310 than the entire number that attended school _any part of
the year_, according to the returns, and 55,751 more than the average
attendance for half of the year.

If we were to embrace in the estimate the whole number of students in
attendance at the universities, colleges, academies, and seminaries of
learning of every grade, it would not materially vary the result, for
all these taken together are less than one tenth part of the number in
attendance upon the common schools. That the number of children
attending schools of any grade is less than might be inferred from the
foregoing statements, will be apparent when we consider the following
facts.

In the United States, taken together as a whole, only one person in ten
of the population attends any school whatever any part of the year. Now
it is well known that a large number of children under five years of age
attend school in many parts of the country, and a much greater number
that are over fifteen years of age. I have already said that the entire
number of children in attendance upon all our schools is twenty thousand
less than one half of the entire number of free-born white children in
the United States between the ages of five and fifteen years. This
leaves two millions of children uninstructed. We shall have a more just
view of the scantiness of our provisions for adequate national education
if to this number, appalling as it is, we add the total number of those
attending under five and over fifteen in various portions of the
country.

Again: no one supposes that in any part of the Union adequate provisions
are made for the education of the rising generation, even in a single
state. But in the New England states, and in New York and Michigan, one
fourth part of the entire population attend school some part of the
year. This is twice and a half the general average throughout the Union,
and more than five times the average attendance in the majority of the
remaining states.

In round numbers, the proportion of the entire population that attend
school in the different states of the Union is, according to the census,
in Maine, New Hampshire, and Vermont, each, one in three. In
Michigan,[61] Massachusetts, Connecticut, and New York, the proportion
is one in four. In Rhode Island, it is one in five. In Ohio and New
Jersey, each, one in six. In Pennsylvania, one in eight. In no other
state is the proportion more than one in ten, while in ten states it is