Ohio History Journal

JANET A. MILLER

Urban Education and the New City:

Cincinnati's Elementary Schools, 1870

to 1914

In 1903, Richard G. Boone, the Superintendent of Schools in Cincinnati,

announced that schools in the city were "gradually workng toward the

modern idea." The elementary course, he stated, had been enriched,

treatment of children was more humane and reasonable, and teachers were

awakened to what was being done elsewhere in the nation.¹ While still

plagued with traditional problems of finance, facilities, and adequate

staffing, a new elementary educational program had appeared in the city at

the turn of the century. During the late nineteenth century, the Common

Schools of Cincinnati, a collection of semi-independent and pseudo-

proprietary district schools struggling to offer a uniform academic

program, gave way to a new elementary school system which provided a

wider variety of educational programs and attempted to meet the varied

needs of children in Cincinnati in the early 1900s.²

A number of forces at work in the late nineteenth century influenced

these changes. Increased urbanization and industrialization, population

growth, and innovations in transportation and communication combined

to alter the form and structure of the urban community. The advent of the

telephone and electric streetcars generated an outward migration of people

on an unprecedented scale and reversed familiar residential patterns. Mid-

nineteenth century Cincinnati, a walking city with its 216,239 residents

crowded into the basin, evolved by 1900 into a modern city, with the poor

in the basin or core of the city, the wealthy on the hilltops or beyond, and

Janet A. Miller is Associate Professor of Education at Northern Kentucky University,

Highland Heights.

1. Cincinnati, Board of Education, 74th Annual Report for the School Year Ending June

30, 1903 (Cincinnati, 1903), 25-26. Annual Reports herein after cited as AR.

2. For a detailed study of the elementary schools during this period, see Janet A. Miller,

"Urban Education and the New City: Cincinnati's Elementary Schools, 1870-1914"

(University of Cincinnati, Unpublished Ed. D. dissertation, 1974).

Urban Education                                                     153

the working classes huddled in between in an area dubbed by some

sociologists, the Zone of Emergence. This urban growth and change

created problems of housing, lighting, safety, health, government and

personal adjustment, and led to efforts to tighten political and social

control. It influenced traditional patterns of family and community life and

fostered demands for new or significantly altered institutions to promote

the social welfare and solve social problems.³

At the same time, intellectual perceptions of the city changed. While

earlier residents regarded the city as a commercial or residential unit whose

leaders were responsible for fostering and overseeing the economic growth

of the city, or the health, safety and comforts of its residents, late nineteenth

century urbanites viewed the city as an organic community-a "natural"

phenomenon, made up of mutually interrelated components capable of

healthy or unhealthy growth and functioning. The "internal state of the

urban organism," rather than ". . . growth at any cost," became a

dominant concern of city leaders.⁴ This attitude, coupled with diverse

demands to meet particular social and civic needs in the transformed city,

fostered an interest in the type and quality of education, rather than just the

amount or extent of schooling available.

Much recent literature on the history of urban schools has focused on the

development of school bureaucracies, the rise of professionalism, role of

superintendents, politics, development of specialized programs, social and

cultural roles of schools and the impact of schooling on the individual.

Meanwhile, researchers have also tried to learn more about the actual

experience of schooling for an individual, or the conduct of education in

the classroom. While the reconstruction of the past is limited by scanty

evidence and current perceptions of the world, an examination of the form

of the schools, i.e., policies, curriculum, procedures, methods, buildings

and classrooms, at certain junctures in time may add to our understanding

of society and schools. The early twentieth century witnessed the

emergence of a new form of education in Cincinnati, which varied greatly

from the common schools of the old walking city of the mid-nineteenth

century, and provided a vastly different school experience for the young

people of the community.5

3. Zane L. Miller, Boss Cox's Cincinnati (New York, 1968), passim. See also Robert H.

Wiebe, The Search for Order, 1877-1920 (New York, 1967); Sam B. Warner, Jr., Streetcar

Suburbs, The Process of Growth in Boston, 1870-1900 (Cambridge, 1962); Blake McKelvey,

The City in American History (New York 1969); and Alexander B. Callow, Jr., Urban History

Yearbook 1977(Leicester, England, 1977), 6-14.

4. Zane L. Miller, "Urban History in the United States, A Review and an Assessment,"

Urban History Yearbook 1977 (Leicester, England, 1977), 6-14.

5. See, for example, Raymond E. Callahan, Education and the Cult of Efficiency (Chicago,

154                                                         OHIO HISTORY

The Common Schools of Cincinnati initially grew in a period when city

boosters sought to make Cincinnati "the largest place in the West."

Schools were needed to help provide "the rudiments of education" for the

youth in the many families they hoped to attract to the young city. In the

late 1820s, city council established two school districts and gave an elected

five-man Board of Trustees and Visitors authority to levy and collect taxes

for school purposes. The board members also served as local, or district,

trustees who had to find suitable sites for schools, encourage support and

attendance, determine the course of study and books, and examine the

students at appropriate times each year.⁶

While competing, in the beginning, with many private educational

institutions and attracting "those only who had not the means to study

elsewhere," the common school system nonetheless grew rapidly. City

boosters and trustees of the schools, drawn from "some of the best citizens

of Cincinnati," used various schemes to arouse and maintain interest in the

public schools, and continually pressed for an extension of common

schools to help in the struggle for survival in the conflict for supremacy over

other growing urban communities on the frontier.⁷

From the initial two districts established in 1829, the number of schools

grew as the city's population jumped from approximately 25,000 to a little

over 216,000 by 1869.8 During this early period, which was characterized

by growth in the number of pupils and schools, the board remained

preoccupied with meeting demands for personnel and facilities in order to

offer at least a minimal education to the increasing number of residents. In

addition, the trustees attempted to achieve some centralized control so they

could provide a more uniform educational program for all children across

the city. They voted, in 1846, to implement a general examination of all the

schools instead of leaving it to the principal and local trustees, to regulate

the textbooks used in schools, and to appoint a superintendent who would

supervise and evaluate educational programs in the district schools.⁹

1962); Carl F. Kaestle, The Evolution of American Urban School Systems (Cambridge, 1973);

Stanley K. Schultz, The Culture Factory (New York, 1973); Selwyn K. Troen, The Public and

the Schools (Columbia, 1975); David B. Tyack, The One Best System (Cambridge, 1974).

