CHAPTER XII ELEMENTARY EDUCATION The Foundation of the Educational System. The elementary school, or, as it has long been termed, in discussion and in law, the common school, constitutes the foundation of the educational system of the state. The several groups of selections classified in this chapter are intended to reflect the essential characteristics of the elementary school as the chief determinant of general social advance and as the first object of educational concern to the mass of the people. I. CONSTITUTIONAL PRESCRIPTIONS [From the Constitution of the State of Oklahoma, 1907.] ARTICLE XIII - EDUCATION "SECTION 1. The legislature shall establish and maintain a system of free public schools wherein all the children of the State may be educated. "SEC. 2. The legislature shall provide for the establishment and support of institutions for the care and education of the deaf, dumb, and blind of the State. "SEC. 3. Separate schools for white and colored children with like accommodations shall be provided by the legislature and impartially maintained. The term colored children,' as used in this section, shall be construed to mean children of African descent. The term 'white children' shall include all other children. "SEC. 4. The legislature shall provide for the compulsory attendance at some public or other school, unless other means of education are provided, of all the children in the State who are sound in mind and body, between the ages of eight and sixteen years, for at least three months in each year. "SEC. 5. The supervision of instruction in the public schools shall be vested in a board of education, whose powers and duties shall be prescribed by law. The superintendent of public instruction shall be president of the board. Until otherwise provided by law, the governor, secretary of state, and attorney general shall be ex-officio members, and with the superintendent, compose said board of education. 66 SEC. 6. The legislature shall provide for a uniform system of text books for the common schools of the State. "SEC. 7. The legislature shall provide for the teaching of the elements of agriculture, horticulture, stock feeding, and domestic science in the common schools of the State." II. STATUTORY REQUIREMENTS 1. California [From School Code of California (1912), Article X-Primary and Grammar Schools.] SECTION 1662. 1. The courses of study for the day elementary schools of California shall embrace eight years of instruction; and such courses must allot eight years for instruction in subjects required to be taught in such schools and may allot not more than two years for kindergarten instruction. 2. The day elementary schools of each school district of California shall be open for the admission of all children between six and twenty-one years of age residing in the district, and may be open for the admission of adults if the governing body of the district deem such admission advisable; provided, that where kindergarten instruction is given in the schools of a district, such school shall admit children to the kindergarten classes at four years of age; and the reports for the kindergarten classes shall be kept and shall be made separate from other school reports; and provided, further, that wherever a school is established for the instruction of the deaf, such children may be admitted to such school at three years of age; provided, that the average daily attendance of deaf children who are six years of age or older shall be counted as part of the average daily attendance in the day elementary schools. 3. The governing body of the school district shall have power to exclude children of filthy or vicious habits, or children suffering from contagious or infectious diseases, and also to establish separate schools for Indian children and for children of Chinese or |