University of Virginia Library

III. The Educational Group

THE CONTRIBUTION OF THE UNIVERSITY OF VIRGINIA TO THE PUBLIC SCHOOL
SYSTEM OF THE STATE

By John Walter Wayland, Ph.D., of the Harrisonburg State Normal School

The measuring or even the estimating of influence is a task to engage
the powers of a magician or a divinity. It is a task like unto the compassing
of the sunlight or the weighing of the perfume of the flowers. Yet at the
same time, if one is not able to comprehend fully or to estimate adequately,
one can at least be certain that the sun shines, that the flowers are sweet and
beautiful, and that the world is happier and better because of them.

1. THE POTENCY OF IDEALS

The influence of the University of Virginia upon public education in the
State has been in evidence, more or less potently, both directly and indirectly
for the full century or more of the institution's history. First of all, it seems
to me, we should recognize and appreciate the ideas and the ideals that gave
the University birth and that have ever given character to its life. When
this institution was conceived in the vision of Mr. Jefferson he thought of it
as a part of a great whole: a comprehensive gradation of schools that should
include all of our citizens in its liberal provisions. In short, he desired
elementary schools and secondary schools as well as a university. He did
not perhaps employ the same terminology that we employ to-day, but in his
dream he saw schools and teachers for little children, schools and teachers
for rank and callow youth, as well as a school and teachers for those older,
maturer students who are anxious and able to climb to the sunlit heights.

It took many years of waiting, many years of working, to get Jefferson's
full plan wrought out and accepted; but we rejoice in this good day in the
belief that it is now being perfected and appreciated. And all through the
years his ideal was a potent influence, a whisper of inspiration that men
heard in their moments of reflection, a mighty call to progress in every day
of intellectual and moral action.

One may say, therefore, that a complete public school system was part
of the program under which the University was founded and under which it
has, for the most part, been operated. During the last half-century especially,
this program has been unfolded more and more clearly, with more
and more definiteness and force, from year to year.

2. THE WORK OF LEGISLATORS AND ADMINISTRATORS

For one who loves the University, an interesting task would be to scan
carefully the names of all the men who, since 1830 or thereabouts, have
composed the General Assembly of Virginia and filled the various responsible
offices in our state government—to do this with a view of ascertaining how
many of these men have at some time been students here. The number is
large, we may be certain; and we may also be certain that some of them,
doubtless many of them, have aided effectively from time to time in giving
Mr. Jefferson's ideas on education a functioning body in the laws and
procedure of the commonwealth. In so doing they have been true disciples
of our Alma Mater; and through them, whether in our own day or in the
days long past, we see going out a mighty stream of influence, carrying life,
dynamic life, to our common schools. For example, since 1902, fifteen
members of the Virginia State Board of Education have been alumni of the
University; and among these fifteen were Charles W. Kent, Lyon G. Tyler,

Joseph L. Jarman, James M. Page, Henry C. Ford, John E. Williams, James
S. Wilson, and four governors: Montague, Swanson, Stuart, and Davis.

3. THE SERVICE OF ALUMNI AS TEACHERS

Face to face with a mighty host we find ourselves when we attempt to
number the teachers of Virginia who, at one time or another, for long or
shorter periods, have been students at the University. In the years immediately
preceding 1870 and in all the long Olympiads of ante-bellum days,
schools were being kept alive here and there in Old Virginia by those whose
torches had been kindled at Jefferson's altar and whose vision had been at
least in part uplifted with his own. Those men labored provincially, it may
be, and often under painful handicaps, but who will deny to them a meed of
honor in the better times that have come after them? They labored and
we have entered into their labors. We are building better, let us hope, than
did they; but they often builded better than they knew.

Since 1870, when our present system of public schools was inaugurated,
alumni of the University have been enabled to assume more numerous and
more definite relationships in the teaching forces of the State. This fact
appears with growing distinctness as we proceed with our investigations.
Consider, for example, the influence that has been radiated through the
thousands of teachers that have attended the University summer schools
during the past thirty-odd years. A conservative estimate would place the
total number of persons, men and women, who have attended these summer
schools within this period at 15,000. Not all of this mighty host, it may be,
have been teachers; but many of them have been teachers by profession and
by practice; and thousands of them have carried the ideas and the inspiration
here imbibed into the public schools of the State.

In recent years, as we all know, the deliberate and consistent aim in
these summer schools has been to make them the most helpful possible to
Virginia teachers. And it would be hard to find any community in the
State, however small or however secluded, in which there is not working today
at least one school teacher who is proud to speak of the days—the
summer days so full of work, so full of play, so full of joy—spent here. The
services of University leaders, like Bruce R. Payne, Charles G. Maphis,
and others, through the University summer schools, have been of incalculable
value to public education throughout the State.