6. J. Miller, op. cit., 3-4, 31-32; Zane L. Miller, "Cincinnati, A Bicentennial Assessment,"

Cincinnati Historical Society Bulletin, Vol. 34, No. 4 (Winter, 1976), 231-249. See also Zane

L. Miller, "Scarcity, Abundance and Urban History," Journal of Urban History Vol. IV, No.

2 (February, 1978), 131-155.

7. Jacob E. Cormany, "Board of Education," in John B. Shotwell, A History of the

Schools of Cincinnati (Cincinnati, 1902), 30-31; "Board of Education Members," in Shotwell,

loc. cit., 42-56; William H. Morgan, "General Sketches of the System," in Shotwell, loc. cit., 6.

8. Richard C. Wade, The Urban Frontier (Chicago, 1964), 245; J. Miller, op. cit., 29, 39;

U.S. Bureau of the Census, Ninth Census (Washington, D.C., 1872), 652, 383.

9. Ohio, General Assembly, A History of Education of the State of Ohio (Columbus,

1876), 107-108; Morgan, op. cit., 10-13. Thus the "common schools," in the sense of schools

for the common man supported by the community, began to become "common" in the sense

of equal or the same.

Urban Education                                                     155

Centralization proved difficult, however, because local trustees still

handled appointment of teachers and janitors, requests for supplies and

equipment, and problems dealing with pupil admission and control. As the

number of districts grew from two to twenty by 1869, the central Board of

Trustees and Visitors actually had only limited opportunity to control the

quality of education at the district level, even though they controlled the

content or course of study.10

By the 1870s, Cincinnati's twenty district schools embodied the common

school ideal. Designed to prepare students to "meet the requirements of

civilized life and to assume the high responsibility of American

citizenship," they offered a universal program in basic literacy skills to

bring about "universal intelligence." The district schools, as one trustee

noted, needed to be "a whole, unit, an entirety, a totality," where a "sound

English education" could be imparted to all, "high or low, rich or poor, Jew

or Gentile." Supporters of the common schools called them "a miniature

society," where children could learn to meet each other on an equal basis of

rights and duties, and urged that all children in the community experience

the same common education.11

Cincinnati's common schools in the late nineteenth century concentrated

on moral training and character development. The board hoped a few years

of schooling would help young people in the community achieve lives of

"respectability and happiness." Therefore, they mandated a Protestant

oriented, textbook centered program which they believed would produce

moral, disciplined, and patriotic citizens. They charged teachers in all

district schools with the task of fostering cleanliness, neatness, obedience,

order, and good health, while Superintendent John Hancock spoke also of

gentleness, kindness, forgiveness, temperance, courage, honesty, and

truthfulness as desirable goals for children. Hancock urged teachers to use

devotional and moralistic songs and recitations as well as the Bible in the

Opening Exercises which were required the first fifteen minutes of each day,

with children sitting in "First Position"-their feet upon the floor, backs

against the desk, and hands folded in front. In addition, teachers

scrupulously reported any tardiness or truancy, as they tried to develop

habits of punctuality, regularity, and obedience.l2

School for many children began at the age of six, when they entered

Grade F, the lowest level, and joined other boys and girls in the struggle up

10. J. Miller, op. cit., 5, 35, 58, 71-72.

11. Ibid., 5, 30, 73-74, 102-103, 175, 197-198; Lawrence A. Cremin, The American

Common School, An Historic Conception (New York, 1951); Cincinnati Commercial, April

14, 1872, January 31, 1876, February 3, 1876.

12. J. Miller, op. cit., 52, 73, 105, 175; 41st A R, 1870, 65; Cincinnati Commercial,

April 14, 1872; The Principal of Twentieth District School, Outlines of Moral Exercisesfor

Public Schools (Cincinnati, 1871), Passim; Cincinnati, Board of Education, Minutes,

February 21, 1870.

156                                                 0HIO HISTORY

the common school ladder to Grade A, the highest-a level reached by

relatively few, since failure and dropout rates were quite high.¹³ Scholars

worked in overcrowded, unadorned school rooms under the direction of

women teachers, or male assistants and principals, mechanically

memorizing a rigidly prescribed course of study which included reading,

writing, arithmetic, grammar, spelling, penmanship, composition, and

geography, as well as music, language study, and drawing. The board

allowed little or no deviation from the adopted course, asserting that

"grading, course of study, and textbooks prescribed, shall be strictly

adhered to, and no other studies or textbooks prescribed, shall be

introduced, nor shall any pupil be required to provide or be permitted to

use other books than those herein specified." Trustees on the board not

only controlled the course and the books used, but specified amounts of

material to be covered by a certain date in the school year.14

The school day, which began at 9:00 A.M. and ended anywhere from 3:30

to 4:30 P.M., depending on the grade level and the month of the year,

followed much the same routine all over the city. Although it is difficult to

reconstruct what actually occurred within the various classrooms, the

limited evidence available reveals a picture of mechanical, highly

formalized instruction demanding rote learning and memorization. In

most common school classrooms, children copied number combinations

from the blackboard or dictation, read or recited in unison, and competed

for high percentage marks in the daily individual recitation periods.

Reading instruction in the Phonic Readers and McGuffey's Readers

consisted of drills in oral reading, with an emphasis on correct

pronunciation and elocution. Teachers relied heavily on "concert

recitation" in reading instruction as well as in other areas, which reportedly

resulted in "loud, harsh sing-song" tones echoing through the halls of the

schools. In the primary grades, pupils learned the "sounds" and the names

of letters by copying script letters on slates or working with movable letters

and words, while in the upper grades pupils copied special exercises on

paper tablets to develop composition skills. They practiced speaking in

short sentences during object lessons in the primary grades, and in all

grades teachers stressed parts of speech, rules of English, and the use of

"pure," correct language. In the lower grades, children worked arithmetic

problems on slates, while in the upper grades they used math textbooks

which stressed "mental" arithmetic. Some pupils may have been aided in

their practice with arithmeticons, a type of abacus. In geography, which

began in Grade C (the fourth year), pupils memorized descriptions and

13. Many Children withdrew from school by the age of ten or eleven. 41st AR, 1870, 4-13,

151.

