Schooling in Colonial America 1600-1800. The Purpose of Education What does a person need to know to be a productive citizen? Religious training

Schooling in Colonial America

1600-1800

The Purpose of Education

What does a person need to know to be a productive citizen?

Religious training Upper class

College Working classes

Apprenticeships Farm labor

“on the job” training

Harvard 1726

Education was neither free, public, nor secular in the Colonies

Educational opportunities were stratified Class Gender Race Religion Region

Education served to retain the status quo Children were educated to

take their parent’s place in society

Tension American ideal of equal

opportunity for all

Southern Colonies

A sharply defined class structure

Dispersed population Anglican church did

not put an emphasis on religious indoctrination

Belief that education was a private matter and not the concern of the state

Middle Colonies A diverse population

English, Dutch, German, French, Swedish

Catholics, Mennonites, Calvinists, Lutherans, Quakers, Presbyterians, Jews

Commercial interests An emphasis on vocational

education

Northern Colonies

A fairly uniform population

Puritan New England “Children are vipers and

infinitely more hateful than vipers.”

Jonathan Edwards A Theocracy

The Construction of Childhood For the Puritans,

Children were miniature adults

Born in sin, they were vulnerable to Satan’s ploys

Thus, they need to be closely monitored

The Childhood in History

The Construction of Childhood

High child mortality led to more “objectification” than today

The Construction of Childhood

By the mid-19th century, childhood began to be thought of as a unique time in life.

“Adolescence” had not yet been invented, however.

The Emergence of Higher Education Harvard College

The purpose was to prepare young men, 13-18, in Biblical and classical studies

The goal was to produce a new generation to assume leadership in the church and commonwealth

College Life

Greek, Latin, Scripture Moral development

was as important as intellectual development

College was a “rite of passage” for colonial gentlemen.

“Caning” at Harvard

Colonial Schooling

Private Tutors Upper Class

Dame Schools Boys & girls

Grammar School Upper & Merchant

Class Mission or Charity

School The poor

Private Academies Upper Class

College Upper Class

Dame Schools

Taught by women in their homes

Open to girls Colonial “Day Care”

Education For The Wealthy Private tutor

Grammar school

Academy

College

What was a colonial education like? One-room log or

clapboard cabins Students aged 3-20 Teachers would “cite,”

students would “re-cite.”

Corporal punishment Mr. Dove’s One-Room

Schoolhouse

Hornbook Paddle shaped board with

paper sheet attached Usually contained the ABC's

in both small and capital letters

Some Scripture

Hornbook They had been used in

Europe

Their use continued in the colonies because printed books and pamphlets were harder to come by.

New England Primer Calvinist Theology

Combined hornbook with authorized catechism

Secular materials Almanacs

Franklin’s “Poor Richard’s Almanack”

Chapbooks Most were imported from

England

The National Era

1780-1830

The Educated Citizen “If a nation expects to be ignorant and free, it expects what never was and never will be.” - Thomas Jefferson

The Founders were deeply influenced by Enlightenment thought

They believed that a republic could survive only if its citizens were educated

European Thinkers who influenced American Education John Locke

1632 – 1704 Tabula Rasa Children should learn

through their five senses (Empiricism)

Children learn through imitation

Children are rational creatures

Jean Jacques Rousseau 1712-1778

Critical of educational practice

Education should be consistent with the natural conditions of a child’s growth They are not ready to

deal with abstract ideas imposed upon them through books

European Thinkers who influenced American Education

Educating a New Nation Literacy prior to

the revolution White men

(90%) White women

(60%) Blacks

Slave Free

Native Americans

After the Revolution Economic changes

Commercial economy

Improved transportation

A more mobile society meant a need for improved communication

After the Revolution Political changes

Political, economic theory

Locke Rousseau

Calls to action Pamphlets

Common Sense Broadsides Newspapers

A Republic demands an educated citizenry

The task was to build a nation out of 13 colonies

Eliminate all things British

Thomas Jefferson History instead of

Scripture “Geniuses raked

from the rubble” “The people are

the only safe depositories”

University of Virginia

Noah Webster Connecticut

teacher Goal- eliminate

British textbooks

Noah Webster Blueback speller Became

America’s greatest lexicographer

The first American Dictionary

Benjamin Rush Founder of Dickenson

College “Thoughts upon the

mode of education proper in a republic”

“Thoughts upon female education” Among the first to

advocate education for females

But, separate, not equal

Benjamin Rush Jefferson’s

personal physician Gave medical

advice to Meriwether Lewis prior to the Lewis and Clark expedition Thunderclappers

Invented “the tranquilizing chair”

The Impact of Immigration and Industrialization

The Lancastrian system

A course of study Units of work

Textbooks McGuffy readers Blueback spellers

The Lancasterian System System of education in which children

could be educated very cheaply One teacher was in charge of large

numbers of students Monitors were used as a method of

"crowd control," hence the schools came also to be known as monitorial schools.

