Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/189657
CALIFORNIA TEACHERS ASSOCIATION I 150th Anniversary teachers and free schools for all children. In his public appearances, he tied these issues to the only issue anyone cared about: the Civil War and national union. The rebellion of Southern states, he implied in a San Francisco speech, was perhaps due to a lack of educational opportunity in the South; in other parts of the nation, public schools had been "the great nurseries of patriotism and constitutional liberty." Swett easily defeated his rivals; in a re-election campaign held the following year, he won 70 percent of the vote. In May of 1863, he presided over the third State Teachers Institute in San Francisco – which would become one of the most important meetings of educators ever held in California. The California Educational Society The members in attendance at the State Teachers Institute voted not only to establish a state school journal, The California Teacher, but also to form a statewide association of teachers that would elevate teaching to the rank of a profession. This state association, founded in a voluntary session held after the close of the Institute's official business, consisted of fewer then 100 educators – all of them men – who called themselves the California Educational Society. The Society's first activity was to publish its journal; about 330 subscribers received their first copies of The California Teacher in July. Its second order of business was drawing up its own constitution, which contained the following provision: Qualifications of members shall be: A good moral character, three years of successful experience, one of which must have been in this state; and ability to pass thorough examination in Reading, Spelling, Penmanship, Drawing, Object-Teaching, Geography, Grammar, History, Arithmetic, Algebra, Physiology, and Natural Philosophy. At the Institute, Swett devoted most of his effort and rhetoric to increasing state school revenues, in order to extend the educational 56 Educator 10 Oct 2013 v2.1 int.indd 56 The first issue of The California Teacher. The journal was established at the same time that the California Educational Society, predecessor of CTA, was founded. opportunities of its urban children to those living in rural areas; his petition, circulated among educators at the Institute, and then among California voters, called for a state school tax. As co-editor of The California Teacher, Swett advocated for what he believed to be issues of common interest, such as curriculum O C T O B E R 2013 10/7/13 9:39 PM