14. Ibid., 211.

Urban Education                                                       157

definitions, relying on ideas developed in object lessons. They used globes

as well as geography textbooks, from which teachers tried to "fix in the

minds of the pupils the facts therein mentioned." Very few children in the

common schools studied any history, as it was not introduced until the

intermediate school, a level attained by only a few.¹⁵

The course of study included several special subjects. Drawing lessons

became a regular part of the program in 1868. These lessons, consisting of

rigidly structured and systematized exercises, supposedly trained "the hand

to be more skillful. . . the eye to have a true and keener perception of the

beautiful in art and in nature." Common school pupils also studied music

and practiced gymnastics. Although originally taught by special teachers,

in the 1870s regular classroom teachers generally assumed the responsibili-

ty for music instruction and directing daily calisthenics with dumbbells and

rings. In most of the districts, the schools offered a program of shared time

instruction in German. Upon petition from a sufficient number of parents,

the local district school had to provide such instruction, and by the early

1870s approximately 6,358 pupils were enrolled. The German program

included reading, penmanship, composition, translation, grammar, object

lessons, and orthography.¹⁶

Each spring the superintendent and some trustees personally examined

pupils in all the district schools, evaluating work in reading, writing,

spelling, and a few of the other subjects. During the exam, individual pupils

read material from the board, as well as the Phonic Readers in Grade F and

the McGuffey Readers, textbooks, and special dictation in the later grades.

Examiners asked questions about every subject covered in the grade, to

which children responded orally. The questions essentially measured recall

of facts and rules, and provided the basis for determining percentages for

each child. According to board rules, students had to achieve at least a 75

percent average on the examination in order to be promoted to the next

grade. In addition to the examination of students, the visiting committee

also carefully observed and evaluated the order the classroom teacher

maintained in the room.17

15. J. Miller, op. cit., 102-126, 133. Object lessons, a Pestalozzian notion, according to

Delia Lathrop, principal of the Normal School in Cincinnati by 1870, were "conversational

lessons" in which "an object or its representation is studied by the pupils in the use of their

various senses . . . given, primarily for the purpose of encouraging children to investigate

for themselves, and secondarily, for the knowledge of the facts to be discovered-i.e. first, for

discipline; second, for instruction." NEA, Addresses and Journal of Proceedings of the

American Normal School and the National Teachers' Association Session for the Year 1870,

51-55. Lathrop came to Cincinnati as a result of Superintendent John Hancock's contacts

with Edward A. Sheldon and the Oswego Normal School. Cincinnati, Board of Education,

Minutes, March 30, 1868, January 10, 1866, August 2, 1869.

16. 41st AR, 1870, 48-49, 55, 64, 111-114; Cincinnati Commercial, May 22, 1870; J. Miller,

op. cit., 111-116.

17. Cincinnati Commerical, May 22, 1870, June 24, 1870, July 10, 1870; 41stAR, 1870,48-

49; J. Miller, op. cit., 121-123.

158                                                     OHIO HISTORY

The yearly exam system served as a means of control over the district

schools, for it provided a strong incentive for teachers to adhere to the

course of study. However, the "memoritor" tests, as they were called,

produced great anxiety on the part of students, according to some

observers. Parents, some educators, and local critics of the schools

frequently expressed concern about the exams and the over-emphasis on

memorization and rote learning. Opponents to testing noted the strain on

the pupils, possibilities for error in determining percentages, and other

forms of "unfair" treatment of individual pupils in almost yearly attacks on

the system. Letters in the daily press complained about the severity of the

examinations and the intense pressure on the pupils who failed to get

transferred. It was, some said, "not that they are really unfit to go forward,

but because the memory so long on the strain fails at the critical moment."

In addition, some questioned the practice of using the results of exams to

evaluate individual teacher performance. Despite criticism, however,

yearly examinations remained a part of the school program for many years

and contributed, no doubt, to uniformity in the schools.¹⁸

Many children in the common school classrooms in the 1870s suffered

from more than the boredom of concert recitation, pressure of

memorization, and abuses of the examination and percentage system.

Evidence indicates that teachers and principals across the city used

corporal punishment freely. Large classes, the mechanical nature of

instruction, and pressure to memorize as many facts as possible combined

to make classroom management a difficult problem. Superintendent

Hancock believed teachers needed "strong will, great force of character,

and unwavering persistence" in their efforts to control the pupils. However,

while Hancock urged teachers to use efficient methods, strong character,

and a high moral tone in their classrooms, many teachers reportedly

preferred other methods, such as the use of a "ratan" on the hands, ear

pulling, whipping and locking children in closets, and other forms of

physical punishment. Reports of severe punishment and complaints from

parents appeared frequently in the public press and resulted in numerous

investigations. Although the board tried to establish some general rules on

punishment, to protect board employees as well as pupils, teachers

continued the practice and according to many observers made "lives of the

children miserable."¹⁹

18. Cincinnati, Board of Education, Minutes, August 24, 1868, April 19, 1869, May 3,

1869, June 14, 1869, July 14, 1869; 41st AR, 1870, 51-51; Cincinnati Commercial, September

4, 1870.

19. Ibid., September 4, 1870; J. Miller, op. cit., 126-129; Cincinnati, Board of Education,

Minutes, August 24, 1868, April 19, 1869, May 3, 1869, June 14,1869, July 12,1869; 41st AR,

1870, 50-51.

Urban Education                                                159

The schools in Cincinnati were common in several senses. Children from

all segments of the city's population, with the exception of blacks, attended

school together. Although most children of wealthy families attended

private schools, and well over 40 percent of Cincinnati's school age children

attended parochial schools, the common schools attracted sufficient

numbers of students from all levels of society that pupils mingled with a

mixture of children from differing economic and ethnic backgrounds.

