keeping, botany, astronomy, natural philosophy, chemistry, geology, rhetoric, logic, economics, political science, mental philosophy, moral science, etymology, English literature, reading, drawing, music, German, French.

The English classical curriculum added to the English curriculum, Latin, grammar and prose, Caesar, Cicero, Virgil and Greek.34

None of the high schools over the State had such an extensive program as the two above indicated. Peoria gave the following as the subjects taught in her high school in 1856: "First Class-Spelling in connection with etymology; read and define from the Fifth Reader; Arithmetic completed and reviewed; English Grammar.”

"Second Class-Mathematical and Physical Geography; Latin begun; Algebra; Bookkeeping; Spelling weekly."

"Third Class-Geometry and Trigonometry; Latin continued Natural Philosophy; Drawing; Spelling weekly."

"Fourth Class-Chemistry; Latin continued; Rhetoric and Logic; Mental and Moral Philosophy; Reading and Elocution; Spelling weekly.''35

Greek was to be added if enough pupils, planning to go to college, warranted the formation of a class.

Springfield had practically the same program. The first class was preparatory, and the other three classes offered Latin, Greek, mathematics, English, history and science."

Galesburg had three grades in the high school which were designated as A, B, C. All of the common branches were taught and in addition, mathematics as high as algebra, science in the form of natural philosophy, three classes in Latin, physical geography and rhetoric, composed of essays, declamations and composition.3

37

Finally, the programs of some of the reorganized academies included such subjects as Latin, Greek, French, geometry, plane and spherical trigonometry, chemistry, philosophy and the common branches in preparation for the more advanced work.

From a study of the upper part of the common schools that were being graded, it must be concluded that some sub

Chicago Report, v. 3. 1856. p. 28.

35 Illinois Teacher, v. 2. 1856, p. 340.

Springfield Report, 1866, p. 26.

"Steele, History of the Galesburg Public Schools.

jects of a secondary nature were generally taught about the time of the enactment of the free school law. Moreover, it was customary to include a review of some of the common branches as the preliminary or preparatory work in the higher department. Therefore, the boundary between primary and secondary education was loosely drawn for a period of about two decades, 1855-1875.

What the province of each was had to be determined in actual practice. The high school as well as the elementary school was becoming an institution whose advantages were open to all the people. The primary schools no longer existed exclusively for the public and secondary education no longer was maintained exclusively as a privilege of the upper classes. The change to a vertical from a parallel system of education entailed no definite number of years in the length of the common school system. No conclusive evidence has been found that the early free public high schools in Illinois had a fouryear program. In fact, that length of time for secondary education was not used as a basis for the classification of high schools in the State until about 1880.

Farthermore, the number of years in the grades was equally late of determination. The first mention of gradation in Illinois was in 1837, and the names, primary, intermediate and grammar designated departments which are still quite common. These departments began to be graded in the more progressive communities of the State by 1855, but there was little thought that a year's work in the elementary school should constitute one grade. Some schools had ten grades with the tenth grade the beginning class, and the first grade the most advanced grade of the elementary school, but the length of the elementary school was about six years until 1875. About that time the plan of making the first grade the first year of elementary school work and the adoption of eight years of eight grades was begun. Some schools added a year to the elementary grades to prepare for the high school examination. The year so added was called the seventh grade. Other schools took the common branches or preparatory work out of the high school and added it to the elementary school. A few high schools retained what is now the eighth grade and made a longer high school period. Therefore the

length in years of the elementary schools and many of the high schools in Illinois is the result of a generation or more of development, 1850 to 1880, rather than the adoption, between 1840 and 1850, of the plan of the eight year highly organized volkschule of Prussia as Dr. Judd claims.

High School Entrance Requirements.

