Four  yeai-s  after  the  publication  of  this  Report  and  its  peculiar
assumptions  had  been  extensively  circulated,  the  obstacles  to  the  progress
"f  Free  Schools  appear  to  have  increased.  It  was  found  that  in
Mas-sacbusetts,  as  every  where  else,  the  children  of  the  rich  would  not
<it  on  the  same  school  forms  with  the  children  of  the  poor;  that
republican  theories  and  the  practicalities  of  common  life  were  at
variance;  and  that  the  doctiine  of  equality  could  not  be  realized.  This
is  shown  in  the  Fourteenth  Annual  Report  by  Barnas  Sears,  the
Secretary  of  the  L'oard,  fis  follows,

''  In  many  parts  of  the  State  the  Common  Schools  languish  in  consequence
ot  the  patronage  given  to  academies  and  private  schools.    The  former  are
gujiponcd  by  a  moderate  t<ax,  for  the  sole  benefit  of  the  common  and  laboring
classes.     While  the  importance  of  the  means  of  education  for  the  children  of
'        »  is  acknowledged,  there  is  no  inducement  for  the  tax-payers,
;tn  are  educated  elsewhere,  to  provide  any  but  the  most  ordinary
.'iions  for  the   Common    Schools.     In  tliose  places  where  such
))ractii;<^  prevails,  the  schoolhouse  is  commonly  old  and  dilapidated,  the  seats
and  desks  inconvenient  ai,d  disfigured,  theteaclicr  poorly  qualified  for  his
task,  the  manners  of  the  pupils  rude,  and  the  whole  condition  of  the  school
such  that  the  children  of  a  refined  family  would  be  more  injured  than  bene-
rited  by  being  sent  to  it    Here  the  following  dilemma  presents  itself.    The
schools  cannot  be  improved  till  the  belter  families,  so  called,  shall  consent  to
jiatronize  them  as  their  own.    These  families  will  not  consent  to  send  their
'"^  '  '        '  ' 'he  Common  Schools  in  their  present  condition.    No  other  obKtacle
of  popular  education  is  so  great,  in  the  places  referred  (o.  as  this.