Since Cincinnati remained in 1870 essentially a walking city, the

population was not yet sorted out residentially by economic class and

nationality. As a result, each school had a share of the poor children of the

city who, according to one principal, were frequently tardy and

unfortunately missed the opening exercises. Children from native-born

stock studied and played with children whose parents recently immigrated

from villages and provinces of the British Isles and Europe.²⁰

The board was unable, however, to provide a common setting for

schooling, as conditions and facilities varied somewhat across the city. In

1870 most of the residents of Cincinnati still lived within the basin of the

city, making Cincinnati one of the most densely crowded metropolises in

America. At the same time, the city was annexing territory to which people

previously "hemmed in by the surrounding hills" now moved, as a result of

the horse-drawn street railway and the incline. Shifts in population resulted

in overcrowded conditions in school houses in some areas and empty

rooms in others. Immigration, increased use of the public schools,

attendance in the city schools by children living outside the city limits, and

the postponement of construction of new facilities during the Civil War

contributed to the overcrowded conditions. Common school pupils

frequently attended classes with as many as fifty-five other children of

varied backgrounds, and in several districts only questions of sanitation

kept trustees from allowing up to sixty-five pupils in a room. When main

schoolhouses became intolerably filled, trustees formed "colonies" in

rented rooms near the main building, added to or changed existing

structures, or used half-day sessions for the lower grades. During the early

1870s, the board altered many existing facilities and completed construc-

tion of three new buildings in the crowded basin and Over-the-Rhine, a

"dense and growing population" area which served as a port of entry for

many of the German immigrants pouring into the city. Concurrently,

children in the newly annexed areas received instruction in a wide variety of

situations as the board faced the difficult task of providing schools for a

scattered population. In those areas, one board president recommended

20. Ibid., 151; The Principal of the Twentieth District School, op. cit.; Robert L. Black,

The Cincinnati Orphan Asylum (Cincinnati, 1952), 118,153; Cincinnati, Board of Education,

Minutes, August 13, 1868, January 25, 1869, March 3, 1869, January 13, 1869.

160                                                      OHIO HISTORY

building "many small houses for primary schools . . . as near as possible

to the centers of population." The older children, he reasoned, could be

expected to walk longer distances to finish their common school course.

Meanwhile, the board maintained classes in various buildings or old school

facilities which had been used prior to annexation.21

Although city facilities differed somewhat, First District School, located

at the intersection of two busy streets on the near northeast side of the city,

was considered "typical mid-century school house construction." The four-

story brick and stone building, with the first floor well above street level,

was located on the sidewalk edge. Inside the building, classrooms

surrounded a large center hall from which separate steps for boys and girls

led to the upper floors and basement. The classrooms, lighted by four or

five windows on the side, generally contained a variety of furniture. In spite

of board attempts to shift to more standardized equipment, some students

still used the old primary or recitation benches which held several children

others sat at the newer double desks and seats, and a few had the benefit of

single desks. Trustees wanted more uniformity in furniture which would be

"in accordance with the principles of anatomy and physiology," yet they

were undecided about a complete adoption of single desks and chairs.

Although single desks allowed for more adjustment to individual sizes,

they also required more space and therefore might result in the need for

additional rooms and buildings. In addition to furniture for students, the

rooms generally contained a teacher's table, washstand, and various

teaching materials.²²

Physical conditions of the schools and surroundings were especially

poor in certain parts of the city. While trustees approved remodeling or the

construction of new schoolhouses in some districts, many of the older

buildings-particularly those in the inner-city-deteriorated. Children in

one district attended an old school located on a noisy, crowded

thoroughfare which reportedly interferred with the work of the teachers

and pupils. The building lacked good air and the lighting was so poor it was

"necessary to light gas every day except when the sun shines." In another

part of the city, residents complained that the district school building had

"old and dingy rooms," and was the "most ancient and most poorly

constructed school-house of the city." Parents of children in one

neighborhood argued that their schoolhouse was "delapidated, dingy and

entirely too small for the necessities of the district." Trustees and residents

21. Harry L. Senger," The Cincinnati Schools, Then, Now, and Through the Years," article

from the Cincinnati Times-Star, April 25, 1940. In Clippings File, Cincinnati Historical

Society, Cincinnati, Ohio; 41st A R, 1870, 18-19; Cincinnati, Board of Education, Minutes,

July 11, 1870; J. Miller, op. cit., 90-94.

22. Ibid., 90-98; Cincinnati, Board of Education, Minutes, July 11, 1870; 41st AR, 1870,

18-19.

Urban Education                                                     161

complained about old, unsafe, and inefficient hearing equipment in many

buildings and deplored the lack of playground space.²³ Throughout the late

nineteenth century the board repeatedly suffered considerable criticism for

its failure to keep pace with the need for more and improved school

facilities, while board members sought to limit spending within certain

financial boundaries imposed upon them by the continued shortage of

adequate funding and public demands for economy and efficiency.

The basic course of study remained essentially the same throughout the

1870s and 1880s. Increasingly, however, educators and community leaders

began to express concern about the type of education provided by the

district schools and the effective role of the school in the city. Some raised

questions about what subjects children should study in the common

schools and how they could best be prepared for the "rough and turbulent

business and commercial" world. They wondered how the schools could

educate the diverse pupils then being compelled to attend school for a

longer period of time, and how they could deal with the "dull pupil," as well

as those inclined to scholarship. Others doubted the efficiency of the kind of

education provided by the common schools and complained that schools

were currently not meeting the needs of pupils "too poor to go further," or

turning out men and women "competent to the ordinary duties of

citizenship."²⁴ Meanwhile, some members of the community complained

about the lack of moral training and criticized young people's behavior,

characterized by the press as "rudeness and savagery." Other critics of the

schools questioned instructional techniques which involved great masses of

material which children copied from the board, and charged that the three

R's in Cincinnati meant "rule, rote, and routine."²⁵

At the same time, superintendents publicly defended the work of the

schools, and teachers and principals struggled to upgrade their instruction

and the school program. School authorities proudly pointed to successful

exhibits of students' work displayed at various expositions in the United

States and Europe as evidence of the high quality of instruction in

Cincinnati schools. Teachers tried to improve or keep abreast of

developments in education by attending institutes on teaching methods,

participating in after-school instructional classes and lectures, adopting

more precise means of classifying and grading pupils in order to meet more

individual levels of ability, and making occasional changes in the

23. Ibid., 38; 42nd AR, 1871, 1, 13; 45th AR, 1874, 11; J. Miller, op. cit., 90-94, 202-205.

24. Ibid., 102; Cincinnati, Board of Education, Minutes, November 8, 1869; 41st AR, 1870,

203.

