latter that the former wanted to unite Church and State. The legislature, chiefly southern, in 1830, refused for three years to grant a charter to Illinois College. By the combination of the Congregationalists and Presbyterians, representing Illinois College, the Baptists, Alton, and the Methodists, McKendreean, charters were granted to these institutions. After that, academies were established by charters similar to the college charters, the latter resembling, closely somewhat the Yale charters of 1701 and 1745. The foregoing chapters have dealt with external considerations; the following discussion is an examination of some of the internal features of the academy. CHAPTER V. SOME INTERNAL FEATURES. Entrance Requirements. Standardization in administrative organization, entrance requirements, tuition charges, subjects of study and methods of teaching, is a slow process even in relatively developed communities. Only a high degree of social action selects the ideal. On the contrary, frontier life provides in its educational system those features which suit the ideas, tastes or prejudices of extreme individualism. Consequently, the Illinois academies, individually, determined their own rules of procedure. Age and mental attainment, the most common standards of admission in our present educational system, were used, but by no means generally, as entrance requirements to the academies in Illinois. Sex, no longer an exclusive requirement, as had been in the colonial Latin grammar school, was only an occasional condition of entrance. The academy, therefore, was the first institution to grant higher educational privileges to women. The statement that only a limited number of pupils could be accepted was probably more for the purpose of advertising an exclusive institution than as a condition for admission. Tuition payment, in practice, was probably the most rigid of any of the entrance rules. In general, anyone who paid the tuition charges, was admitted as a member of an academy. Some statements made by academic managers in newspapers and directories throw light on the entrance requirements: In 1830, there was a female department, attached to the Vandalia high school, under a young lady, "who teaches girls of any age, and boys under six."" Moreover, "pupils may be entered at any time, and will be charged only for the time of entering to the end 1 Int., Oct. 23, 1830. 993 995 of the quarter in session."" Again, "children of every age are admitted, from those in the alphabet, and upwards through the whole circle of sciences, so far as they are taught in any academy. In the Hillsboro Academy, "the admission of pupils is restricted to no limitation of age or attainment." The Edgar County Academy said, "Pupils of both sexes and all ages are admitted." In the School for Young Ladies, in Springfield, the unique statement was made that "none will be received under six years of age, unless they are already members of the school or have a place engaged in it." The Canton Academy accepted, "youth of both sexes, not only as being convenient, but because it is believed that under proper regulations, they will exert a happy influence, in correcting the morals and refining the manners of each other."" The Academy and Common School of Chicago admitted, in evening classes, "young men who are obliged to pursue some other occupation during the day.' Finally, some academies had room for only a limited number of students. When that number was reached, no others were admitted." 998 From these excerpts, it should be noticed, that no standard of scholarship was required as a condition of entrance. Tuition. One ideal of democracy was to provide education in the chartered academies which should be free to all, the ones able to pay, as well as the ones unable to pay. In particular, the charters of Madison, Washington and Belleville academies carried a provision for the free education of youth when the funds of the institutions would admit that practice. Unfortunately, in the minds of the managers, the funds were never sufficient. Whether the academies were endowed in money or in land, or whether they received their share of the distributive school fund for maintaining a common school, fees were always charged. Dues were placed on instruction, Sang. Jr., June 5, 1845. Peoria Directory, 1844, p. 102. Sang. Jr., Apr 4, 1835. Sang. Jr., May 21, 1836. Ec. Jr., Ed., Nov. 15, 1851. Sang. Jr., Nov. 7, 1835. sometimes by subjects, sometimes by departments, sometimes by what we may call a curricula basis, and sometimes a fixed amount for all work alike. The biggest fee, however, was charged for living accommodations. If academies drew pupils from regions other than the immediate locality, room, board and washing were necessary because transportation facilities were poor, roads were bad, streams had to be forded and dangerous forests crossed. Inaccessibility combined with charges for instruction made the academy a select institution, in practice, rather than a means by which the mass of the children could be educated. Tuition was almost as varied as the academies were numerous. However, several classifications of the ways in which it was charged follow: 1. Tuition was placed on subjects: Grammar Advanced English Per quarter. $4.00 5.00 Higher branches 6.00 Higher mathematics 4.00 Latin, French, Greek... 2. Tuition was charged by departments: 4.0010 Per quarter. $ 5.50 8.50 10.50 3. Tuition was charged on what might be called a curriculum basis: ... Per session .$ 2.5012 ...] Common branches 2.5013 Reading, English grammar, geography, arithmetic, penmanship, bookkeeping, and other ordinary branches of English education.... 6.001 History, moral and natural philosophy, astronomy, rhetoric, composition, declamation, chemistry, botany, algebra, and the higher branches of mathematics, Latin, Greek, French, Belles Lettres, ornamental needlework, drawing, painting, vocal and instrumental music Canton Academy had a similar curriculum tuition: 10.0014 Per quarter. Orthography, reading, writing $ 2.50 3.00 4.0015 In the Springfield city schools, tuition was as follows: Per quarter. Spelling, reading, writing, arithmetic, geography, English grammar, and composition..$ 2.00 History of the United States, general history, chemistry, and natural philosophy.. 3.00 Geometry, algebra, and the intellectual and 4.00 |