profound impression upon the educational leaders of the country who are coming here in considerable number to observe and study Cincinnati methods.
It is only just and fitting, in closing this section of this article, to commend in highest terms, the work of Miss Jennie Porter, of the Stowe School, and Mr. and Mrs. Russel, of the Douglass School, for the splendid manner in which they are meeting the needs of both the schools and the community.
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Night Schools —Samuel Lewis, one of the foremost citizens of Cincinnati in every good word and work pertaining to public education, in 184o, as chairman of the Board of Trustees of the Common Schools, as they were styled at that time, made a plea for evening schools, saying: "The importance of evening schools for those engaged in labor or business during the day cannot be overestimated and we hope early measures will be taken to carry this part of the work into full operation."
The plan was put into effect in 1840, but only "for young men over twelve years of age," is the quotation from the law passed by the Legislature the previous winter. The school term extended only from the first of November to the first of March. Girls were not admitted to the night schools until 1855, and then in only two schools, as an experiment.
Rufus King, president of the board at that time, rather curiously comments on the first night schools for girls, in these words : "So far as we have the means of judging from the reports none of the difficulties occurred which were supposed to render the experiment a delicate and doubtful one."
The first night high school was opened in 1856. During the Civil War, and for some years after, none were maintained. Lack of funds was the reason given for closing them in 1884, after some spasmodic efforts to keep them in service had failed. This was mere camouflage, for the truth is that it was only a part of the political plan to keep down the school tax rate in the interest of the city and county taxes. There was also, at this time and later, a well grounded criticism of the lack of experience of the teachers employed in the night schools.
In 1892 night elementary schools were reopened, and the night high schools were opened the year following. Each pupil was required to file a guarantee of good behavior from some responsible citizen before admission was granted. This was made necessary by the general hoodlumism that prevailed, owing to the lack of authority and experience of the teachers.
For many years preceding the general revival of confidence in the school administration, it was necessary to have police protection at the buildings where night schools were conducted, and at the night high school commencement. This attitude was speedily changed after the administration of Dr. Dyer began, and the operation of the Merit System was established. Then the selection of night school principals and teachers was based upon the principle that the best was none too good for those who so valued the opportunities for education as to sacrifice their nights to the acquisition of learning after days of labor.
There is no more impressive evidence of the change in the spirit of our people in recent years than the record of growth in night school and community center attendance, which shows an increase in enrollment from 1,827 in 1904, to 14,850 in 1924. This surely is a, fine tribute both to
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the value of improved teaching and the added facilities in modern school buildings and equipment.
Kindergartens —No one in Cincinnati thinks about kindergartens without thinking of Miss Annie Laws, who was chief among the pioneers of this movement to establish this most essential foundation of education.
The first kindergarten was opened in the old Spencer House, Broadway and Front Street, in 1880, as a private charity, under the Cincinnati Kindergarten Association, which had been organized in January of that year. The work advanced slowly but steadily and the Cincinnati Kindergarten Training School was organized by the association in 1894, and has continued its services up to the present time, by means of contributions of generous friends. These good citizens established new kindergartens from year to year in the poorer and congested parts of the city until a total of twenty-seven was reached in 1902.
Miss Laws was the president of the association, and Mrs. Charles Fleischman was the chief benefactor for many years, though generous contributions were made through the years by a large number of citizens.
During all the period from 1880 to 1906 many urgent appeals were made to the Board of Education begging them to take over all or part of the free kindergartens into the public school system. In the year 1906, at the recommendation of Dr. Dyer, the Board of Education began to establish kindergartens in public school buildings with public funds. This practice has been steadily maintained until there are sixty-six serving all the elementary schools of the city.
Mothers' Clubs —As an outgrowth of this movement the organization of mothers' clubs connected with the kindergartens first, and the schools as well later, was begun as a means of uniting the school with the home. These organizations have increased to a total of eighty-eight mothers' clubs, and are without doubt the most important agency in Cincinnati in maintaining the splendid interest which the people of the city show in their schools. The spirit of cooperation between the home and the school has been a tower of strength to the school administration.