25. J. Miller, op. cit., 123, 178, 179, 186, 210, 280; Cincinnati Commercial, May 6, 1872,

March 8, 1874, February 2, 1876, March 18, 1877, May 21, 1878, June 23, 1882; Cincinnati

Gazette, August 22, 1883; Proceedings of the Ohio Teachers' Association at Its Twenty-Fifth

Annual Meeting, 1873, 23.

162                                                   OHIO HISTORY

curriculum and textbooks.²⁶ Superintendent Hancock at one point

reminded critics that teachers could only do so much because they had to

teach "en masse."²⁷

By the 1870s, Cincinnati's educational leaders had managed to forge a

fairly uniform common school program out of the loosely organized and

diverse district schools which had initially appeared in the city. In order to

provide for the safety and comfort of its residents, the city looked to these

schools to instruct its youth in basic literacy skills and moral behavior in

the hope that they would be able to participate in community life as law-

abiding, self-sufficient citizens. As the city and the perception of the city

changed, however, it became increasingly clear to some that the old

common school program did not meet the needs of the community.

Concerned about the healthy growth and functioning of all parts of the

organic city, sensitive in a new way to the diverse needs of the population,

and no longer secure in the belief that a common, universal education

would guarantee social stability, progress, or economic efficiency,

educators and community leaders began to look for new ways to provide

the kind of schooling which would be more appropriate for all children.

Operating under the notion that the schools should help promote a new

urban discipline, which would result in a "more humane and democratic

society" and an improved environment in the "organic city," community

leaders sought to implement an even more efficient and far-reaching school

system for mass education. Gradually, more centralized authority in the

superintendent's office placed greater decision-making power in the hands

of the professionals and facilitated efforts to reach all levels of the

community with educational programs. Superintendents John B. Peaslee,

Emerson E. White, William H. Morgan, Richard G. Boone, and Frank B.

Dyer all initiated some changes in the school program during their tenures,

but Boone and Dyer, in particular, made fairly radical changes in the

course of study and encouraged the board to open special classes in order to

provide an educational program which would help all children fit into an

effective role and contribute to the healthy functioning of the city.

Educators continued to emphasize moral training, but also tried to

influence and direct children's attitudes about scholarship, respect for law,

peace and prosperity, kindness and mercy, conservation of the natural

environment, personal and public health, patriotism, and citizenship. In

26. J. Miller, op. cit., 160, 176,215,265-266,294-295;51st AR, 1880, 212; 56th AR, 1885,

138; 59th AR, 1888, 44-46; 60th AR, 1889, 49-50; Cincinnati Commercial, March 9, 1873,

January 30, 1873; Cincinnati, Board of Education, Minutes, October 6, 1813.

27. National Education Association, Department of Superintendence, Cincinnati (1915),

69.

164                                                        OHIO HISTORY

their belief that the schools could help cure the social ills of the urban

community, they spoke of the need for "systematic, simple, and concrete

training in the vital civic relations," "healthful employment of energy,"

"care of the person," and the importance of overcoming, modifying, and

neutralizing the "unfavorable and antagonistic influences of the home and

the street." They did not, however, ignore the needs of the individual child

and expressed concern about the "talent and capabilities of all pupils."³⁰

The elementary schools no longer offered the narrow uniform common

school course of study organized around the three R's which was designed

in the mid-nineteenth century to produce moral citizens steeped in the

Protestant ethic. The new schools offered a new education which included a

wide variety of courses and activities designed to equip students with

knowledge and skills necessary for a variety of roles in an organic urban

environment. They stressed efficiency, punctuality, regularity, obedience,

order, industry, self-reliance, and resourcefulness, as well as social virtues

for the greater good of the community, and sought to develop habits of

cleanliness, awareness of health and sanitation rules, and respect for public

and private property as aspects of civic responsibility.31

The school program changed significantly under the new education.

With the help of a wide variety of local organizations, including labor,

businessmen, women's and neighborhood groups, educators revised the

elementary course of study considerably. Designed to "meet local

condition," get and "keep in harmony with the educational sentiment of the

age," the reconstructed curriculum continued to emphasize the so-called

"essential branches," such as reading, arithmetic, geography, and

grammar, and included most of the same special areas such as drawing,

music, and physical education. However, the nature and content of these

subject areas changed and some new subjects were added. Adapted to the

needs, interests, and the growth of the normal child in "response to

investigations in child psychology," the new curriculum came as a protest

to the "overmechanism of methods and overformalism" of the old

program.³² Instead of a list of textbooks, the new course of study outlined

the overall program and served as a guide to the selection and sequence of

topics. The board no longer rigidly mandated specific amounts of pages or

material to be covered in a specific time, but allowed more freedom for

30. J. Miller, op. cit., 385-387, 391-395, 427; 71st AR, 1900, 37-38; 72nd AR, 1901, 35-36,

42-43; 79th AR, 1908, 47; 81st AR, 1910, 26; Cincinnati Tribune, September 6, 1900, April 6,

1908, May 10, 1908; Cincinnati, Board of Education, Minutes, July 20, 1901, May 5, 1902.

31. J. Miller, op. cit., 385-384,419,422; Cincinnati, Board of Education, Minutes, July29,

1901; 71st AR, 1900, 37-38; 72ndAR, 1901, 35-36; 75th AR, 1904, 27; 77th AR, 1906,52-53;

79th AR, 1908, 50; Cincinnati Tribune, September 24, 1904, July 2, 1905, March 7, 1908.

32. J. Miller, op. cit., 396, 419; Superintendent Richard G. Boone was a personal friend of

and particularly impressed with G. Stanley Hall.

Urban Education                                                 165

principals and teachers to choose lessons on the basis of what they believed

most useful to the children, given the conditions which prevailed in the

particular situation. Courses of study included suggestions for teaching the

branches of study, and recommended "practical instruction and applica-

tion" wherever possible in an effort to relate the various school studies to

the real life and community of the child.³³

The curriculum now emphasized citizenship education. Teachers

endeavored to develop civic responsibility and community awareness, as

they stressed values which encouraged respect for private and public

property and the care and improvement of the city. Superintendent Dyer

recommended the "actual participation of pupils" in the affairs of the

school and community. Some districts formed civic clubs, and teachers

called upon local residents and businesses to help in special projects.

