Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-gxg78 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-26T07:38:35.283Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

The Battle Over Uniformity of Textbooks in Florida, 1868–1963

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  24 February 2017

Extract

Textbooks have always held a peculiarly important position in public schools in the United States, hence their selection has been significant. In the early days of the Republic and long afterward the quality of the textbook was more likely to effect education of high quality than any other factor, including the often poorly educated teacher. The first part of this essay deals with the struggle in Florida for uniformity of textbooks, the second with the fight for diversified instructional materials. Sources for the data have been chiefly primary, including the minutes of the selected county school boards, the annual and biennial reports of the state superintendents of public instruction, the laws of the State, and the minutes of the State Courses of Study Committee, with supplementary use of secondary sources, such as publications of the Florida State Department of Education and the Florida Education Association.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © 1964, University of Pittsburgh Press 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Notes

1. Laws of Florida, 1869, 1686, § 12, 19.Google Scholar

2. Thurston Chase, C., “Report of the Superintendent of Public Instruction,” Proceedings of the Assembly, 1870, Appendix, 66–67.Google Scholar

3. Beecher, Charles, Report of the State Superintendent for the Year Ending September 30, 1871, 6.Google Scholar

4. Gibbs, Jonathan C., “Report of the State Superintendent for the Year Ending September 30, 1873,” Florida Assembly Journal (1874), Appendix, 60.Google Scholar

5. Watkin Hicks, William, “Biennial Report of the State Superintendent, 1876, Florida Senate Journal, 1877, Appendix, 91–93.Google Scholar

6. Beecher, , op. cit. Google Scholar

7. McLin, Samuel B., as quoted in Hicks, op. cit., 91–93.Google Scholar

8. Haisley, William P., “Biennial Report of the Superintendent of Public Instruction for the Years 1876–1878,” Florida House Journal (1879), Appendix, 179, 190, 195.Google Scholar

9. Foster, Eleazar K., “Biennial Report of the State Superintendent of Schools, 1881–1882,” Florida Assembly Journal (1960), Appendix, 214.Google Scholar

10. Black, Marian W., “The Contributions of the Peabody Fund to the Development of Education in Florida, 1867–1900,” Florida Journal of Educational Research, II, No. 1 (1960). 10, 11, 13.Google Scholar

11. Chase, op. cit., 70.Google Scholar

12. Beecher, op. vit., 6.Google Scholar

13. Gibbs, op. cit., 48, 51.Google Scholar

14. Minutes of the Washington County Board of Public Instruction, May 6, 1876. (Hereafter referred to as Washington County Minutes. Minutes of other county school boards will be referred to similarly).Google Scholar

15. Ibid., September 1, 1877.Google Scholar

16. Ibid., April 6, 1878.Google Scholar

17. Laws of Florida, 1883, ch. 3446.Google Scholar

18. Everett Cochran, Thomas, History of Public School Education in Florida, Bulletin 1921, No. 1. Tallahassee, Florida; State Department of Education, 1921, 175.Google Scholar

19. Sheats, William N., Biennial Report of the Superintendent of Public Instruction of the State of Florida for the Years Ending June 30, 1898, passim. Google Scholar

20. Laws of Florida, 1899, ch. 4680.Google Scholar

21. Cochran, , op. cit., 176; Sheats, Ibid. (1904), passim. Google Scholar

22. Sheats, , Ibid., 280.Google Scholar

23. Duval County Minutes, March 9, 1907; Gadsen County Minutes, April 4, 1905; February 5, 1907; Holmes County Minutes, February 4, 1907; Walton County Minutes, February 5, 1907; March 5, 1907.Google Scholar

24. Holmes County Minutes, February 4, 1907.Google Scholar

25. Duval County Minutes, May 20, 1909; Florida Senate Journal, 1911. 215, 249, 504, 567, 618, 1003, 1125, 1170, 1224; Florida House Journal, 1911, 1347, 1348; Laws of Florida, 1916, ch. 6178.Google Scholar

26. Sheats, , ibid., 1916, passim; Laws of Florida, 1917, ch. 7374.Google Scholar

27. Florida Education Association, History of the Florida Education Association, 1886–87 to 1956–57 (Tallahassee, The Association, 1958), 189.Google Scholar

28. Laws of Florida, 1919, ch 7808.Google Scholar

29. Ibid., 1925, chapterGoogle Scholar

30. Florida Education Association Journal (November, 1926), 28.Google Scholar

31. Ibid., June, 1927, 10.Google Scholar

32. Florida Education Association, op. cit., 189.Google Scholar

33. Laws of Florida, 1927, ch. 12011.Google Scholar

34. Official Report of the Educational Survey Commission; State of Florida to the Senate and House of Representatives, Florida State Legislature, April 2, 1929, 42.Google Scholar

35. Ibid., 42–43.Google Scholar

36. Laws of Florida, 1935, ch. 17251.Google Scholar

37. Florida Education Association Journal (February, 1930) 12; (1932), 13, 24; Standard for Florida Elementary Schools, Dept. of Public Education, State of Florida, August 1, 1935.Google Scholar

38. Laws of Florida, 1937, 18133.Google Scholar

39. Minutes of the Courses of Study Committee, Sept. 25, 1950.Google Scholar

40. Florida Educational Association Journal (April, 1951), 23.Google Scholar

41. Ibid. (Nov., 1951); (Jan., 1952), 16.Google Scholar

42. Florida School Bulletin (June, 1959), 13.Google Scholar

43. Laws of Florida, 1959, 5982.Google Scholar

44. Ibid., 61–322, 61–459.Google Scholar

45. Laws of Florida, 1963, ch. 63–300.Google Scholar