Early in the history of secondary education, the school were considered as institutions devoted to the education of a selected few. As late as 1892 a national committee on education took the position that the main function of the high school in the United States "... is to prepare for the duties of life that small proportion of all the children of the country .... who show themselves able to profit by an education prolonged to the eighteenth year and whose parents are able to support them while they remain so long in school." / Typescript. / "August, 1953." / "Submitted to the Graduate Council of Florida State University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Science." / Includes bibliographical references (leaf 63).