This is a post about K-12 education in New England circa 1825. Many of my friends and acquaintances are teachers and I hope they find this interesting and well-worth the read. The post is about Antebellum Education in New England.

week ago I happened to think about a red, one-room school house that stood empty but in good repair about a mile from where I grew up. That thought made me curious about early American education. I have a primer from colonial times boxed away with some other things. But I thought that a post based on some original research might be a fun thing to do given, the dark clouds that seem parked on our horizons. And, as a retired educator, I naturally wanted to share what I discovered with my friends.

Many of us probably have a stereotypical “picture” in our minds of what an early American school was like. Perhaps it came from watching “Little House on the Prairie,” on television or from some Hollywood movie. The room would be rectangular, and the teacher (female, but sometimes male as with Ichabod Crane, the central figure in Washington Irving’s novel Legend of Sleepy Hollow) would have her desk at the front. There would be an American flag with twenty-four stars on it (for that’s how many states there were in 1825.) The movie you may have seen might portray the early nineteenth century student pledging allegiance to the flag. In fact, the class in 1825 would not pledge alliegiance to the flag, because Colonel George Balch¹ and then Bellamy would not write the Pledge for another sixty years. An unfinished portrait of George Washington would be hanging on the wall. This famous painting by Gilbert Stuart was known as the Athenaeum Portrait.²

A dozen boys and girls aged five through sixteen would be seated (more or less) at desks with a teacher writing the alphabet or some simple math problem on the chalkboard. Students would be portrayed writing on paper, though more likely than not, they had a chalk tablet on which they wrote. If they had paper, they may have had a new invention called the pencil (introduced in America in 1812), but more likely, they used ink and quill.

The boys, of course, were trying to slip a frog or mouse where the girls would see it causing mayhem, and then there was a misbehaving student with a dunce cap on a stool sitting in the corner of the room. In fact, this image is not typical of schools two hundred years, ago, though it is not far from the truth.

efore I had spend an hour on the task surveying the literature, I realized that there were many different iterations of schools in early America. There were private schools which boasted the best possible education for a child short of shipping them to London or Paris. There were schools for boys, schools for girls, schools for orphans and the children of poor families. And there were also schools for black children.  Finally, there were urban schools, rural schools, religious schools and home schools. Each school taught the basics (letters of the alphabet, U.S. Presidents–all five of them–as well as reading and writing, history, religion and so on.) But discipline varied greatly as well as facilities, resources and decorum among the students.

hoosing the parameters of this post were fairly daunting, but I decided on New England because that’s the area of the country that took the lead in education in the U.S. This was partly so because the western half of the U.S. was unsettled and the South had peculiar circumstances of their own. I wanted to focus on public education, curricula, and teacher qualifications.

FOREWORD

The schoolmasters and students of the first half of the nineteenth century were surrounded by change, though it was not specifically noticed by the people who lived then. There was no attempt to frame a paradigm, yet alone a paradigm shift. Things just happened. The U.S. was moving from an agrarian lifestyle to an industrial one. Children were expected to carry their weight. Lucy Lane Allen (mentioned below) wrote of how her students would engage in “straw-braiding, sewing and knitting” while she taught her classes. These were chores that students had to accomplish while attending school. Deadly diseases such as smallpox, cholera and typhus also ravaged New England, claiming the lives of thousands of young scholars who were untimely ripped from the only life they knew. All throughout New England one might find abandoned cemeteries in the woods. I happened to stumble upon one when I was perhaps thirteen or fourteen years of age. The forest was fairly dense. There was no path or road or house within several miles. There were perhaps two dozen graves, and as I read the epitaph on those where it was still legible, I noted that most of the dead died before the Civil War and more than half of them were less than the age of ten when they died. And they lay forgotten in the middle of nowhere, listening patiently in some insensible way for the Trumpet to sound.

There are a number of generalizations³ that I’d like to include and discuss in some detail, including:

• Gender
• Teacher education
• Moral standards
• Salaries
• Teaching tasks
• Entry points

Let’s look at each of these characteristics in a bit more detail.

GENDER

The stereotype is that most teachers of K-12 public schools were female, when, in fact, more teachers were reported to be male, though that would ultimately change. This is partly because town councils and/or school boards were thought to believe that men could deal with unruly boys better than women.  I discovered that in New England, the ratio of male to female teachers was fairly close, especially in public schools. Certain populations such as home schools and religious schools may have skewed that ratio, however one way or another.

When it came to women “schoolmarms,” there were times when the teacher might have been younger than some of her students. According to the English Teaching Forum:

“It was not uncommon, in the early days of one-room schools, for the teacher to be younger than some of her students. Girls typically started teaching at age 15 or 16—as soon as they passed their eighth grade tests with no further preparation.”