4. THE UNIVERSITY APPRECIATING ITS TASK

Not only in the summer schools but also in the regular policies and
programs of the University the interests and needs of the public schools of

the State have been recognized with constantly increasing purpose and
definiteness. This has been especially true during the last half-century.
For example, as early as 1886, perhaps earlier, the University faculty arranged
for local examinations to be given in the various counties of Virginia
and other States for stimulating and evaluating the work of boys and girls
in the local schools. These examinations took the place, at least in some
instances, of high school graduation. More particular information concerning
these examinations and their value to the country schools will appear
farther on.

In 1905 the Curry Memorial School of Education was established at the
University, and ever since that time a regular aim of that department has
been to touch and elevate the public schools of Virginia. All who remember
the untiring extra-mural activities of Professor Harry Heck, the first head
of the Curry Memorial School, and all who know the character and the work
of his successors will be able to appreciate the significance and growing
influence of this foundation during the past sixteen years.

In this connection we cannot forget the potency of the University in the
famous "May Campaign" of 1905, when "one hundred of the ablest
speakers of the State, including the governor, delivered three hundred
addresses in ninety-four counties at one hundred different meetings,"[2]
all in behalf of public education.

Among the eminent leaders of that campaign were President Edwin A.
Alderman, Governor Andrew J. Montague (an alumnus of the University),
and Dr. Bruce R. Payne, whose distinguished connection with the University
was then just beginning. Another gentleman whose share of honor in this
May Campaign was second to none was Professor Ormond Stone, who for
thirty years (1882-1912) was a teacher here and whose interest in the public
schools of the State was both constant and effective. His activities in behalf
of public education have been most generous and untiring, as we all know.
The vigorous rise of public high schools followed upon 1905, and much of
the vigor and character that they embodied came from the University,
through the patience and wisdom of Alderman, Payne, and others.

How many of the teachers and alumni of the University took part in
this notable campaign cannot now, perhaps, be ascertained; but many
participated and all who did so shared in the cherished social gift that our
Alma Mater at that time made.

Thus by those who live in the University and in their work reach out,
as well as by those who have studied here and have gone out into the schools
of the commonwealth, the same or related gifts have been bestowed. The
workers within and the workers without join hands across the same cheering
altar of service.

5. ALUMNI AS ADMINISTRATIVE EDUCATORS AND AS TEACHERS IN STATE
INSTITUTIONS OF HIGHER LEARNING

In speaking hitherto of the teachers of the State who have been students
here, attention has been directed especially to that great army in the
common schools. When we enumerate school officials and those teachers in
our State institutions of higher learning who bear the University's seal the
number is smaller, to be sure, but no less influential. Consider, for example,
the division superintendents of schools in the counties and cities of Virginia.
Twenty-eight of them, almost exactly one fourth of the whole number, are
on the rolls of our alumni. Ten members of the Virginia State Normal
School Board, the body which since 1916 has had the oversight and the
direction of our four state normal schools for white women, have been University
men. Prior to 1916 there were separate boards for these four institutions,
and a goodly proportion of the members of those separate boards
were also alumni of the University.

The first of these four normal schools was established at Farmville in
1884. The second was opened at Harrisonburg in 1909; the third at Fredericksburg,
in 1911; and the fourth at East Radford, in 1913. From official
records it appears that up to this date 20,551 different students have been
enrolled in these institutions. Most of this great multitude have been
teachers for shorter or longer periods in the public schools of Virginia, and
they have been distributed in every county and every city of the State.
The significance of all this in our present study appears in a moment when
we observe the fact that almost or quite forty members of the four normal
school faculties that have trained these 20,000 teachers have been graduates
of the University or sometime students here.

For many years past the contribution of the College of William and
Mary to the life and administrative efficiency of our state public schools has
been so great as to win general acknowledgment and appreciation. To this
historic institution the University of Virginia herself owes much. Jefferson,
Monroe, and others saw to it that the rich legacies of the older foundation
became really and truly the younger school's inheritances. But may we not
say, speaking truly and gratefully, that in some measure, through the century
that is closing, the talents that were received have been invested and
returned? For instance, during twenty-one years (1898-1919) the honored
president of William and Mary was Lyon G. Tyler, an alumnus of the University
of Virginia; and contemporary with him, or at least serving the same
generation with him, we may count twelve other distinguished sons of the
University on the faculties of William and Mary. Surely, therefore, one
may be justified in saying that, in this splendid contribution that
William and Mary has made to our public schools, the University has

had some cordial share. The coöperation of kindred can certainly be no
robbery.