Students participated in cleanup activities in the school yard and streets,

and teachers organized older children to help younger ones at the

dangerous street crossings. In addition, the Business Men's Club urged

schools to teach Cincinnati history in order to strengthen civic pride.³⁴

Citizenship education was supplemented by the addition of history and

civics to the academic program at all levels. Each year children focused on

some phase of local, state, or national history, as well as simple studies of

primitive life or contemporary foreign peoples and civilizations. The year's

work centered on a certain theme and helped children learn "civic

operations," "rights, privileges and authority of family life," "service of a

rich commercial neighborhood life," and the "advantages of public control

in affairs of great public interest." In addition, the elementary curriculum

now included nature study and "occupations." Children studied physical

conditions which influenced industries and various occupations of man,

exemplified by local trades and economic interests, and examined

geographical and industrial relations of the great nations of the world.³⁵

Other traditional academic subjects remained in the curriculum.

Contrary to previous practice, the board permitted, indeed encouraged, the

use of materials other than adopted texts and teachers were urged to relate

the skills and content of the various branches to the practical lives of the

children. Pupils still used McGuffey Readers, because they had "carefully

graded" selections and considerable subject matter for character building.

In addition, however, children read from a wide variety of materials,

including library books from their classroom or school libraries. Other

English language subjects, including phonics, writing, spelling, dictation,

33. J. Miller, op. cit., 385-386, 419.

34. Ibid., 422-425.

35. Ibid., 386-387; 71st AR, 1900, 28; 73rd AR, 1902, 52-53; Commercial Tribune,

September 6, 1900.

166                                                     OHIO HISTORY

language, and composition, received considerable attention, especially in

the primary grades. In all areas, the superintendents encouraged teachers

to make the work both useful and entertaining and focus on the practical

application of skills in an effort to prepare students for the business and

commercial world. Superintendent Dyer personally enlisted the direct aid

of the postmaster in Cincinnati to help teach correct styles of letter writing

and addressing and build an understanding of the regulations of the post

office.³⁶

Concern about the practical application of the work, as well as meeting

the interests of children, fostered changes in textbook selections and

methods of instruction. The board tried to adopt texts which appealed to

the interests of children and which gave more attention to social and

practical application. Superintendent Boone initiated intra-class grouping

of students so that one group could work with the teacher while the other

engaged in "self-directed studies in constructive seat work." Further,

children actually participated in a wide range of activities, including the

production of plays, special zoo programs, and trips to the public library

for planned instruction on the use of the library facilities.³⁷

The special areas reflected the new education, as well. The drawing

program, which changed into art, stressed "inventive and creative" work

and included a series of lessons designed to develop individual creative

abilities, imagination, free expression, and knowledge of the art world.

Children studied reproductions of old masters, using either "penny size"

study pictures or larger copies borrowed from the public library, and

explored the lives and works of the different artists. Meanwhile, they

engaged in free hand drawing and constructive work.³⁸

Concern for the physical well-being of the students resulted in more

athletic activities for young people to "provide moral rescue and control,"

and greater emphasis on personal health and hygiene. Teachers led

children in daily calisthenics, not only for recreation, but to improve

posture and health. Students engaged in a variety of individual and team

sports and some boys participated in inter-school sport events organized

during these years. Individual schools held field days as part of the whole

physical education program and awarded badges for achievement in

various physical endeavors. Schools responded to pleas of health officials

and others in the community by making special provisions for children

36. J. Miller, op, cit., 331, 388,422,387-390,423-426; Commercial Tribune, September 28,

1908, October 28, 1908, September 25, 1913, January 11, 1914; 80th AR, 1909, 39.

37. J. Miller, op. cit., 384, 387-388, 390.

38. Ibid., 420-421; Commercial Tribune. March 7, 1905, June 2, 1905, November 7, 1905;

77th A R, 1906, 52-53; 79th A R, 1908, 50.

Urban Education                                                       167

with health problems, expanding the health and hygiene programs in the

classrooms, and bringing about improvements in physical conditions in the

schools.³⁹

While changing the scope and focus of the traditional academic course,

providing for civic awareness and responding more fully to physical needs

of students, the board also addressed itself to social and economic

responsibilities of the schools. After years of agitation on the part of

educators and community leaders, the schools opened manual training and

domestic science classes in 1905. By 1912 some 10,000 boys and girls

worked with wood and various tools, or in sewing and cooking. While

many of the schools in the city initially introduced manual training and

domestic science classes at the sixth-grade level, several in the tenement

districts provided instruction at a lower grade. In some basin schools, for

example, girls worked in hand sewing in the lower grades and machine

sewing in the upper grades. One school gave instruction in "all the activities

of the home," while another helped girls learn to work with simple tools

and boys prepare "plain and substantial" meals in addition to their usual

40

manual training program.

While recognizing the school's role in preparing children for life after

elementary school years, the board also accepted the notion of the school's

responsibility in the pre-school years. Initially allowing private

organizations to use school facilities for kindergarden work during the

1890s, the board assumed responsibility for two classes by 1905 and by

1915 maintained fifty-five public kindergardens across the city. In addition

to classroom activities which stressed "correct conduct and cooperation"

and prepared children "for school, for a healthy home life, for good

citizenship, and the reception of high ideals," the program included some

visiting and mother's clubs, which facilitated home-school relations and

helped spread the new urban discipline.⁴¹

Educators demonstrated considerable and growing awareness of the

influence of the home community. Noting that pupils of Cincinnati's

schools "represent all dines, nations and conditions," Superintendent

William H. Morgan initiated the collection of background family

information about children who entered school in the 1890s. Activities

39. J. Miller, op. cit., 419-420; 79th AR, 1908,57;80th AR, 1909,44,83,96;83rdAR, 1912,

69; Commercial Tribune, September 19, 1911, June 5, 1909.

40. Cincinnati, Board of Education, Minutes, May 16, 1881, March 1, 1886, April 12, 1886;

J. Miller, op. cit., 280-281, 429-430, 391-392; Cincinnati Gazette, August 17, 1883, September

4, 1883, March 2, 1886.

