legal right to give orders to the teacher are his employers, namely, the committee in some States, and in others the directors or trustees. If his conduct is approved by his employers the parents have no remedy as against him or them." (See Swett's Biennial Report, 1864, page 166.) And we must not forget that this same superintendent has said that: " The vulgar impression that parents have a legal right to dictate to teachers is entirely erroneous." In his 1876 book, History of the Public School Systems of California, Swett becomes one of the first Californian educators to specify that mature children actually belong to the state or society, writing: "Children arrived at the age of maturity belong, not to the parents, but to the State, to society, to the country." Tributes John Swett Award for Media Excellence, awarded yearly by the California Teachers Association John Swett High School in Crockett, California John Swett Elementary School in Martinez, CA John Swett Unified School District in Contra Costa County, California On the day of his funeral (August 25, 1913), nearly every school in California closed in honor of Swett. Books and other works His papers have been donated by his children to the Bancroft Library at the University of California, Berkeley: Guide to the John Swett Papers, 1853-1913, Bancroft Library Staff, University of California, Berkeley Also donated to the Bancroft Library were the papers of the Tracy family (Swett's wife's family): Tracy family papers (ca. 1800-1888), Collection Number: BANC MSS Z-Z 107 History of the Public School System of California, by John Swett Methods of Teaching, by John Swett See also George H. Atkinson, Founder of the Oregon Public school system References External links Mountain View People webpage describing John Swett's grave site at Mountain View Cemetery (Oakland, California). He is interred with his daughter Helen Swett Artieda and her husband Gregorio Artieda. "Early Vision of Semple, Swett Realized in Broad, Firm Educational System", by Will C. Wood, State Superintendent of Public Instruction "John Swett and the Politics of Public Education in Frontier California", by Ruth E. Sutter "John Swett (1830-1913)", JiffyNotes.com The Bay of San Francisco, Vol. 2, Pages 526-527, Lewis Publishing Co, 1892. (San Francisco County Biographies, Genealogy.com) "John Swett, Public Education in California" (New York: American Books, 1911) (from http://www.encyclopedia.com) John Swett's entry in various editions of Who's Who: Who's Who in America, Volume 3, edited by