Normal School and Teachers' College —Mr. A. J. Rickoff is said to have been the father of the first effort in Cincinnati to train teachers for public service, but it was not until ten years later that a normal school was established in 1868. At that time teachers who took the one-year course provided by the school were paid a salary of $500.00 per year, an increase of $100.00 over the regular salary of $400.00. This is the first evidence in Cincinnati's school history of a recognition of merit by a financial reward.
Miss Delia A. Lathrop, a graduate of the Albany, New York, State Normal School, was the principal for eight years, and her fine character
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and great ability was a very beneficial influence in initiating the idea that teaching should be elevated from an avocation to a profession by rigorous special training.
Students were required, at first, to have diplomas of graduation from the city high schools, as the only educational qualification for entrance to the normal school, though some were admitted upon passing a special examination, and the course was extended to one and a half years. Later it was provided that only graduates of the city high schools who had an average grade of eighty per cent through their high school course could be admitted, and provision was made requiring university graduates to take a five-months course in primary methods before they were eligible for a teacher's appointment. The normal school was suspended in 19o9, after a life of thirty-two years.
Dr. F. B. Dyer, who had been the first dean of the first State normal school in Ohio, at Miami University, at Oxford, was elected superintendent of schools in 1903. He immediately took steps to organize a teachers' college as a joint movement by the Cincinnati University and the Board of Education. This teachers' college went into effect in 1905, and on Dr. Dyer's initiation the merit system for the appointment of teachers was adopted by the Board of Education.
Merit system had a pleasant sound to the board members when adopted, but when they found that it had teeth and robbed them of their former influence in the appointment of teachers, there was grief and much protest, but Dr. Dyer stood his ground for the maintenance of the system and tactfully managed to preserve the authority of the law. So far as the department of instruction is concerned, the introduction of the merit system for the appointment of teachers through Dr. Dyer's influence was the origin of the new order in the rejuvenation of Cincinnati schools. The basic requirement of this system is a provision that only university graduates are eligible to appointment as teachers, and among these only those having had special training in a teachers' college of accredited standing and served for six months to the satisfaction of expert critic teachers are put on the preferred list of qualified applicants.
This is the highest standard of requirement in the United States and few other cities maintain it. The effect of the rigid application of this system of training and selecting teachers has been to elevate the character of the personnel of the teaching force to a most gratifying standard of performance during the twenty years since its adoption, and its efficiency, especially since the regime of the small Board of Education began in 1913, has been almost ideal.
During these last twelve years there has not been the slightest interference on the part' of the Board of Education, or any of its members, with the legal authority of the superintendent to appoint teachers, and
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these appointees have been rigidly selected in accordance with the rules and regulations of the merit system.
Dean Pechstein, of the teachers' college, has constantly increased the effectiveness of the training of teachers, and the product of the college has been of tremendous value to the department of instruction in the public schools.
Manual Training and Domestic Science —Manual training and domestic science were introduced from 1875 to 1885 in a large number of American cities in recognition of the importance of training hands and hearts as well as heads. These names have been changed to industrial arts and household arts. This work extended rapidly and was tested out with great interest and final success in reaching a clearer evaluation of its proper place in the course of study. These branches of the curriculum belong to the conception of the school as given by the great master, John Dewy--"Education is not learning how to live, but living."
The vitalized school is just as real living as any other stated form of activity, and the school devitalized by acquiring information—factsonly, comes too near drudgery to be either hopeful, or fully constructive. Cincinnati did not make any attempt to introduce these vivifying subjects until 1906, twenty-five years after a large number of the most progressive cities of America had adopted the work and felt the influence of the new conception of giving the whole child a chance. A few centers were opened here in 1906 and 1907, and the people were thrilled by the new order and pleaded for an extension of this work. New centers were equipped from year to year until 1924, when all our schools had access to these branches of work and there were fifty-two industrial arts, and fifty-five household arts centers.
