mate was made of the whole number of children of each year of age. The results appear in the following table (Table 5), and are plotted in part in Diagram 2. DIAGRAM 2.-Showing for each year of age from 5 to 18 the whole number of children and the number enrolled in the common schools. (See Table 5.) 1,600,000 Number of Children. Enrolled in TABLE 5.-Showing for each year of age from 5 to 18 the whole number of children and the number enrolled in the common schools. According to the above table, of the 13,205,877 common-school pupils in the United States, 10,608,800, or 80.33 per cent, are under 14 years of age. Indeed, it will appear from the diagram that the pupils begin to thin out very rapidly after reaching the thirteenth year. The maximum attendance is from 9 to 11 years of age. It is worthy of note that, according to this table, 90-6 per cent of the children from 10 to 11 years of age are enrolled in the common schools. As all persons who reach maturity pass through this age period, it is evident that, if this percentage remained constant from year to year, more than nine-tenths of the adult population of the United States (disregarding immigrants) would have received some degree of education in the common schools, the more so, in that many between 10 and 11 not in school now have attended school at an earlier age or will attend hereafter. Add to this number those who have received their education in private schools only, and making due allowance for duplicate registrations, there would remain only an inconsidera ble fraction of persons raised in this country who had never attended school at all. This well-nigh universal education is almost wholly voluntary. Probably not one child in a hundred is sent to school under compulsion of the law. Percentage of school population enrolled.—The number of pupils enrolled in each State at four different dates or epochs is given in Columns 2 to 5 of Table 3; and in Columns 6 to 9 is given for the same dates the percentage of school population enrolled. The number of pupils enrolled for every 100 children of school age has increased from 68.61 in 1889–290 to 68.82 in 1891-192. Diagram 3 shows graphically for each State the percentage of school population enrolled at the present time, the arrangement of States being in the order of magnitude in this particular.* Four have enrolled *This diagram considers only the number of pupils whose names were entered on the school registers, without regard to the number of days they attended. DIAGRAM 3.-Showing graphically the percentage of the school population (5 to 18 years) enrolled in the common schools in 1891-92. (See Table 3, Column 9.) NOTE. This diagram has only to do with the number of pupils enrolled, without regard to their regularity of attendance or the length of the school term. more than 80 per cent of all persons from 5 to 18 years of age. It is probable that a rigorous exclusion of duplicate enrollments, such as is practiced in Massachusetts and Rhode Island, would somewhat alter this showing. In addition to what has been already said upon this subject in previous reports of this office, reference may be made to certain. wholesale duplications to which State Superintendent Knoepfler, of Iowa, calls attention. In his report for 1892-'93 (p. 133) he says: Experience shows that many young teachers do not understand how properly to keep a daily register and make a term report therefrom. Frequently the enrollment for three separate terms is added to get the enrollment for the year, when in fact the majority of the names have thus been counted three times, thus giving a greatly exaggerated enrollment. Iowa, it will be observed, stands next to the highest in Diagram 3. The relation of enrollment to school population is given in the fol lowing table for each year since 1870-'71, and illustrated further by Diagram 4: TABLE G.--Showing school population of the United States and number of pupils cnrolled each year since 1870-'71; also per cent of school population enrolled in each geographic division. The strong upward trend of the lines of the two Southern divisions. in the diagram records a growth in public school attendance during the past two decades of epoch-making proportions. The close coincidence of these two lines throughout their length indicates a similarity of conditions obtaining simultaneously over a wide extent of territory. |