It would doubtless be possible, if one had time, to trace relationships of
wholesome coöperation between the University and every other State institution
of higher learning in Virginia in this laudable task of uplifting
the common schools; but a reasonable limit must be our law.

6. INFLUENCE THROUGH PRIVATE INSTITUTIONS OF HIGHER LEARNING

And what shall we say with reference to these same relationships as
between the University and those institutions of higher learning not owned
by the State? Between the University and some of them the bonds have
perhaps not been so close or so strong as to be discerned or acknowledged;
but with regard to others the coöperation has been both conscious and deliberate.
Two examples must suffice.

In 1839 Charles Lewis Cocke, a college senior nineteen years old, determined
to dedicate his life to the higher education of women in the South.
"Inspired by the University of Virginia—opened fourteen years before—he
resolved `to give to Virginia women the same thorough mental training as
that afforded to young men.' "[3] In 1846 he moved to Botetourt Springs,
near what is now Roanoke City, to take charge of a school. "The educational
ideals of Thomas Jefferson became the inspiration of his youth";
and throughout an eminent career he cherished them. For more than fifty
years he labored in the light of his splendid hopes; and for three-quarters of a
century, now, Hollins College has been his growing monument.

In many counties and cities of Virginia the graduates of Hollins College
have taught worthily in our public schools. Some in this capacity have
served well two generations. One of them, Mrs. Betty Chandler Snead, who
graduated in 1868, taught in Halifax, in Essex, in Northampton; had a
family; returned to the schoolroom, and in 1915 was still at the post of public
service. Another, Edwina Chandler (Mrs. Walter Jones), who graduated in
1870, taught in Fluvanna. She married and reared a large family. Then
she took up teaching again. She was one of those teachers who used the
University local examinations to "standardize" her pupils. Miss Mary
Miller Snead, now the valued principal of a Fairfax County high school,
another Hollins graduate, is one of the number who testifies to having taken
the "University locals" in "Old Flu" under Mrs. Jones.

Hollins records show a long roll of alumnæ who have served Virginia
effectively and worthily in her public schools. Many other names might be
recited, but we must content ourselves with a very few more. Miss Bessie
Randolph of Farmville, Miss Elizabeth Cleveland of Harrisonburg, Miss

Lucy Puryear of Radford, Miss Berta Miller of Lynchburg, Miss Sully
Hayward of Roanoke, and Mrs. Ellie Marcus Marx of Norfolk are all alumnæ
of Hollins. They are eminent yet typical examples of the Hollins
graduate as a vital force in the public schools of Virginia. And it was one
of them who said:

"Recalling how often we heard the name of the University from Mr.
Cocke's lips and how bracing was the constant touch with its standards, we
are not surprised to find his biographer writing: `The educational ideals of
Thomas Jefferson became the inspiration of his youth, and with astonishing
tenacity and unity of purpose he pursued them until he worked out Hollins
College.' "[4]

Hollins College, therefore, is a notable example among the so-called
private schools of the State that have deliberately aided the University in
giving to the public schools their delayed birthright.

Another school of this same class, younger than Hollins but eminent
in the same way, is Bridgewater College.

This school dates its beginnings only forty-one years ago, yet within the
period of its brief history it has sent out hundreds of efficient teachers into
the public schools of the State. And every one of them has carried to his
work some gift that is openly and generously credited to the University.
The reason at once becomes obvious when we note the fact that eighteen
different members of the Bridgewater faculties have been students here.
For thirty-three years the presidents of the college have been University
alumni. Daniel C. Flory, the founder of the school and its head for six years
was a student here two sessions. Walter Bowman Yount, president for
eighteen years (1892-1910) was a student here six years. And John S.
Flory, who was president for nine years (1910-1919), and whose entire
service at Bridgewater to date totals twenty-four years, was a student here
three years and holds from the University his degree of Doctor of Philosophy.
Every Bridgewater student is able to testify that the bond between his
school and the University is very close.

This bond and source of influence upon our public schools appears not
only in the rank and file of teachers trained at Bridgewater, but also in
certain notable leaders in education and legislation. John C. Myers, division
superintendent of schools in Rockingham County, is an alumnus of
Bridgewater and of the University. William T. Sanger, who needs no introduction
to Virginia educators, is a graduate of Bridgewater. Frank J.
Wright, whose record as a distinguished teacher and as a member of the
General Assembly of Virginia is well known, is an alumnus of Bridgewater
and of the University. Jacob A. Garber, whose service to public education
in the last General Assembly was so conspicuous as to win unusual approval,

is merely passing on the fine things that he has received, at least in part,
from Bridgewater College and from our Alma Mater.