More advanced students had the responsibility of assisting in teaching those students below them

The McGuffy Reader The most popular schoolbook in the

nineteenth century was the McGuffey Reader, introduced in 1836.

Based on landmarks of world literature, the set of six readers, which increased in difficulty, were the basis for teaching literacy, as well as basic values such as honesty and charity.

The readers gave the teacher flexibility she lacked before, allowing her to more easily teach a classroom of pupils of different ages and levels.

Tens of millions of copies were sold in the nineteenth century.

In rural America the McGuffey Reader was often the only exposure people had to world literature.

The Common School

1830-1890

A Time of Unprecedented Change

Territorial expansionDramatic Population GrowthCivil WarIndustrializationUrbanizationSocial Reform

Jacksonian Democracy

The era of the Common Man

Universal Manhood Suffrage

Local Control

A new Working Class

Immigration Urbanization Industrialization

Social Problems Industrial revolution

Textile industryLowell

Massachusetts Immigration

Potato famine in Ireland

Gap between classes

Reform MovementsAbolition of

slavery Concord Mass. Henry Ward

Beecher

Reform Movements

Women’s Suffrage Susan B. Anthony Lucretia Mott The Grimke Sisters Elizabeth Cady

Stanton

Reform MovementsTemperance

WCTU

Reform Movements

Reform of Prisons

Mental Institutions Dorothea Dix

Reform Movements

Was the Goal . . .

Social Justice?Social Control?Both?

The Common School Movement

New England Beginnings Ralph Waldo

Emerson Transcendentalism Every human has a

“Spark of the Divine”

We have a moral obligation to help others

Education is liberating

Monitorial (Lancasterian) System Becomes the

standard in Urban areas among working class/immigrant students Economical

1 teacher and up to 300 students

Rote memorization

Catherine Beecher and the Common School

Daughter of Henry Ward Beecher

Sister of Harriet Beecher Stowe

Founded Hartford Female

Seminary Western Institute for

Women

Horace Mann and the Common School

Horace Mann

First state Secretary of Education in Massachusetts

He was a reformer. Led the fight for:

Railroads Insane asylums

Horace Mann

In 1837 he ended his law practice and became Massachusett’s first Secretary of Education Issued a series of 12

Annual Reports

Horace Mann 12 Annual Reports

Reported to the legislature on aspects of his work Emphazed the relationship

between education, freedom, government.

He wanted a school that would be available and equal for all

part of the birth-right of every American child, rich and poor alike.

Horace Mann 12 Annual Reports

“Common schools would serve all boys and girls and teach a common body of knowledge that would give each student an equal chance in life.”

“It is a free school system that knows no distinction of rich and poor. . . It throws open its doors and spreads the table of its bounty for all children of the state.”

Horace Mann 12th Annual Report

Horace Mann 12th Annual Report

Horace Mann 12th Annual Report

Henry Barnard and the Common School

First U. S. Commissioner of Education

His goal was for America to create: “Schools good enough for

the best and cheap enough for the poorest.”

Characteristics of the Common School

Funded by local property taxes

Available for all white children

No tuition charges Governed by local school

committees (boards) Regulated by the States

Opposition to common schools

A system funded by state tax dollars Irish Catholics

They were expected to attend schools that were anti-catholic

The Great School Debates Bishop John Hughes

We will not send our children where they will be trained without religion, lose respect for their parents and the faith of their fathers and come out turning up their noses at the name of Catholic. . . In a word, give us our just proportion of the common school fund.

The Great School Debates New York Herald

Once we admit that the Catholics have a right to a portion of the school fund, every other sect will have the same. . . We shall be convulsed with endless jarrings and quarrels about the distribution of it and little left for the public schools.”

The Parochial School Movement

The Kalamazoo CaseIn 1875 a lawsuit was filed in Kalamazoo, Michigan, to collect public funds for the support of a village high school.

The townships in Michigan were required by the law to maintain the schools under threat of a large penalty for non-compliance

The decision was for the public funding of the Kalamazoo High School and set a precedent for other state to receive state funding for schools