The academy, as has been shown in chapter four, admitted almost anyone who was able and willing to pay for instruction; the common school, from necessity, received part of its support in tuition charges before the free school law was passed. Neither were the equipment and the length of the term, nor the quality of instruction comparable to that which was given in the academy until advantages had been gained by the common school in public support, and in the classification and gradation of its pupils. One result of grading the common school, was the imposition of standards that determined when a pupil finished one department and was ready to enter another. In other words, entrance requirements were imposed which consisted of a combination of age and the completion of certain more or less formal work which had been set as a requirement of a particular department. Entrance to the primary school was usually based on age, while it was expected that one had completed the grammar school, or its equivalent, before entering the high school.

At least twenty-six of the high schools-practically all of them growing out of the common school-listed above required that pupils entering the high school pass an examination as a condition of entrance. In other words, entrance requirements were characteristic of the free public high school by 1860.

Taration.

It has been shown that the school law of 1825 provided for local taxes and the distribution of two per cent of the yearly State revenues for the maintenance of free schools. The legislature repealed the local tax in 1827, and the State tax in 1829. The tax feature of the bills of 1835 and 1841 were annulled, but the legislature in 1845 gave any district the right to levy taxes by a two-thirds majority vote. Also, some cities were given special charters in which the right to

tax the people for the support of schools was granted. Moreover, the same authority legalized the action of some school directors who had levied a tax for the maintenance of free schools at the instance of the people of the district. The final step was taken by the law of 1855, which made it mandatory to tax the people for the support of the schools.37a

Since the high school had grown up as a part of the common school in its process of gradation, or had been created by the city councils as a part of the public school system for the given city, or had been an academy that reorganized under the free school law, a second distinguishing characteristic was that it was publicly supported.

Public School Boards.

For a considerable time before the passage of the free school law, townships were incorporated for educational purposes under the control of elected trustees, and districts within the townships were established to suit the convenience of the people, and were administered by directors who were elected for that purpose. The law of 1855 added the third step which made it possible to have directors of the districts that were to unite, appoint a board, to control the newly created union district. The interpretation by the State Superintendent of the law of 1857, which was a restatement of some of the disputed sections of the law of 1855, made the board for the union district representative of the whole district. Finally, the legislature, in 1865, restated the union district clauses of the previous school laws, obviously to eliminate the troublesome questions of jurisdiction that had arisen in practice.

"A majority of the directors of each of two or more districts may consolidate said districts and appoint three directors for the union district so formed, who shall be styled. "Directors of Union District No. ..., Township No. who shall have all the powers conferred by law upon other school directors. The proceedings of the act of consolidation shall be signed by a majority of each of the concurring boards of directors, and delivered to the trustees of the proper town

ST The State tax for 1856 was $606.809.51; for 1866, $750,000. The local tax for 1856 was $341,964; for 1866, $2,078,335. Common school fund 1856, was $3,005,937.

ship, and shall be evidence of such consolidation, and upon receiving a copy of proceedings, it shall be the duty of the trustees to change the map of the township in accordance therewith, and file the same with the clerk of the county court. The separate boards of directors shall then be dissolved and the union directors shall draw lots for their respective terms of office and be thereafter elected as provided in the forty-second section of the act."738

A free public high school not only was an institution that was supported by taxation, and that imposed entrance requirements which were based on elementary education, but it was an institution that was controlled by a board of directors who were elected by the people.

The concluding paragraphs summarize the chapter. Public boards of education administered the high school and the common school as part of the same system, even though the former developed from the latter in the process of gradation and unionization. Schools were first graded into primary, grammar and high departments, and later, each department was graded. More primary than grammar, and more grammar than higher departments were necessary; hence the policy of creating union districts developed in which one institution received the pupils from several districts.

Private institutions reorganized under the free school law and received the benefits of public support. The resolutions adopted by city councils, the reports of the State Superintendent and the State Agent, and newspaper articles showed that about fifty high schools were in operation in Illinois by 1860.

The subjects of study that were taught in some of the common schools were secondary as well as elementary, but a distinct attempt was made to introduce curricula for the use of the high school that had many of the features of the more formal subjects of the academy. However, pupils were generally admitted to the high school only upon the completion of, and the formal examination in certain elementary subjects. The school itself was controlled and supported by the public.

38 Sess. Laws, 1865, p. 117.