East Night High School - Rostrum Yearbook (Cincinnati, OH)

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In no government, equally with our own, has society, so deep an interest in the education of all. Our theory is, that the people ruleethat the men whom they elect to 017m: are public servants. The ogicers of state with us are men whom we put in position to devise and execute the best means for the internal and external ad- ministration of the common interests of the country, their term of office is limited, and their offices are continually reverting to the people; and moreover, they hold them during good behavior only. In all other governments, the rulers claim hereditary rights of government-the people are the public semants.-There the highest cultivation is bestowed upon the governing classes, while the masses are supposed not to need the most liberal knowledge. The perpetuity of our superior system of government, must depend upon the virtue and intelligence of the people. If this be not carefully looked to, power will gradually pass from the many to the feiugunprineipaled men will fill our ogicesibarty intrigue and corruption become rife, and in the lapse of time this glorious fabric of government will hnd the common grave of all the great republics of history. As a Board of Public Instruction, it is not only a duty we owe to the classes of youth referred to, to agord them, at suitable seasons of the year, the opportunity of acquiring liberal knowledge -to give them, as far as possible, advantages equal to more favored classestut also a patriotic duty, looking to the higher influence which an educated community will exert for the common good, compared with what must ultimately result from debasing igw nonmce. Excerpt from annual report of RUFUS KING, President of the Board of Education in 1857. : - F:'Y t

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S far as we have been able to determine, Cincinnati has the distinction of being the first city in the United States to establish free public evening schools. Our records show that the hrst evening school was organized in our city in the fall of 1840. The completion this year of one hundred years of educational service to the citizens of Cincinnati who have de- sired to continue their education in evening schools is an event of which our city may well be proud. During these one hundred years, educational opportunities have been afforded to many thou- sands of men and women that would otherwise not have been available to them. Advantage has been taken of these opportuni- ties by many of our foreign-bom citizens, by workers whose voca- tions have demanded additional knowledge and training, and by others whose ambition it was to complete an elementary and a high school education. These schools have been of inestimable value to these groups of our people. These schools have grown and expanded to meet the changing needs of our citizens. The First schools, with an enrollment of 100 pupils, provided only the means to continue an elementary education. The present schools, with an enrollment of over 10,000 pupils, offer opportunities to complete both the elementary and the high schools, training to prepare the foreignrborn for citizen- ship, and to help him adjust to his new environment; training to satisfy avocational or leisure time interests; and vocational train- ing to meet the needs of workers in professional, business and in- dustrial pursuits. CLAUDE V. COURTER J Superintendent of Schools L'LY, 1940