235 AN ACCOUNT OF THE COMMON SCHOOLS IN THE STATES OF MASSACHUSETTS, NEW YORK, AND PENNSYLVANIA. I. MASSACHUSETTS. It is greatly to the honour of the original settlers at Boston, that one of their first cares was to make provision for the education of the people. One of the earliest acts of legislation of the colony of Massachusetts Bay (which received its royal charter in 1628) was a law making it obligatory on parents to educate their own children and apprentices: Harvard College* was founded in 1636; and in 1647 the colony provided by law for the support of schools at the public expense, for instruction in reading and writing, in every town containing fifty families, and for the support of a grammar school (the instructor of which should be competent to prepare young men for the University) in every town containing one hundred families. For this measure they assign the following reason: "It being one chief project of Satan to keep men from the knowledge of the Scriptures, as in former times keeping them in unknown tongues, so in these latter times by persuading from the use of tongues, that so at least the true sense and meaning of the original might be clouded and corrupted with false glosses of deceivers; to the end that learning may not be buried in the graves of our forefathers in church and commonwealth, the Lord assisting our endeavours, it is therefore ordered," &c. In the year 1691 a charter was granted by William * Harvard College is situated at Cambridge, three miles from Boston: it has at present thirty instructors and two hundred and thirtythree students. The other colleges for general education in the State are, Williams, at Williamstown, which has seven instructors and one hundred and nineteen students; and Amherst, which has twelve instructors and two hundred and fifty-nine students. and Mary, incorporating the province of Massachusetts Bay; and, the year after this charter was received, the laws which had been passed under the charter of the colony for the regulation and support of free schools were essentially confirmed by an act of the Governor, Council, and Representatives, convened in general court or assembly. The constitution of Massachusetts also, adopted in 1780, recognised the importance of education, and in 1789 an express law was passed to promote it. The requisitions of the law, as it now stands, are substantially as follows: - Towns containing fifty families or householders are required to maintain a school or schools for terms of time which shall together be equivalent to six months in each year, in which children shall be instructed in orthography, reading, writing, English grammar, geography, arithmetic, and good behaviour, by teachers of competent ability and good morals. In towns of one hundred families or householders, schools of the same kind are to be kept for terms which together shall be equivalent to twelve months. In towns of one hundred and fifty families or householders, schools of the same kind, and not less than two, are to be kept for terms not less than nine months each, or three or more schools for terms together equivalent to eighteen months. In towns of five hundred families, similar schools, not less than two, are to be kept for twelve months each, or three or more such schools for terms together equivalent to twenty-four months; and, in addition to the above, they are required to maintain a school for the benefit of all the inhabitants of the town, ten months at least, exclusive of vacations, in each year, in which the history of the United States, book-keeping, surveying, geometry, and algebra shall be taught by a master of competent ability and good morals. And if the town contain four thousand inhabitants, the teacher shall, in addition to all the branches above enumerated, be competent to instruct in the Latin and Greek languages, general history, rhetoric, and logic-See First Annual Report of the Board of Education, p. 74. The schools provided for by the law are open to chil dren of all classes, and the expense of maintaining them is paid by a tax on the people, raised chiefly on their property. Each town (or, as we should call it, each township,) is made responsible for the execution of the law within its own jurisdiction; and it is the duty of the school committee (which consists of five persons chosen annually by the town) to overlook the schools, to visit them at least once in six months, to employ and approve the instructors, and to direct in the selection of schoolbooks. "New England possesses some peculiar advantages for carrying into effect its system of education. It is divided into small townships, or separate corporations, of from five to seven miles square. The responsibility of these small corporations is more likely to insure a vigilant discharge of their duty than if they were larger, and the subject of their responsibility less immediately under their inspection. As the population is scattered over almost the whole territory, and the children are often young who attend the primary schools, it has been found convenient to divide each town into smaller districts for this object. Thus a school is carried to the door, or at least into the neighbourhood, of every family. Each