State

Father of Common Schools It was flue to tlio efforts off Calvin II. Wiley that the public schools of North Carolina were given their start. His was a strenuous task, but he carried it on vigorously for many years. Til К Constitution of 1 770 de¬ clared that "all useful learning should be encouraged and pro¬ moted in one or more universities," thus providing for the apex of a sys¬ tem of education, but making no pro¬ vision whatever for the foundation — the common school for elementary instruction. I think the honor belongs to Governor Nathaniel Alexander of Mecklenburg of first addressing a message to the General Assembly directing their earnest attention to the necessity for a system of common school education. Then came the monumental labors of Judge Archi¬ bald I». Murphey in that behalf, and the illuminating reports which he made to the General Assembly as chairman of the Senate Committee on education; but nothing was done during his lifetime to give practical effect to his ideas, and u quarter of a century was to elapse before another educational prophet was to arise to carry on his work. That prophet was Calvin 11. Wiley. Insufficient Funds Although the General Assembly had >et aside the income from the "Lit¬ erary Fund" for educational pur¬ poses, yet that body could not refrain from "borrowing" it for other pur¬ poses. Moreover the fund was entirely too small to be of much practical benefit. But iu 1836 the federal gov¬ ernment distributed its surplus among the states and our state received a million and a half dollars, which («longed to the Literary Fund. There¬ fore in 1830 there was enacted a common school law and by the close of the following year it had been adopted bv every county in the state except seven. There was one fundamental defect in the law thus enacted. Under it, the Literary Board was made the admin¬ istrative head of the system, which meant that it had no head at all, for the board was composed of three men who met only when called in session by the Governor. What was needed was a single head for the system, one who should give his entire time to the By R. C. LAWRENCE work. Efforts were repeatedly made in the Legislature to establish the office of State Superintendent of Schools, but without success. The system, therefore was ns a ship with¬ out a rudder before Ur. Calvin II. Wiley np|>eared on the scene. He was born in Guilford County in 181!». lie was a graduate of the Uni¬ versity and a lawyer by profession, practicing at Oxford; but he was an educator by avocation and he saw with dismay that the new school sys¬ tem was anything but effective, lb- saw the fundamental defect in the law — the lack of a single responsible head, and he set himself about his self-appointed task of bringing this about. Before his views could 1« given effect, it was necessary that he become a member of the General Assembly, lie therefore abandoned his little practice at Oxford and returned to Greensboro, where he was immediately elected as a member of the House of Commons. He promptly introduced his bill for the creation of the office of State Superintendent ; but although he supported it by a speech of great power, his proposal was defeated. Discouraged but undismayed, the fol¬ lowing session he renewed his efforts, and this time a hill introduced by another member was adopted. First Superintendent It now became necessary to find the proper man to fill the newly established office. Although Wiley was a Whig in politics, and although the Legislature was Democratic, for once patriotism prevailed over party, and without any effort whatever on his part, Dr. Wiley was elected as the first Superintendent of Schools. The task which confronted him was great, ns lie had to build from the bottom, without the benefit of prece¬ dents to guide him. Moreover he faced Staggering difficulties, among which were: an utter lack of interest on the part of the general public; a widely held misconception of the purpose of such schools, the prevalent idea being that they were for pauper children only; the high percentage of adult illiteracy, only one out of seven being able to read; the difficulty of finding efficient men to fill the local school offices; and the scarcity of competent teachers. Wiley threw himself into his difficult task with great enthusiasm, and set about to accomplish certain definite results, among which were: to secure information concerning the operation of the school systems in other states; to get it into the public conscience that the state was inter¬ ested in all the children and not merely paujiers; to disseminate in¬ formation among the |>eople concern¬ ing the operation of the school system by newspaper articles and public speeches; to find competent teachers; and to initiate needed changes in the school law. Established Textbooks One of the evils against which he had to contend was hick of uniformity in textbooks. Each county used differ¬ ent books and these were often changed yearly. Moreover the lack of a properly graded and uniform series rendered it impossible for the teachers to arrange their pupils in classes, and thereby the effectiveness of their work was greatly lessened. Wiley now set himself to the task not only of secur¬ ing the adoption of proper books, hut of having them made uniform throughout the state. Where suitable books could not be secured, he pre¬ pared them himself. He refused to permit the use of geographies for this state until they had been adapted by the insertion of maps and other data concerning this state which Wiley himself had prepared. Being unable to secure elsewhere a satis¬ factory series of readers, ho prepared a series which were used throughout the state. For this work he received no additional compensation. Another problem faced was that of (Continued on page twenty-two)