UNTIL after the American Occupation in 1847, the Los Angeles area had few schools. Education had no part in the colonization policies of the Spanish or Mexican governments. The purpose in establishing the first missions was twofold. The Spanish Crown, customary with its policy throughout New Spain, sought to elevate the native Indians of California from a state of savagery to that of peaceful, law-abiding, and, more particularly, tax-paying and revenue-producing subjects. The Franciscan fathers, while in accord with this program, were interested primarily “in saving the souls of the unfortunate benighted heathen.”
At no time during the occupancy of the Province by the Spaniards, nor to the end of the Mexican reign in 1847, and the first period of American occupancy, was there a well-established system of schools. Such instruction, other than teaching the Indians to tan hides, make soap, weave, and harvest grain, was given by orders of succeeding governors, only a few of whom were sincere in their efforts to educate the inhabitants. But even this was spasmodic and short-lived. Not only were the colonists, mostly of mixed blood and drawn from the humbler ranks of Spanish colonial society, unable to read or write, but a similar condition existed among those of the highest rank in officialdom down to the noncommissioned officers and privates in the various presidios. The sole school of mission days in the pueblo of Los Angeles, which had been opened for a short time in 1817-18 by the last of the Spanish governors but had fallen into disuse, was reopened in 1828. Governor Echeandia, at the same time, ordered a similar school started at nearby San Gabriel Mission. Governor Figueroa, his successor, inaugurated the first normal school, and levied a tax to finance it. Governor Micheltorena instituted compulsory school attendance for young children, also a school for girls.
With the American Occupation local public education really began. Wherever he settled, the American pioneer installed “the little red schoolhouse” and the cradle wherein modern California had its birth. He had a full appreciation of the value bound between the covers of the primer, grammar, and arithmetic, as the majority of his predecessors had stressed the worth of spiritual development, contained in the doctrina cristiana, to the exclusion of almost any intellectual advancement beyond its crudely bound and well-worn pages. The first schoolmaster was an army hospital steward, Dr. William B. Osborn, but the school was soon closed by the gold rush exodus. When the new state constitution made provision for a public school term of three months, Los Angeles undertook to establish one even before the state was able to assist financially. Francisco Bustamente, the first teacher employed by the city council, taught reading, writing and “morals” in Spanish; and as other teachers arrived, English, along with supplementary subjects for which the parents paid, was added. Schools taught by private tutors, subsidized by the city, gave way to schools financed entirely by the city. The first of the public schools opened in 1855, and had separate classrooms for boys and girls. At first, the term was occasionally shortened by lack of money. Later, the system of fees payment by parents was gradually eliminated by the increase in state aid for city schools.
After state law ended public support of parochial schools, the Catholic clergy opened a collegiate school that was the first of many denominational institutions of higher education to be established locally within the next few years. St. Vincent’s College, the nucleus of the present Loyola University, was opened in 1865 and received a state charter in 1869, the year in which the University of California was opened. A public high school was established in 1873 and the Methodist University of Southern California in 1879. With the waves of immigration in the eighties and the growth of large private fortunes, sectarianism in education receded and new institutions of higher learning were established with private aid and few denominational ties. In 1887 men of wealth but no particular religious bias aided Presbyterians to found Occidental College and Congregationalists to establish Pomona College. In 1891 Whittier College was founded by Quakers, La Verne College by the Church of the German Baptist Brethren and the Immaculate Heart College by the Sisters of the Immaculate Heart.
The depression of the nineties hit these and other private institutions severely, and caused them either to shut down or sharply to curtail their operations. The state, which had been assisting the city schools to make reasonable if less lavish progress, stepped into the breach. A Los Angeles branch of the state normal school had been opened in 1883. Laws were now revised to permit communities to open high schools.
At the beginning of the twentieth century the Los Angeles school system was not only adequate but well financed. Commercial and industrial activity, moreover, steadily increased the demand for semi-professional training. By 1911 post-high school courses—precursors to the junior college—were offered in at least one secondary school. In 1919 a Los Angeles branch of the University of California was opened, to offer a two-year liberal curriculum in addition to courses previously given at the local normal school. Since the end of the nineteenth century few private institutions of higher learning have been established, though in numerous communities of the county academies and other private schools of various types have been opened.