One most notable and convincing evidence of the real value of these life-giving branches was the lessened difficulty in keeping boys and girls in school and consequent diminution in truancy. The general tendency in these subjects is a departure from making the work a study or exercise, to making it a project, having both beginning and end. In this particular development probably no city has surpassed Cincinnati in wisely handling this phase of public school training, and the interest manifested by parents in any form of school work which makes the school attractive to their children is a valuable asset.
Miss Ullrich has been the director of household arts ever since its introduction in Cincinnati, and Mr. Elmer Christy has been the director of the industrial arts for many years. Under their capable administration the work has made phenomenal advancement, and the effect of these recently adopted innovations in maintaining the confidence and support of school patrons has been very helpful.
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Vocational Schools —This, though one of the latest additions to the curriculum of the Cincinnati schools, has made signal advancement and perhaps constitutes the most useful contribution to the- popularity of modern education. It has, in a measure robbed compulsory education for motor-minded pupils of its old time sting and given such pupils a chance both to find their power and develop it. It is the avenue through which they emancipate themselves from the drudgery of unskilled labor, and reach a higher goal in usefulness and citizenship.
Mr. John F. Arundel is the supervisor and proves himself fully equal to the numerous and diverse problems presented.
This branch of the schools includes the considerable group of activities largely supported under the Smith-Hughes State and National appropriations.
Taxation and Support —At the end of the Civil War there was such an appreciation of education growing out of the general realization that the better trained and educated soldier made far greater military progress, that the public generally demanded an increase in school facilities and more extended courses of study in the public schools.
For the first time in history the vision of public school educators extended below the head and raised the question of educating and training hands and hearts. Cincinnati failed to respond to this nation wide urge, and still continued content in the old order and concentrated its educational endeavor "above the collar bone" only. An apparent reason for this failure to follow the crowd lay in the domination of gang politicians who saw that the way to political triumph was along the line of keeping down the tax rate and holding the jobs. To lessen the general tax rate it was only needed to cut off a portion of the school tax, leaving city and county rates untouched. This went on for more than a generation—chiefly from 1870 to 1905.
Cincinnati, by means of a large ward Board of Education during this period, kept the schools on an unchanged level of curriculum and equipment and fell further and further behind the practice and progress of her sister cities. From 1870 forward, the advance made by our competing neighbor cities added to the school curricula the modern vocational subjects and school buildings were rapidly changed from a mere group of class rooms to real school houses, meeting not only all the needs of the day school pupils but community requirements as well.
Cincinnati's school tax rates in 1870 were equal to the average of Ohio cities, but in 1904 they were only forty per cent of the average, or, in other words, other cities were investing two and a half times as much in the education and training of their children as we were. Therefore we entered this twentieth century with one whole generation, the youngest. less well trained and equipped than the same generation in the cities with which we had to compete in the strife which is necessary to progress.
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Our school law here in Cincinnati provided for the old ward form of large Board of Education—twenty-four members. A ray of hope came in a new legal requirement to elect three members at large to the board in 1994. This change was partly in harmony with the prevailing practice in progressive cities, where the change of large ward boards to small boards elected at large had been in effect for many years.
Three fearless, energetic and independent citizens, Dr. Louis Schwab, Mr. Emil Pollak, and Dr. J. M. Withrow, were accordingly chosen as members at large and with them the public school renaissance in Cincinnati began in 1905, under the inspiration and stimulation of Dr. F. B. Dyer, the new superintendent. These men immediately started a campaign for education of the masses in behalf of better schools, better buildings and a law which would give Cincinnati the same kind of school administration that was provided generally in the progressive cities of the State and Nation. The schools improved at once, though slowly, as it was impossible to free them entirely from the old incubus of ward politics until the character of the entire personnel of the board could be changed by securing a law abolishing all ward memberships.
