Evening Republican, Volume 17, Number 26, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 30 January 1913 — Public Schools. [ARTICLE]

Public Schools.

In antiquity the masses of the people grew up in Ignorance of things literary. Public education—the educar tion that exists for the masses of the people—began, practically, with John Calvin’s rule in Geneva, from which time popular education had steadily gained ground. The free school system had its beginning in Great Britain, about the year 1780, with Robert Balke# and his Sunday school movement It was not until 1860, however, that the free public schools began to get itself firmly rooted in the British Isles. In this country from the start the idea of universal education was championed by Jefferson and other leaders among us, and the idea han never ceased to be fundamental with us, as absolutely necessary to the prevention of the liberty on which the government is founded.