The first California public school was erected in 1847 in San Francisco. However, the cornerstone for our California public schools was laid two years later at California’s Constitutional Convention held in Monterey in 1849. The federal government had set aside 500,000 acres of public land for California, to be devoted to internal improvements. Some delegates to the convention wanted to use the proceeds from the sale of this land for roads, harbors and other forms of development. But a Mason, Robert Semple, President of the Convention, delegate from Solano County, and publisher of California’s first newspaper, The Californian, spearheaded the movement to reserve the entire proceeds from the sale of the land for the support of education.

I regard education as a subject of particular importance here in California, from our location and the circumstances under which we are placed, the immense value of our lands and the extent and wealth of the country.

He was voicing the hopes and aspirations of hardy pioneers who had come round the Horn, across the plains or over the Isthmus of Panama to lay the foundations of the first American state established on the shores of the Pacific.

I think that here, above all places in the Union, we should have, and we possess the resources to have, a well regulated system of education. Education, sir, is the foundation, sir, is the foundation of republican institutions; the school system suits the genius and the spirit of our form of government. If the people are to govern themselves, they should be qualified to do it. They must be educated; they must educate their children; they must provide means for the diffusion of knowledge and the progress of enlightened principles.

After prolonged debate, the delegates to the Convention approved Semple’s proposal. Thus, these California pioneers put the stamp of heir approval upon a system of free public education to be supported by the people.

The second significant series of events in the formation of our California public schools began to unfold in 1853. In that year, John Swett, a youth of 22, and later a Mason, arrived in San Francisco. He became known as the Father of California’s Public School System.

It was not until John Swett became Superintendent of Public Instruction in 1863 that the California school system got its stride. No statesman produced by California is entitled to greater honor than John Swett. Other statesmen have achieved great things in the field of politics, but Swett achieved great things in behalf of children who had no votes to reward him for his faithful service.

At age 33, Swett was elected State Superintendent of Schools in 1896 by an overwhelming majority.

During his term Swett secured the passage of laws creating a state board of education, providing for teachers’ institutes where poorly equipped teachers might get help, organizing the schools into grades, establishing school libraries, providing for the certification of teachers and laying a splendid financial basis for the support of public education.

Before the close of his term he had secured the abolition of rate bills under which parents were charged tuition and made the schools absolutely free in all districts for at least five months each year. He succeeded in having school boards build better school houses, secured necessary increases in teachers’ salaries and lengthened the school year. Since the time of Horace Mann, the public schools had found no more ardent champion than John Swett.

Historians of California have called John Swett the founder of California’s public school system. He was the fourth of the state’s Superintendents of Public Instruction. His ideals did not differ much from those of his predecessors; most importantly they agreed that the property of the state should be taxed to educate the children of the state.12 Swett, however, was able to work more effectively with the state legislature on bills for schools. He was also the most ardently committed to a principle that politics and education do not mix.

In 1862, in his campaign to become state Superintendent of Public Instruction, Swett emphasized ideals of professional standards for teachers as well as free schools for all children. He also tied these ideals to Civil War issues, as did Union Party candidates for other offices in California that year. In a speech at a teachers’ institute in San Francisco in the summer of 1862, he said, Let me call your attention to one great fact which this rebellion places in a most striking light before us, that our public schools have been not only the sources of intelligence and learning, but ... the great nurseries of patriotism and devotion to constitutional liberty.

When he took office, Swett found that California’s educational pattern resembled New York’s, which had developed along two lines: schools provided for by charter in incorporated cities and rural schools under the jurisdiction of county governments. The urban schools supported by local taxes were better than the rural schools where tuition fees or rate bills were the most common sources of funding. His first concern, then, was for legislation that would improve conditions in the areas with the least or poorest funding for schools. Statewide measures would be necessary. In his first Superintendent’s report to the legislature, he wrote: If one State in the Union needs a system of free schools more than any other, that State is California. Her population is drawn from all nations. The next generation will be a composite one, made up of the heterogeneous atoms of all nationalities. Nothing can Americanize these chaotic elements and breathe into them the spirit of our institutions but the public schools.

To publicize his concerns and enlist support for his proposals to the legislature, Swett traveled around the state, visiting schools and lecturing a bout the needs of the schools. He campaigned like a politician, but he acted on the supposition that public opinion could be generated and, once generated, used to achieve goals outside any political parties.

In 1864 he persuaded the legislature to increase the state’s allocation to the schools, to raise minimum and maximum county tax levels and to require local districts to tax themselves as necessary to keep the public schools open at least five months in the year. He tried to maintain the momentum in 1865 while legislators were calling for budget reductions.

In his second biennial report, he wrote: The school year ending June 30, 1867, marks the transition period of California from rate-bill common schools to an American free school system. For the first time in the history of the State, every public school was made entirely free for every child to enter.

Since the days of Semple and Swett the California schools have developed by leaps and bounds.

However, after the close of World War I, the condition of the public schools deteriorated until it reached crisis proportions in 1920. War service, and the lure of higher salaries elsewhere, had stripped the teaching profession. Public apathy contributed to this downturn.

But one man was knowledgeable and willing to act: Charles Albert Adams, a San Francisco Lawyer, and at that time Grand Master of Masons in California. Adams had long been of the opinion that Masons such take an active and informed interest in all public questions that do not involve politics, and especially in all questions affecting our public schools. Adams vowed to awaken at least the Masons of California to a realization of the situation.

In the September, 1919 edition of The Trestle Board magazine, in an article entitled Awakening of Masonry At Hand, the writer reports that on October 14, 1919, at the 70th Annual Convocation of the Grand Lodge of California, 787 Delegates representing 358 Lodges were present. The delegates unanimously adopted a resolution introduced by Grand Master Adams in support of pour public school system. There was almost unanimous sentiment for more concerted actions by Masons as a body on public matters. The resolution made particular reference to a bill then before Congress to create a Federal Department of Education. The Grand Lodge of California went on public record regarding a national question, thereby establishing a precedent.

Accordingly, as Grand Master, he issued a proclamation setting aside the week beginning September 27, 1920, as Public Schools Week, during which attention would be focused on the public schools. In his proclamation, the Grand Master requested that at some time during that week a meeting be held in every Masonic Lodge in California. The meeting should be open to the public, and the crisis affecting the public schools should be discussed by qualified speakers.

This pioneer observance of Public Schools Week was an unqualified success. Information concerning the danger confronting the public schools was disseminated, not only by the addresses made at these meetings held in Masonic Lodges, but through the newspaper publicity they received. When the crisis passed, it was recognized that such annual gatherings could be of real value in keeping public education in the minds of the people. Accordingly, each succeeding Grand Master of Masons in California has continued the observance of Public Schools Week, which is no longer a purely Masonic event, but has become a community affair.

The original purpose of the observance was achieved through the public meetings, at which speakers called attention to the condition which occasioned its institution. That purpose, however, was gradually enlarged and broadened. Public Schools Week affords opportunity for the people to be kept thoroughly informed with respect to the California program of public education; to know what is being taught in our public schools, and how it is being taught; and why it is being taught in the way that it is; and, also to assure the school people of the sympathetic aid, support and cooperation of the public.