41. M. Miller, op. cit., 393,427-429; NEA, Department of Superintendence, op. cit., 71-71;

75th AR, 1904, 34; 76th AR, 1905, 11, 48; 77th AR, 1906, 59; 78th AR, 1907, 22; 79th AR,

1908, 58-71; 81st AR, 1910, 9; Commercial Tribune, August 20, 1905, November 26, 1905,

February 1, 1906, December 15, 1906, September 4, 1907.

168                                                        OHIO HISTORY

such as "poor children's festivals" held at Music Hall or local enter-

tainments planned jointly by teachers, pupils, and local citizens brought,

Morgan claimed, "parents and teachers into closer relations and helped

teachers become more aware of the wretched home conditions of some of

their pupils." And Mothers' Meetings and Parents' Associations,

organized in the early 1900s, and home visitation programs carried out by

classroom teachers contributed to home and school relations.⁴²

New education not only resulted in changes in the curriculum, but

brought about changes in instructional practices. In the early 1890s Joseph

Mayer Rice, a social and educational critic writing in The Forum, claimed

Cincinnati's schools were "scarcely opened . . . to the'new'" education,

as most teachers used mechanical methods "to cram the minds of children

with words . . . or cut and dried facts" and that "corporal punishment

still rules supreme." Some classrooms in the early 1900s still matched that

description. Yet, evidence suggests many teachers tried to vary instruc-

tional techniques in order to make learning more interesting and

meaningful and employed "other means of government and discipline quite

as effective as whipping." Some teachers involved children in realistic

activities such as collecting and arranging illustrations and materials for

displays, or construction projects with wood, clay, sand and paper mache'.

Others utilized a wide variety of instructional supplies and materials such

as stereopticans, slides, globes, and specially prepared cabinets on birds,

insects, wood, vegetables, and rocks borrowed from the Society of Natural

History. Teachers in some schools encouraged independent work and self-

directed study, and experimented with intra-class grouping to meet the

great diversity in potential and achievement among the pupils. Moreover,

responding to the belief in the school's role of contributing to the healthy

balance and functioning of each child as an important member of the

organic community, teachers used pictures and flowers in many classrooms

to create a more beautiful environment in the room. This, they believed,

would "uplift and inspire children" and combat the bad influences of the

urban industrial society.⁴³

In addition to a new education in the regular classroom, the Cincinnati

system opened educational opportunities to children with special needs

42. J. Miller, op. cit., 339-341, 432, 407; Cincinnati; Board of Education, Minutes,

December 1, 1890, January 22, 1894, March 19, 1894, September 17, 1894; Commercial

Tribune, December 19, 1897; Commercial Gazette, December 23, 1894, May 19, 1901; 72nd

AR, 1901, 67.

43. Joseph M. Rice, "Out Public School System: Schools of Buffalo and Cincinnati," The

Forum, XIV (November, 1892), 294-303; J. Miller, op. cit., 389-390, 425-426; NEA,

Department of Superintendence, op. cit., 96. 75th A R, 1904,24; 77th A R, 1906,62; 78th A R,

1907, 86; 79th A R, 1908, 47; Commercial Tribune, September 7, 1900, November 17, 1908,

November 18, 1908; Cincinnati, Board of Education, Minutes, May 21, 1901, October 21,

1901, April 6, 1902.

Urban Education                                                  169

through a number of special programs and classes. Children could, if

needed, attend a special school for the blind, for newly arrived immigrants,

truant and delinquent boys, stammerers, mentally defective or "low

mentality," or "backward or retarded children." The board also

maintained two "rapidly moving classes" for the exceptionally bright, and

open air classes for tubercular or anemic children. They used Douglass

School in Walnut Hills as a separate, but reportedly outstanding, school

for black pupils drawn from all over the city. Inspired by the desire to make

all classes "contributing members of society," the board operated

continuation schools for apprentices who might otherwise not be able to

attend school, and summer academic schools for students who had "failed

in the previous year's work."⁴⁴

Increased involvement of the community and the schools, and greater

awareness of physical and social as well as intellectual needs of children,

fostered other important changes in the elementary schools. Efforts on the

part of local citizens resulted in the opening of school playgrounds, penny

lunch programs, vacation schools, and a school gardening program. In the

late 1890s, under considerable public pressure, the board opened several

school yards in the basin and a few other densely populated districts to

children under fourteen. In the following years, more schools opened their

gates to neighborhood children for afternoon and summer playgrounds.

The penny lunch program, instituted in several of the downtown schools by

concerned lay women and teachers, provided a healthful meal of hot

weiners, baked beans in a cone, graham crackers, candy, and fruit. Summer

vacation schools, originally "confined to the densely-populated sections of

the city," offered children opportunities to participate in arts and crafts,

musical and physical activities, and included weekly excursions for

children and concerts for mothers. In addition, by 1912 twenty school

gardening programs, supervised by the Cincinnati's Woman's Club,

introduced children to a direct experience with nature and "took the place

of the dirty yard" in many areas of the city. Further, the board gradually

reversed its old policy and opened the schools to the community, making

them available as social centers, public baths, and places for evening

meetings of various groups such as the business men's clubs, mother's

clubs, and improvement associations.⁴⁵

Response to the new education varied. Superintendent Boone's

proposals endured considerable criticism for supposedly neglecting

reading, writing, and arithmetic in the "interest of nature studies, object

44. 79th AR, 1908, 63-65, 73; 82nd AR, 1911, 33, 62; 83rd AR, 1912, 61; 84th AR, 1913,

194-195; 85th AR, 1914, 78; Commercial Tribune, June 10, 1907.

45. J. Miller, op cit., 394-395, 406,408,445,449-451; 75th AR, 1904, 34-35, 76th AR, 1905,

61; 77th AR, 1906, 73; 79th AR, 1908, 37, 73-74; 80th AR, 1909, 58, 78; 81st AR, 1900, 87;

82nd A R. 1901, 68-69, 146-147.

170                                                      OHIO HISTORY

teaching and the more modern methods of mental learning and discipline."

