Compulsory School Attendance and Child Labor

Undoubtedly a large part of the illiteracy and physical unfitness may be attributed directly to our system of public education. Since our public schools are held responsible for the proper education of youth and since they have failed to accomplish such task in a highly efficient way, it seems reasonable to expect that educational programs will undergo changes. Since these programs must, to a large degree, be determined in the light of the past, a historical survey of the process by which the state gradually assumed control of education and the labors of children should both have interest and value. It is the purpose of this study to trace in some detail the development of legislation for the control and compulsory education of children from its inception —By Dr. James Vaughn, in The Elementary School Journal, published by the University of Chicago Press.