| The Struggle for Public Schools | Previous | Next |
| Digital History ID 3535 | ||
From the early days of settlement, Americans attached special importance to education. During the 17th century, the New England Puritans required every town to establish a public school supported by fees from all but the very poorest families (a requirement later repealed).
In the late 18th century, Thomas Jefferson popularized the idea that a democratic republic required an enlightened and educated citizenry. Early 19th century educational reformers extended these ideas and struggled to make universal public education a reality. As a result of their efforts, the northern states were among the first jurisdictions in the world to establish tax-supported, tuition-free public schools.At the beginning of the 19th century, the United States had the world’s highest literacy rate--approximately 75 percent. Apprenticeship was a major form of education, supplemented by church schools, charity schools for the poor, and private academies for the affluent. Many youngsters learned to read in informal dame schools, in which a woman would take girls and boys into her own home. Formal schooling was largely limited to those who could afford to pay. Many schools admitted pupils regardless of age, mixing young children with young adults in their twenties. A single classroom could contain as many as 80 pupils.
In the following selections, two New England teachers describe the condition of education in Connecticut on the eve of school reform. The first teacher's account reads as follows:
Ten years ago I was called to superintend a district school...in Connecticut....
The school had usually been under the care of a male instructor four or five months in the winter, and a female as many months in the summer, with a vacation in the spring, and another in the fall, from one to two months each. The instructors had been changed often; few of them ever taught two seasons in succession. The school was large, and the pupils rather ungovernable.... No one remaining in the school more than little could be done, except assisting the pupils in recalling what they had forgotten during the previous long vacation, inculcating new laws, and perhaps introducing some new school-book.... School was commenced precisely at 9 a.m., and 1 p.m., throughout the year...
The greatest number I ever had...was about 60, and this only during a very short period of the winter; the school averaged 44 throughout the year....
Many pupils had a mile to walk, and some nearly two.... When I entered the school, there were 50 scholars under five years of age. The greater part were under four, and several only about three.... I stoutly maintained that no child ought to be sent to school under five years of age. But the parents insisted on sending them, and I was obliged to submit. To meet the exigency, means were provided at the schoolhouse for allowing them to sleep occasionally during the hot weather....
The second teacher offered the following description:
The school house stood...at the junction of four roads, so near the usual track of carriages, that a large stone was set up at the end of the building to defend it from injury. Except in the dry season the ground is wet, permitting small collections of water on the surface... The spot is peculiarly exposed to the bleak winds of winter; nor are there at present any shade trees near, to shelter the children from the scorching rays of the summer's sun during their recreations.... Neither is there any such thing as an outhouse of any kind, not even a wood shed.
The size of the building was twenty two feet long, by twenty broad.... Around three sides of the room, were connected desks arranged so that when the pupils were sitting at them, their faces were towards the instructor and their backs towards the wall. Attached to the sides of the desks nearest the instructor, were benches for small pupils. The instructor's desk and chair occupied the centre. On this desk were stationed a rod or ferule [a cane]; sometimes both....
The windows were five in number.... They were situated so low in the walls, as to give full opportunity to the pupils to see every traveler as he passed, and to be easily broken....
The school was not infrequently broken up for a day or two for want of wood in former years; but since they have used a smaller fire place, this occurrence has been more rare. The instructor or pupils were, however, sometimes compelled to cut or saw it, to prevent the closing of the school.... The [school]house was frequently cold and uncomfortable.... Frequently too, we were annoyed by smoke....
The ventilation of the school room, was as much neglected as its temperature; and its cleanliness, more perhaps than either.... There were...no arrangements made for cleaning feet at the door, or for washing floors, windows, &c.... Instructors have usually boarded in the families of the pupils. The compensation has varied from seven to eleven dollars a month for males; and from sixty two and a half cents to one dollar a week for females....
from America Annals of Instruction, II (August and October, 1831), 380-383, 468-472.
The campaign for public schools began in earnest in the 1820s, when religiously motivated reformers advocated public education as an answer to poverty, crime, and deepening social divisions. At first, many reformers championed Sunday schools as a way “to reclaim the vicious, to instruct the ignorant, to secure the observance of the Sabbath...and to raise the standard of morals among the lower classes of society.â€
