NEW YORK'S FREE COLLEGE.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume V, Issue 248, 1 February 1878, Page 3

NEW YORK'S FREE COLLEGE.

(From the JV. T. Smi).

The foundation of the College of the City of New York was attended by circumstances now well-nigh forgotten, that recalled to-day seem remarkable and instructive, and will, perhaps, not,' make the speedy abolition of that institution look less desirable than it does otherwise. The Free Academy of the City of New York ,was created by a vote of the people in June, 1847, au act of the Legislature having previously been passed authorising the Board of Education to erect a suitable edifice at an expense not exceeding 25,000, dols. and to employ instructors at a cost of not more than 20,000 dols. per annum, provided the people approved the measure. The instruction iv the public schools was then of the most elementary nature, being literally confined to " the three ll's" — reading, writing and arithmetic. Algebra and geometry were not taught in them, nor were any of the modem foreign languages, nor Latin, and it was for that reason proposed to establish an institution wherein boys, after going through the grammar schools might receive more advanced instruction "in those branches,"' as it was expressed, '• which are necessary to the proper persuit of the ordinary daily avocations of life.'' There was some question as to what this institution should be called ; whether it should be a•' high school" or an " academy." It was finally decided to name it the '• Free Academy." The popular vote on the question of creating the institution gave rise to much excitement. Appeals were made to the working classes, especially, to cast their ballots in its f avour, as it was a workingman's academy." The following language was used by a committee of the Board of Education, of which ex- Judge Joseph S. Bosworth was Chairman : '• This institution ought to be created, so that the labouring ! classes of our fellow-citizens may have ail' opportunity of giving their children an education that will more effectually fit them for' the vari- J ous of labour and toil by which they will earn their bread * * st an^ thus diffuse knowledge among our working classes.' 1 And in the report of the committee it was particularly recommended that penmanship, arithmetic, book-keeping, and architecture should be taught, and that the higher branches and classics should receive collateral attention. The education of youths for the avocation of teaching -was to be made a special feature of the institution. Horace Greely, who was then prominently connected with the, c lucational system, strenuously opposed the measure. He declared it to be his belief that the academy would soon grow into " an aristocratic institution to educate the children of the "rich at the expense oE the public." And events have proved his foresight. It was not long before the instructors as}nred to be something more than the citizens of New York intended them to be. They agititod until they had the name of the academy changed to the imposing title it now bears, and then they dubbed themselves professors, aud suppressed the practical every day branches of study as unworthy ■^E their attention. Endeavours to have Normal instruction provided fur male teachers, as it is to-day furnished to girls in the Normal School, were indignantly rejected, as beneath the dignity of the instit it inn : and instead, Greek, Latin, and the higher mathematics were cultivated. As fur the unsatisfactory provision in the act creating t'ac academy which limited the expense of conducting it to 20,000 dols. a year, it was nmde to give way through the persistent efforts of the f iculty and their friends to a more generous enactment, permitting an increase of tlie expenditure to 150,000 dols. a year, and compelling tie Board of x\ppropriations, which is deprived of all discretion, to appropriate that amount whenever called upon to do so by the Board of Trustees of the college, which by law is composed of the members of the Board of Education then in office. In tins way, with the connivance and aid of members of the Board of Education, this high school was carried entirely away from the design with which it was established. It is not now an institution to which the sons of labouring men and mechanics can go to get instruction that will « better fit them for the various departments of labour and toil." It has become, instead, a pretentious aspirant to equality with the old and recognised universities of the country, parading a so-called classical course full of Greek and Latin, conferring its parchments and degrees, and furnishing a comfortable resting place — all at the public expense — for a long list of professors. It is taken advantage of mainly by the sons of men in easy circumstances,

who can just as well afford to send their children, to institutions wherein their instruction would have to be paid for, and who have morally no light to ask a gratuitous college education for them. An inspection of tiic college catalogues will show among its students the names of many whose fathers are among the millionaires of New .York, and whose homes arc in the fine blocks of brown stone fronts lup town. Of these an average of from thirty to thirty-five are graduated every year, as the ultimate result of the labours of fifteen professors, eighteen tutors, anl several assistants of various kinds ; but among this handful of graduates the sons of poor men are veiy seldom found, for while some may have entered upon a course of study in the college, few can hold on long enough to finish it. The ideas Avith winch the facility of this remarkable institution have been regarding it, arc expressed with naked simplicity in a report of Prof. Dorenius, transmitted by President Webb to the Board of Education, when that body, in 18G9, was endeavouring to reduce what it called the " extravagant and wasteful expenditure of the Free College to 75,000 dols. a year—an abortive attempt that seems to have had no result except at increase of the professors' salaries all round. "If our institution," he writes, "is not to be inferior to other colleges, in addition to the instruction now offered in our own, and in the French, German and Spanish languages, our classical course should be more perfect and thorough, that students may not leave us to attend Yale or Harvard." " Why should the College of the city of New York be second to any in the world? * * * With means at our disposal, we can command the best talent of the country (but not by the paltry and insufficient salaries now paid), and with intellect and money, what can we not accomplish? " The expenditures of the college were then already in excess of ;i25,000 a year, and the " paltry and insufficient salaries" of the processors were 3,750 dols. a year (since then increased to 4,750 dols.). .■this was the" workingman's academy," voted for by the labouring 'classes of New York, and those were undoubtedly the mechanics' sons whose departure from that institution •• for Yale and Harvard " to get more Greek and Latin, Professor Doremus was deploring. The Free Academy, thus perverted from the aims for which it was established, has become an institution for which there is no need in the city of New York. Had such an institution as it has now turned out to be been proposed when the Free Academy was voted for, it would never have come into existence. No college was needed nor is any wanting now to compete at the public expense, with Columbia College and the New York University. In these institutions, maintained by private endowment, any student who is unable to pay the usual tuition fee will be admitted free. As for those who can pay, they certainly ought to. The College of the City of New York exists to-day only for the benefit of its professors, who receive annually 123,000 dols. in salaries, and for a few rich men who might at another college have to pay one hundred dollars a year each for their sons' instruction. As to the real purpose for which the Free Academy was establised, that is now attained in the public schools, wherein the course of study has been broadened and raised within the last thirty years, and now furnishes an education fully as comprehensive as ought to be provided by the people. The Free Academy was created to supplement the instruction, then but no longer too elementary, of .thq^pubJiqschools., Even, therefore, if it had remained true,to its ioriginal desjgn.it cijigfot' now to be abolished;as having fufilied its •mission.,^ .But; haying (been perverted from' its purpose, and beoo'me theaiesting-place of.a number' of« professors at fat/salaries, it ought to be abolished- as-,afra,ud and. ■'imposition. ;'■■[ -<><'-i / ' -•,;; >„,*..,; „, „-,. ,',; . ;.-.',,,, .' „; .-. ,i i' While'tlie^cifrp is burdened; with,an enormous debtand.oppressiye»thxes,and tli6usands o¥ the children of the poor are forced to gh ■without 'au opportunity!to learn tbe..inidiments^<for! waut ot school' accommodations, the first 1 thing, that? presents itself to an intelligent mind'to' do 3s to'gWrM of this Free College with its annual expenditure of nearly 150,000 dols. .A bill for. that, pur pqse pughtto, be one_ of the first introduced into the 'next Legislature. /j J ~ ' l •! ''- l'! ? ' z/.i'i./'.;; /