The general public school system has expanded rapidly in the last decade. In 1929 the first junior college was opened on the old campus of the local branch of the University of California, which in that year became the University of California at Los Angeles with a campus at Westwood.
In 1938 there were approximately 400 public schools in the Los Angeles school district, ranging from kindergartens to a city college. State laws requiring minors to attend school have resulted in high school education for nearly all the city’s youth to the age of eighteen. In 1938 there were 23,047 children in kindergarten, 198,976 in 293 elementary schools, 79,988 in 27 junior and senior high schools, and 5,197 in the Los Angeles City College. The school plant in 1938 consisted of 931 permanent buildings and 1,647 tents, wooden bungalows, and other temporary structures. During the period 1905-1937 inclusive, $94,-213,000 in bonds was voted for new school buildings. In the county there were a total of 739 public schools with an approximate enrollment of 675,000.
The public schools of the Los Angeles school district are controlled by a Board of Education composed of seven elected, unsalaried members. The district today embraces a score or so of neighboring communities and includes the western part of the county, with a population of approximately 2,000,000.
The Board of Education is entirely separate from the city government, the school district being a governmental subdivision of the state. The board has the power to levy taxes for financing the system and manages all administrative and curricular matters, subject to state laws and supervised by the State Superintendent of Education. A superintendent of schools, appointed by the board, in 1939 directed the 17,000 employees, which include 11,000 class-room teachers. The 1938 annual budget was approximately $41,000,000, of which about $17,000,000 came from the State.
The county Board of Education administers schools in incorporated and unincorporated areas outside the Los Angeles school district. The members are named by the county Board of Supervisors, which also must approve the county school budget.
The Los Angeles school system is yet in a transition stage and suffers from various handicaps: the conservatism of some officials and of teachers long in the service, lack of equipment, and large classes resulting from very rapid increases in population. But the foundations of a sound system have been laid. The schools have been largely freed from political control and many of the sounder principles of modern education have been adopted. Serious efforts are being made to replace the tents used in more congested districts with permanent buildings, despite the diversion of funds for replacing and repairing buildings damaged by the 1933 earthquake. The economic depression has also slowed up progress; funds which would have been available for plant expansion and salaries have been used to some extent to supplement philanthropic donations for meals, and medical and dental care for pupils whose parents were unable adequately to provide for them. In spite of these impediments, the ideal of the system is to train children according to their economic and social needs and their physical and mental abilities.
Contemporary education “seeks to be as informal as living and to achieve a successful foundation for living.” Serious attempts are made to interest children in learning and to adapt instruction methods to their interests; in place of the old-fashioned competitive system has been substituted one that grades the pupil on whether his ability and talents are developing satisfactorily. Los Angeles schools also teach much that was formerly acquired at home—home-making, physical development, and social responsibilities and relations.
Public education in Los Angeles now begins very early. Starting in nursery schools and kindergartens, in the early grades there is directed play and the children are made acquainted with such everyday subjects as printing and gardening; at an early stage girls have the same opportunities as boys to learn about the world. In early grades girls may design dresses, but in later grades they join the boys in discussing current civic problems and local politics, and in visiting tire, airplane, and other factories to learn industrial problems and processes. In junior and senior high schools education is adapted to the needs of the students; a school in a district where few go on to college offers trade and agricultural training in place of the classics, dramatics, or highly specialized “majors” taught in a Hollywood school. There are also special vocational schools and schools for the mentally and physically handicapped.
Adult education in Los Angeles is not based on general theory but upon local needs and desires. Except among those seeking high school or junior college diplomas, there is little attention to terms and credits. That these educational facilities are appreciated is attested by the enrollment in 1938 of around 200,000 persons in adult classes at the 24 evening schools maintained by the Board of Education and in 12 similar schools maintained with Federal aid. Day classes are attended by 15,000 persons, mostly women.