township constitutes from four to twelve districts; and none are so far removed from all schools that an attendance on some of them is not easy. The appropriations for schooling in each town are adequate to support a school in each district from three to six months in the year, and often longer." "These appropriations are expended, a part in the summer months for the advantage of the younger children, and a part in the winter months for the accommodation of those who are more advanced in age, and whose labour cannot be spared by their poor and industrious parents. The summer schools are taught by females; and children of both sexes, of from four to ten years, attend,-females often much older. In these schools from twenty to forty, and sometimes twice that number of children, are taught reading, spelling, and English grammar by a single instructress. In the more improved of this class of schools, writing, arithmetic, and geography are added to their usual studies. In the leisure time between lessons the female part of the school is devoted to various branches of needle-work. These primary schools, however humble the branches taught, and young the children to whom they are taught, have a strong influence in forming the characters of the young. Although the progress in studies may be inconsiderable, yet they are important for the notions of order, decency, and good manners which they inculcate, and for the habits of attention and industry which are there formed. The whole expense of a school of this kind, taught by a female, exclusive of the house (which, in the country, costs but a trifle), does not exceed from two to three dollars per week. For this very inconsiderable sum, thirty, forty, or even fifty children are not only kept from idleness and consequent depravity, but are taught much which will be useful to them in life. In the winter months an instructor is employed; and arithmetic, geography, and history are added to the studies of the summer schools. These schools bring together for instruction those children and youth, whose labour is too valuable to be dispensed with in the season which gives the agriculturist most employment. The total expense of a school of this kind amounts to from six to ten dollars per week; and it contains from thirty to eighty or a hundred scholars."—Letters on the Free Schools of New England, by James G. Carter. Boston, 1824. Pp. 29. 32. The higher description of schools, which the law directs to be kept in towns with five hundred and with four thousand inhabitants, do not appear to be maintained in all the places in which they are required. The following remarks, in reference to them, occur in the " Report of the Secretary to the Board of Education," p. 51:—“ In this commonwealth there are forty-three towns, exclusive of the city of Boston, coming within the provisions above recited. (I leave this city out of the computation, because the considerations appertaining to it in connection with this subject are peculiar to itself. I need only mention that common schools in Boston, valuable as they are, bear no proportion to the whole means of education and improvement which they do in the country.) These forty-three towns contain an aggregate of about two-fifths of all the population of the State, exclusive of the metropolis. Of these forty-three towns only fourteen maintain those schools for the benefit of all the inhabitants of the town,' which the law requires. The other twenty-nine towns, in which this provision of the law is wholly disregarded, contain a very large fraction over one-fifth part of the whole population of the State out of Boston." "In these twenty-nine towns, which do not keep the 'town school' required by law, the sum of 47,776 dollars is expended in private schools and academies, while only 74,313 dollars are expended for the support of public schools." The refusal of the town to maintain the free 'town school' compels the wealthier portion of the inhabitants to establish the private school or academy, at which they may place their children, with a view to complete their education; and these institutions, when established, tend to injure the common schools, as they draw off their best pupils, diminish the funds which would otherwise be appropriated to them, and tempt away the best masters by the offer of higher compensation. This is more peculiarly a subject of regret with those who are attached to republican institutions. The general results of the system may be judged of by the following "Aggregate Statement," which is taken from the School Returns presented to the Senate of Massachusetts at the beginning of the year 1838 : Number of towns which have made returns (i. e. all except eleven) Population, May 1, 1837 Valuation, 1830 Number of public schools Number of scholars of all ages in the S in winter schools, in summer in winter Average attendance in the schools in immer 294 691,222 dollars 206,457,662* 2,918 141,837 122,889 111,520 94,956 177,053 6m. 25d. Number of persons between four and sixteen years of age * In this and some other instances the cents are omitted, as being of little consequence, and tending to embarrass the eye. That is, the portion of the year during which they are kept. |