270 INTERNATIONAL CONGRESS OF EDUCATION. 
will indicate the modifications that may be demanded and wisely intro- 
luced. 
The first public bequest for education in the American colonies was 
made to Harvard University by the colony of Massachusetts Bay in the 
year 1636, ‘ that learning may not be buried in the graves of our fathers 
ln church and state.” Elementary schools were established later. Still 
later, and by degrees, these schools became universal and free; and with 
the growth of democracy and the establishment of the Republic, they 
came to be regarded as an essential factor of the national life, and they 
have extended to every State. 
It is to be observed, that in the early colonies and in the new States, 
among a rural population, the schools confined themselves to teaching the 
three #’s—to book learning. All the industrial arts, the domestic virtues 
and duties, and religion were left to the family. On this plan there has 
been a long period of national prosperity and general intelligence. The 
sountry throve, the people were industrious, frugal, capable, and patriotic. 
With no special emphasis upon the flag in the teaching of the schools, 
there was no lack of patriotic devotion when the country called for service 
and sacrifice ; with no special attention to mechanical or other industries 
in the schools, business was prosperous, and there was no lack of intelli- 
gent artisans. Education was general and not specific. It was not the 
aim of the schools to assume the responsibility of the entire training of 
youth, intellectually, physically, and morally, after the manner of the 
ancient Spartans. 
With the invention of machinery, with the inauguration of vast com- 
mercial and manufacturing corporations, with the division and sub-division 
of labor, and with the rapid development of the country subsequent to the 
Civil War, through immigration, society has changed, and the problem of 
aducation has become more complex. The family is not now the political 
anit which it was. The fathers do not carry on a small, independent 
business where their sons can be employed ; the mothers do not conduct 
domestic industries to engage the labor of the daughters. Men have 
oecome mere cogs and wheels in the vast industrial machinery, in which 
the children frequently find no place, and the parents have no time left to 
work with the children. 
(6) In this state of society, which is far from the ideal state, shall the 
public school assume the responsibility of the entire education of the 
children ? Shall the school perform the function of the parent and of 
the church ? If so, shall the education be specific, to fit certain boys for 
certain trades and adapt them to the “local industries,” and conform the 
schools to ““race characteristics” ? 
In the Swiss city of Zurich the children in school are taught the chict 
industry of the place; in China industrial occupations are thoroughly 
caught, and the inhabitants acquire wonderful deftness: the aborigines of