TEACHER EDUCATION

There were no formal requirements or educational prerequisites or licensing standards for much of the eighteenth century, because teaching was not recognized as a stand-alone profession. Some knowledge of history, and geography was useful and then reading, writing and grammar skills were de rigueur. Moral character was required to be nothing less than impeccable. Most of the training teachers needed took place through local schools, churches, or other community organizations. Some teenage girls became teachers with an 8th grade education (See “Gender” above and “Entry points” below.) Hiring was entirely at the discretion of the local school board or the town council. Occasionally there was some sort of written or oral competency test in addition to the interview.

MORAL STANDARDS

Teachers were expected to be moral examples for their students. In the not-so-distant past, there were colleges and universities with strong pedagogical programs that included the word “normal” in their official title. For example, I taught politics for four years at the University of North Texas in Denton, TX. That institution was formerly known at one time as “North Texas State Normal College.” The word “normal” as used in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries was a reference to “norms.” Norms, today, deal with punctuality, ability to organize and manage a teacher’s time, eye contact when speaking as well as speaking skills and so on. In the past, however, norms dictated one’s station in society, gender roles, sexual mores and expectations as far as religious observances were concerned, patriotism and so on.

Along with moral standards, civic virtues were also taught. These were mentioned in famous philosophical works (Plato, Locke, Montesquieu, et al.) as necessary for the well-being of a republic and many students (especially in private schools) had to learn Greek or French to study them. Examples include temperance, prudence, justice, voting and community participation.

SALARIES

Women were often paid a third of what men received. Today, at least as far as teaching K-12 in public schools are concerned, salaries are based on levels and steps without regard to gender.  Salaries in public schools are paid through tax revenues. However, in 1825 a school tax was optional as far as taxpayers were concerned, and the only citizens who were required to pay a school tax were the parents of a child attending school.⁴ The closest wages to 1825 for New England teachers that I could find were from the 1838/1839 school year. In Boston, MA, a male teacher made $105.08 per month and a female teacher $20.83 per month.  In Salem, MA, a male teacher made $55.55/month and a female teacher $12.88.  Salem would be a much smaller municipality than Boston with a comparatively reduced tax base. Boston lured quality schoolmasters by offering a higher salary.⁵

TEACHING TASKS

Teachers had many tasks, including helping students recite poems, read books, and care for sick children.  Caring for sick children might have been simple volunteerism, such as visitation, helping a sick child with their homework, or helping around the house where a sick child lived. Today, volunteerism still occurs to some degree and needs no formal instruction as a prerequisite.  But it has been co-opted by what is called service learning. With service learning, a child is taught to apply the theory and principles that they learn in class to real life situations. So, it is involved in the application of learning. It is often a graded component in a course depending on the subject taught. In K-12 today, service learning is alive and well.

In many classes and especially the larger ones, teachers often enlisted the brighter students to help tutor the slower students, especially if there were students in four or five different grade levels in the same room.

ENTRY POINTS

Particularly as far as men were concerned, teaching often made them more competitive as far as transferring to a different profession later in life, such as law or the clergy. As the New York University Catalog notes”

“During the early history of public education, beginning with the Colonial era and into the first decades of the 1800s, most teachers were male. They often had a basic education and another profession as farmer, merchant, or similar role, so arithmetic, reading and writing, and other skills-based tasks were well within their competencies. The usual standard for being trained and/or hired was as straightforward as passing a review by the local school board or town council, and possibly passing a basic competency examination.

For better-educated teachers, or those young men with more prescribed career prospects, the initial teaching job often was a steppingstone to a different profession such as law or the clergy. Prestigious, well-regarded religious and private schools offered teaching careers.“

DISCIPLINE

We’ve all hear of the term “hickory stick.” In my day as a young student (and before my father was elected to the local school board), I became intimately familiar with the paddle, sometimes referred to as the “board of education.” Writes author Michael Day:

“Corporal punishments were quite common in nineteenth century schools and the punishments took many forms. The most common means of punishing students was with the ferule, a long thin piece of wood used for beating students. Because it had a straight edge, it was also useful for drawing straight lines on paper. This is the origin of the school ruler. But there were many other ways of punishing unruly students, and there were also many teachers who relied solely on their own moral authority to control their classes. Many nineteenth century writers have included is their works remembrances of their school experiences, and from these we can gain a picture of the range of approaches to school discipline.”

Other forms of punishment involved holding heavy objects such as books at arms length, or forcing the student to stoop in painful positions. Wilbur Cross, a misbehaving student in his youth recalled:

“One master carried a pair of horse’s bits in his pocket, which he used to toss on our desk when we got too noisy, where they struck with a rattle that silenced all other sounds. After a recitation was over he would put the bits into the mouth of one of us. Not a bad way to stop whispering throughout the entire school for that day.”