7. THE UNIVERSITY A SOURCE OF BOOKS FOR THE PUBLIC SCHOOLS

And, finally, what shall we say of the books for our common schools
that have been written and published by University teachers and University
alumni? Bonnycastle's Mensuration, Holmes's United States history, and
Venable's arithmetics were widely used for many years; and the famous
spelling books and readers by McGuffey have had an influence that is at
once potent, far-reaching, and wholesome. It is said that McGuffey's
activity in 1870 and later, both in the University and elsewhere in the State,
in securing the establishment of public schools and in commanding them to
general favor, were most earnest and effective.

The excellent series of readers prepared some years ago by President
Alderman was a notable contribution to our school libraries and literature.
In attractive form and easy grading he has made a fine collection of prose
and verse—classics old and new—and placed it at the disposal of our teachers
and their pupils. The history of education in Virginia, published in 1916,
by Cornelius J. Heatwole, a son of Virginia, cannot be overlooked in this
connection; and the biography of J. L. M. Curry, by Alderman and Gordon,
while it is not a text book of the ordinary type, is an informing, stimulating
story for teachers—the story of a great man who was a teacher and a leader
of teachers.

And one could not end this catalogue, however brief and fragmentary it
may be, without mentioning specially the Library of Southern Literature, a
monumental work in sixteen splendid volumes, the compilation of which was
directed largely from the University of Virginia and which is a veritable
boon not only to Virginia schools but to those also of every state of this
nation.

To indicate further the influence of the University upon Virginia public
schools and to illustrate more particularly some of the statements already
made, the following charming story is presented. It is a first-hand contribution
to this study, made by one who has recorded definite observations of
the influences we are tracing, and who is herself an eminent example of those
students and teachers who have received rich gifts from our Alma Mater,
even though they have not, as a rule, been numbered among her sons and
daughters.

"Judge James O. Shepherd, a University man, was the first superintendent
of schools in Fluvanna County. He rallied around him a teaching
force representative of nearly all the leading families of the county. He thus
(and in many other ways) set the standard high and established from the

beginning the respectability, and even the gentility, of the public school. I
recall playing with a child-visitor from an adjoining county, who spoke so
disdainfully of `free schools' that I did not once dream that they were the
same thing as our honored public schools—and I now have reason to believe
that they indeed were not the same.

"Later Judge Shepherd harped on this one string until every child
among us caught the note: `We need good public schools devoted to the
higher branches. We have the elementary school for the foundation.
Yonder we have the University for the top. But we have a great gap between.
We need to make the connection by means of a public high school
that can prepare the boys for the University.' And he worked the citizens
up to contribute liberally to this cause and obtained special dispensation
from the General Assembly to establish at the county seat that new thing—
a standard rural public high school. I was always led to understand that
this was the first of its kind in the State. . . .

"Is it at all significant that the lifelong home of Judge Shepherd is
`Mountain View?' Certainly it was from that hilltop that they used to
point out to us a symmetrical little blue peak, Monticello, adding in tones
almost reverent that just beyond was the University.

"One more fact about the Judge. When I left for Hollins, he gave me a
lead pencil with the parting injunction that I should write and rewrite Latin
exercises very carefully, `looking up things' which I did not know.

"It was in 1886, when Judge Shepherd and his neighbors, the school
trustees, were moving heaven and earth and the State Legislature to establish
a rural high school at the county seat—always with the definite ideal of
preparing boys for the University—for that was never omitted from the
statement of the case—that my teacher read in the Louisville Courier-Journal
of certain `University Local Examinations' which would be held
at various centers throughout the South just one month later. Her
prompt letter of inquiry brought from the University itself a pamphlet
definitely stating the subjects, the scope, and the requirements of these
examinations.

"The next year, perhaps, a center was established in Fluvanna, and
for some years thereafter it was the habit for the private schools of Fluvanna,
as well as for the new public high school, to stir their students'
ambition to pass these examinations. No doubt this was true in many
other sections also,—these local examinations taking the place of high
school graduation.

"First there was a preliminary examination in elementary subjects—
geography, grammar, oral reading, etc.—which must be passed before the
candidate could be considered for the `higher branches' of geometry, Cicero,
Shakespeare, etc.

Fireworks on the Lawn: The Closing Scene

"I think I shall go on now that I am recalling this occasion and set down
some of my own experiences of that new era for me, as a sample of what these
examinations might mean in inspiration.

