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Originally published in 1939
Some of this information may no longer be current and in that case is presented for historical interest only.
Edited by GET NJ, COPYRIGHT 2002
PUBLIC education in New Jersey developed somewhat slowly during
the first two centuries of the State's history. The progress achieved in
converting the Colonial log schoolhouse into the post-Revolutionary academy was limited by the persistent idea that only those who could pay were
entitled to an education. In the last 70 years the united resources of the
State have replaced the academy with the present free school system.
The most important single advance in education was the legislative act
of 1871 which abolished all fees for instruction in public schools. Opportunities for rich and poor were thus placed on a common level. The
hickory stick and the lash gradually went the way of the one-room building. Even the kindergarten system, founded by enterprising women as a
means of making a living, was taken over by the State.
Cornerstone accomplishments in building an educational program were
the creation of a State-controlled system of training teachers in normal
schools, the consolidation of small, weak rural schools into larger and
stronger units, the development of a State-wide system of high schools,
and the founding of a State college with free scholarships. Federal funds
have made possible many additions to public school buildings in the past
five years. In the broadening field of adult education Perth Amboy and
the South Orange-Maplewood union have established notable lecture and
training courses that are being imitated throughout the State.
For the school year of 1936-37, the school system had an enrollment
of 779,713 pupils, of whom 192,757 were in high schools. The complete
educational program of that year cost $103,425,026 and employed 28,256
teachers. The average annual salary of day school teachers was $1,898 -- a
decrease of $245 since 1931. Publicly owned school buildings numbered
2,171, besides 31 rented structures. Value of buildings, land and equip-
ment was listed at $341,111,987, and the net State school debt was about.
$198,000,000.
Such has been the rise of what its opponents of a century ago bitterly
opposed as "a pauper system."
Once the early Dutch, Swedish, and English settlers had successfully
pushed the Indians away from the coasts, they turned to providing education for their young. Ministers held services in the log cabins and then
gave religious instruction to the children. On their insistence schoolmasters were brought from abroad to aid them.
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