The courses are highly diversified: elementary subjects are offered for those who desire them. Americanization courses for aliens seeking citizenship, college preparatory and other high school work, and numerous special courses ranging from those teaching short story writing to those giving the theory and practice in automobile repairing. The courses in the evening schools are adapted to the needs of the communities where they are held; the schools in Van Nuys, Gardena, Bell, and other rural areas stress agricultural training; Huntington Park and San Pedro emphasize mechanical and trade subjects; Hollywood and Los Angeles offer a general educational program, including art, literature, public speaking, commercial subjects, trade instruction, and college preparatory work. Vocational training, the largest field, is particularly stressed in such places as the Frank Wiggins Trade School.
The Adult Education Program employs several hundred teachers under WPA in conjunction with the Adult Evening College at City College. In 1938, 150 courses were offered, as well as classes in numerous evening schools and in nearly 50 welfare and community and church centers. The curriculum is similar to that of the regular evening schools.
The number of private schools has greatly increased since 1910; there were at least fifty in the Los Angeles area in 1939. Their curricula are similar to that of the public schools, except for specialization in subjects such as music, arts and crafts, languages, or physical education emphasized by the founders. The private institutions range from elementary to college preparatory schools and most of them, excluding a few boys’ military academies and girls’ preparatory schools, are coeducational. The private schools in Los Angeles, like those in other parts of the country, have the advantages of greater financial resources. Their affluence enables them to maintain more instructors for smaller student bodies, a ratio often as low as one teacher for every three students. The high fees tend to draw only children from well-to-do families, and most of the schools are relatively exclusive.
Despite the fact that many of the private schools were semi-religious in origin, almost the only ones now identified with denominations other than Catholic are the Berkeley Hall School, which since 1911 has conducted its education in line with Christian Science beliefs; Pasadena College, operated by the Church of the Nazarene since 1902, Los Angeles Pacific College, founded in 1903 by the Free Methodist Church, Whittier College, founded (1891) by the Society of Friends, and the Harvard School, an Episcopal institution. Educators have established the John Dewey School, the Sherwood Progressive School, and the Progressive School of Los Angeles, the last of which has a co-operative management and provides scholarships for needier pupils. These progressive schools, incorporating the progressive educational ideas of John Dewey of Columbia University, are rather similar to the Ethical Culture School of New York. Among the larger private schools, the Chouinard Art Institute offers training in painting and allied subjects. The Otis Art Institute offers a two-to four-year course in drawing, painting, sculpture, illustrative and commercial design, and stagecraft. It also offers, with county aid, a free museum education for 500 children.
In the foreign districts are a few schools offering instruction in the language, religion, and culture of their homelands; these are usually maintained by the residents of the districts or by their religious groups. Segregation of Negroes and Orientals was officially abolished in the 1880’s by the public school system. In 1939 Los Angeles voters elected a Negro music teacher to the Board of Education.
The Roman Catholic Church today conducts nearly 100 schools, with 20,000 students, in the Archdiocese of Los Angeles and San Diego. Besides elementary schools, there are about a dozen secondary schools—including Cathedral, Loyola and the Catholic Girls high schools—and Loyola University. Protestants conduct only the traditional Sunday school, but many Jewish synagogues conduct schools where children, after finishing their day at public school, are taught Hebrew and racial history and tradition.
The increase of higher education in southern California, because of the length of schooling required by law and the proximity of tax-sup-ported institutions for advanced education, was intensified during the depression. Many parents preferred to keep their children in school rather than have them sitting about jobless or seeking in vain for employment. More than 14,000 were enrolled in 1937-38 in a dozen junior colleges in the vicinity. In 1938 the number of freshmen enrolling at the city’s junior college alone was nearly a third of the number graduated from city high schools at the end of the preceding term. In the colleges and universities near Los Angeles were approximately 30,000 students in 1938-39.
Ranking high in scholastic standards is the University of California at Los Angeles, with a 1939 enrollment of 7,729. The university also has a large extension division. The University of Southern California, second oldest institution of higher learning in the city, has 24 colleges and schools whose enrollment, including that in extension courses, was 16,929 for the 1939-40 sessions, second largest in the West.
The group of colleges at Claremont has adopted the English system of co-ordinate colleges, federated for common purposes but autonomous in their unit life. Included in the group are Pomona College, Scripps College for Women, and the Claremont Colleges of graduate study. The California Institute of Technology at Pasadena is a scientific and technical school. Occidental, Redlands, Whittier and a dozen other smaller colleges offer standard college work.