"My teacher said that I was to go to the University and take these
examinations instead of my own `finals.' The delight of it—the thing that
made it a great adventure instead of a heavy task—was that she said if I
passed she would consider it a success, but if I should not pass she would not
judge it a failure, under the circumstances of the brief four weeks of preparation.

"Such a sense of the greatness of this quest! Such a reviewing of
geometry (and geography)! I had never heard of the Manilian Law, but it
read very much like parts of Cicero that I had been taught. I had never
studied `literature' except Shaw's History of English Literature. Neither
my teacher nor I knew that there was such a thing as an annotated edition
of a play or a poem. But there was a leather-backed Shakespeare in the
house, of course, which people read, and sometimes read aloud, though the
required play, The Tempest, was new to me until that full month when,
armed with the unabridged dictionary, I hammered at the bard's
meaning.

"Upon reaching Charlottesville (the first night I ever spent in a
town) I found the other candidate for the examination to be a girl attending
Mrs. Meade's school—Emma Moser, afterwards for many years
a valued teacher in the Charlottesville High School. This girl mentioned
her Hudson edition of The Tempest, with notes. I soon had it in my possession,
and studied it all night long (the noise of the great city of C. being
too much for a wink of sleep anyway). Why, Hudson told you everything
you had wondered about! He seemed the friendliest writer in the
world.

"Again, the gracious dignified Mrs. Meade, in gold-pinned cap, having
to leave me in her library when her class bell rang, asked whether she could
do anything for her timid guest. `If you could lend me a history of England
fuller than Goodrich's.' `Why, yes; here is one sent me lately by one of my
former pupils.'

"Thus I was introduced to Green's Short History of the English People.
I devoured its pages about Pitt's plans for applying among his countrymen
the great principles of Adam Smith's Political Economy, and how the French
Revolution broke into his high hopes. The book was so different from Peter
Parley! Best of all, the writer of the examination questions for the next day
had evidently just been reading Green also, for he followed his lines exactly,
and I could write voluminously in answer, and love Richard Green as a
friend evermore.

"At last the hour actually came for the examination. Charles S. Venable

was in charge—the first professor of the revered University that my
eyes had rested upon—and even then they rested only upon his shoes. I
was too much abashed to look into the face of the great man `who had made
the arithmetic and who understood exactly why you invert the divisor, and
everything.' So I gazed at his feet. I recall now just how they looked and
that I felt distinct satisfaction and almost a touch of wonder that they
rested upon the earth. He was kindness itself, and the thought of that good
and wise man still brings always an upward pull.

"The first thing in the preliminary examination was to read aloud some
page from some book. Professor Venable walked casually to one of the
many shelves and just as casually pulled out a volume, turned its pages and
chose one at random. Would it all dance before me like hieroglyphics?
It was the only page in that book I had ever seen. The winter before I had
been studying in my teacher's room one evening. An old lady was visiting
her. My teacher was reading to her from this very book. The old lady
dropped a stitch in her knitting. It misbehaved sadly, that stitch. It
ran back row after row. The teacher had to stop and pick it up. She
handed me the book that the reading might not break off. I read aloud
a page, and then the stitch was all right and I went back to my lessons.
And now that page was handed me to read as a first omen at the University
of Virginia. . . .

"At the end of the last examination there was a question that seemed
to invite my opinion. (It was on Shakespeare.) Could I dare to offer
what nobody thought but just ME? I recall saying to myself, `I'm twenty-five
miles from home. They'll never hear of the audacity of it. I'll never
see these professors again. I believe I'll do it. I'll take a fling.'

"And I did. I remember feeling as if I were flying—as if for once
and in some far off way—and never to be dared again—I were flying
—and in the atmosphere of those whom my imagination ranked the
highest.

"He must have laughed—whoever looked over that examination. One
could easily laugh at the importance which I attach to it now. But I go
back to that day when I see the word Renaissance. That examination was
the enfranchisement of my thought. However pitifully little that has
meant to anybody else, it has meant a good deal to me, and I thank the
University and Thomas Jefferson for it.

"There was a student who brought his books and `sat with' the candidates
when Professor Venable could not be there. In spite of my high respect,
I must have looked him over from toe to top, for I recall distinctly his
red head. He hesitated when I asked him how to spell Guinea, but I thought
it was because his mind was on higher things. I asked him whether I'd
better write fully or concisely. `If it's literature,' he said, `I think you'd

better chat along'; which I thought a delightfully familiar and condescending
mode of speech for one whose own daily words must all be exalted far
above `chat along.' "[5]