Dr. Withrow was the acknowledged leader in the long and persistent effort to create public sentiment in behalf of the new order. He went about the city to churches, clubs, civic organizations, preaching the gospel of better school buildings, better schools, modern courses of study and sufficient tax levies to put Cincinnati back into the peerage of other American cities in the education and training of its children. He is said to have delivered more than two hundred addresses, illustrated with pictures and lantern slides, appealing to the citizens to save their schools, their children and their city.
The struggle was carried on in the Legislature and among the people of the city—through clubs and civic organizations for four years, and a small board elected-at-large-law was installed in 1908. The small board went into service and the friends of modern education were rejoiced at its progressive administration. Defeat came one year later, in 1909, in the decision of the Supreme Court that the law was unconstitutional. The old ward hoard went back to the helm, but it carried with it the three members at large, and went on with a much chastened spirit. The war for a change in the law did not cease, but it took four more years to secure the present law in 1913. The law provides a board of seven members, elected at large, and its results have been most satisfactory. The school administration now is entirely free from all partisan politics, and the general situation is perfectly ideal in having and deserving the confidence of the people.
Board of Education —No chronicle of the public schools of Cincinnati would be justified in omitting reference to the present Board of Education, which is a body of high minded and intelligent citizens devoted to
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public service without fear or favor. Politics has been a castaway since the small board school law went into effect in 1913, and all the details of the school management —not only educational but business as well—have been firmly placed on the basis followed in all successful private enterprises.
Every member of the school personnel, from the superintendent to the least important employee in the business department, registers his entrance and departure on a time recorder and the atmosphere of all the office and business service indicates a morale, of the highest type.
In such a high grade organization it may seem invidious to mention any names, but it would be falling short of proper appreciation to omit the record of Mr. Samuel Ach, who entered the membership of the board in the last year of the large board administration and was a member continuously until the first of January, 1926, a period of thirteen years. He was vice-president from the accession of the small board, in 1913, till Dr. Withrow resigned, in May, 1924, when he succeeded him in the presidency. A finer and more capable service has never been given by a public official, and the people of Cincinnati have been generous in their appreciation of the unexcelled contribution of Samuel Ach.
Superintendents —No great enterprise or system ever rises above the character of its managing personnel. The school system of Cincinnati has been most fortunate in the character, vision and ideals of its superintendents since the election of Dr. F. B. Dyer in 1904. His administration of the schools for a year or two had many troublous days, but he stood firmly for The merit system and by that sign he conquered. The old ward board feared to overthrow him and the system at first, but they grew restless and troublesome as the years passed and would have rebelled openly had not Boston called Dr. Dyer as superintendent of schools in 1912.
Cincinnati's modern school system, newly established and progressing, was in danger. The effort to elect a superintendent who would close his eyes to the merit system was a real peril. The friends of the schools among the best citizens rallied to the support of the new order and defeated the old adversaries, and the first attempt failed. A few months of struggle in choosing a successor to Dr. Dyer followed and it was a period of grievous anxiety to the three members at large and a small but strong minority of the ward members who feared a second attempt to elect a superintendent who would not hold the ground already gained. However, the Gods were with Cincinnati and the school system, and Dr. Randall J. Condon, of Providence, Rhode Island, was elected. The success of this gift of Providence to Cincinnati has been the fairest chapter in the school history of the Queen City.
Dr. Condon not only held all the ground gained by Dr. Dyer, but steadily added other gains to school progress, and as the law provided for a small board elected at large was passed one year later, in 1913, the
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advance henceforth has been so generally recognized throughout the land that the schools of Cincinnati are now the cynosure of educational eyes in all America. The superintendents' section of the National Educational Association, the most representative group of public school leaders in America, elected Dr. Condon its president in 1926.
In evidence of the progress made by the schools of Cincinnati in the twenty years from 1904 to 1924, the following table is submitted :