While Boone argued that the issue was clearly a "traditional academic

education as opposed to the new child centered and practical education,"

others charged that schools tried "to teach a number of things to children

before they are old enough to understand them," and complained about the

"decline of teaching" caused by "new fads and foibles."⁴⁶ Some board

members and principals opposed professional visits, initiated by Boone to

help Cincinnati's educators learn firsthand what other professionals were

doing elsewhere in the country.⁴⁷ Several principals felt threatened by the

new procedures, programs, and enlarged school activities, and Superinten-

dent Boone, in fact, brought about the dismissal or early retirement of a

"score of aged principals and teachers in the early 1900s to improve

Cincinnati's schools "on modern lines."⁴⁸

Criticism and conflict, combined with lack of effective political strategies

on the part of Boone, resulted in a change of superintendents in 1903.

Although the public anticipated that Frank B. Dyer, the new superinten-

dent, would not be as "progressive" as Boone, he actually made no specific

promises other than to formulate a course for Cincinnati that would "meet

local conditions, and . . . keep in harmony with the educational

sentiment of the age."⁴⁹ As a result, changes in Cincinnati's elementary

schools which had begun in the earlier administration in response to

prevailing social conditions and perceptions of the needs of the city

continued.

As school programs changed and the role of the school in the community

expanded, school construction continued to be a critical problem. Many

children, particularly in the older parts of the city, attended classes in the

early 1900s in "worn out," "over-crowded . . . antiquated and un-

sanitary" school buildings of mid-nineteenth century vintage. Some,

however, eventually benefitted from a building program which began in the

1890s and culminated with the construction of nineteen new schoolhouses

between 1906 and 1914.50

The impetus for construction and renovation varied across the city. In

some parts, particularly in the basin, buildings were frequently old and in

"deplorable conditions," or "dark and gloomy" places where "laws of

health are . . . ignored, the classrooms being overcrowded and poorly

46. J. Miller, op. cit., 411-421; Commercial Tribune, April 17, 1903, November 7, 1903.

47. 71st AR, 1900, 33. Cincinnati. Board of Education, Minutes, May 6, 1901, June 14,

1901, June 28, 1901, February 25, 1901, February 26, 1901; J. Miller, op. cit., 397.

48. Ibid. 397-399; Cincinnati Times-Star, May 30, 1900, June 1, 1900, June 5, 1900, June

13, 1900.

49. Commercial Tribune, June 18, 1903, September 22, 1903, September 24, 1904; 75th

AR, 1904, 27; J. Miller, op. cit., 413-419.

50. Ibid., 439, 446-449.

Urban Education                                                171

ventilated." City health officials marvelled that "an epidemic of typhoid

"had not swept away thousands of pupils" because of disregard for

"hygienic principles" at some of the schools. The old schools suffered

"filthy school yards," "damp, moldy basements," "abandoned cisterns,"

"rubbish in the cellars," and "filthy cesspools sending their 'noisome

odors' through the corridors and rooms forcing children to breathe

'noxious vapors'." Several buildings were called firetraps because of "dirty,

unsafe flues and inadequate" wooden steps, while others were so dark that

"gas lights burned nearly all year long and teachers and pupils were afraid

of the dark stairways."⁵1

While the board remodeled some buildings to correct sanitation

problems, they also built new structures to meet demands for new and

larger schoolhouses because of increases and shifts in population and

changes in the school curriculum. Residents in the Zone and hilltops, more

organized, politically significant, and effective in expressing their needs,

called for construction of new buildings for their neighborhoods, while

civic associations and reformers urged the board to make improvements in

lighting, ventilation, sanitation, and "interior arrangements" in the schools

in the basin of the city.⁵²

As a result of the new education, community pressure, and advances in

technology and architectural design, the new schoolhouses of the early

1900s differed greatly from the mid-nineteenth century structures. They

included shower baths, sterilized water, greater fire protection, improved

playgrounds, and gymnasiums and auditoriums for student and communi-

ty use. Usually long and narrow, the two-or-three-story classical or tudor

style buildings displayed considerable uniformity in interior arrangements

and facilities. Classrooms and a few smaller rooms opened off long, narrow

corridors. Metal stairways led to the upper floors, where builders located

the principal's office, teachers' rooms, and libraries. Auditoriums were

placed on the first floor to afford convenient utilization by the public, while

shower baths, playrooms, gyms, toilet facilities, manual training, and

domestic science rooms were located in the basement. Several of the newer

buildings had separate but equal roof playgrounds for boys and girls.

Classrooms remained traditional rectangular enclosures in which children

sat in straight rows of six or eight at single desks made of wood and metal.

Blackboards still lined the wall; however, more space was provided for

pictures and displays, and flowers and plants occupied the window sills

despite objections from the custodians.53

The new elementary education in Cincinnati which emerged at the turn

of the century represented an attempt to insure the balanced and healthy

51. Ibid., 363-365.

52. Ibid., 400-406, 441-443.

53. Ibid., 443-444, 446-449; Commercial Tribune, November 17, 1908, November 18, 1908.

172                                               OHIO HISTORY

functioning of the entire community. While changes in education were

related to many factors such as new educational thought, the development

of psychological theories, the rise of professionalism, and the development

of school bureaucracies, they occurred within the context of a changing

society and in relation to perceptions about that society.

Two factors help account for the drastic change in education which

occurred at the turn of the century and set the pattern for elementary

education for many decades to follow. Alterations in the form and

structure of the city, from a compact nineteenth century walking city to a

dynamic and growing urban center made up of more specialized and

differentiated neighborhoods and units, made Cincinnatians more aware

of the diversity within their community. Further, changes in the definition

or perception of the city from a municipal corporation whose func-

tionaries, including school personnel, were to help make the city an

attractive residential and commercial community, to an organic social unit

of interrelated parts encouraged educational and community leaders to

broaden the mission of the school.

The organic interdependent city required rationally planned and

centrally nurtured institutions to help it function efficiently. Therefore,

"reform" boosters concentrated energies on the healthy and balanced

functioning of all the city's components. This translated into concern for

the internal growth and development of the schools and the active and

capable participation of all members of the community, including children,

in the schools. The new education, which included a wide variety of courses

and activities, was designed to equip students with knowledge and skills

necessary for an effective role in this new community. Perceiving different

needs in the organic city, educators and city leaders sought to provide

academic as well as vocational education, social and civic training, and

health and welfare services through a complex educational system of

elementary schools.