There were also other, nonviolent ways to solicit cooperation. Students might be locked in a closet in the classroom, or made to sit under a desk or table. Sometimes

“Boys were made to sit in the girls’ seats, amusing the school with their grinning awkwardness; and girls were obliged to sit on the masculine side of the aisle, with crimsoned necks, and faces buried in their aprons.”

A young woman named Lucy Lane Allen in that era decided against any form of corporal punishment, choosing a more enlightened approach.

“Before I was seventeen years old I was requested to teach the summer school in the center of the town of Medford, Mass. This I accepted, and was examined by Thomas Prentiss, D.D., in reading, writing, spelling, grammar and sewing. Geography and arithmetic were not taught at that time in the summer schools. Between fifty and sixth pupils attended, some nearly as old as myself. Many of the boys and girls brought work – straw-braiding, sewing and knitting. I taught in that town four summers – until I married – never taking a stick into school or inflicting corporal punishment, as many of my pupils now living can attest. I was invited home with the children very often, and my success in discipline, I think, was owing in a great measure to my intimate acquaintance with the parents, and also to the fact that all of the pupils were busy at some work when not at their books.”

ATTENDANCE

Classroom attendance (particularly in rural schools) varied greatly according to the season, the weather, the amount of work to be done on a farmstead, and the popularity–or lack of popularity–of the teacher and the individual child’s personality. While many families understood the value of an education, many others did not. The poorer families were less likely in many cases to send their children to school than those who were better off because of the demands on their children to support the family in practical ways. Another reason for the higher percent of absentees two hundred years ago is that medicine was not as advanced back then as it is now, and more children got ill from diseases that are rarely seen in this country today.

Eventually and again, starting with the New England state of Massachusetts, K-12 education became mandatory (or at least until a certain age if not grade level):

“Although some critics of public education are now questioning the value of compulsory schooling for all children, this concept is deeply ingrained in American history and social values. The first compulsory education law in this country was enacted in 1642 in the Massachusetts Bay Colony. The Puritan notion of education as a moral, social obligation was thus given the sanction of law, a pattern later followed by nineteenth century crusaders for free public education. By 1918, all states had passed school attendance legislation, although until the 1930s, many were unsuccessful in enforcing their compulsory schooling laws.”

CURRICULUM

The basic goals of the early nineteenth century New England schools was to ensure that children could read, write and perform basic arithmetic calculations (addition, subtraction, multiplication and division.) The curriculum was originally based on “The Primer.” The Primer was largely based on the Bible, a topic familiar to most students, but the curriculum included other material as well. The focus at the beginning of a child’s program was the alphabet, reading, spelling and geography. Later, the child progressed to arithmetic, history and penmanship. Being able to recall mathematical proofs or principles was more important than understanding what was learned, and the learning often took place at the expense of understanding. Learning also involved the use of rhyme, as we can see in the illusrtration below where the students learned twelve letters of the alphabet (minus the letter “I.”)

But in 1825, many schools (particularly the poorer ones) were still using something called the Hornbook (sometimes spelled Horn Book.) The Hornbook got its name from the thin, protective covering made from the mineral mica, which was not completely transparent, and this was mounted along with the text which was printed on paper (or vellum) on a frame with a handle for the student’s convenience. Many Hornbooks had a hole in the handle through which a cord or ribbon might allow the student to carry it more conveniently. In 1825 the Hornbook had almost reached the end of its use, but it was still in use in many schools, because books were still very expensive and students could easily stress the binding of a book or otherwise foul the pages of a book.

The Hornbook would not be used to study texts and other lengthy prose or poetry, but rather the fundamental material such as pronunciation and punctuation guides, arithmetic–perhaps multiplication–tables and so on.

SCHOOLS FOR CHILDREN OF COLOR

During the first half of the eighteenth century, little thought was given to the education of free people of color, and as far as slaves in the south were concerned, the classroom was persona non grata. The little known Stono Rebellion (also known as Cato’s Conspiracy or Cato’s Rebellion) of slaves in 1739 led to the deaths of 25 whites and slightly more blacks. The fact that “Jemmy,” the slave that led the rebellion was literate did not advance the cause of literacy for the sake of slaves in the South. As early as 1740 southern states (in this case, South Carolina) passed laws forbidding the teaching of writing (though curiously, not literacy) to slaves. Still, teaching slaves to read was punishable by local statutes with a sound thrashing to the teacher and the student fared even worse! By 1830, most southern states had similar laws that included prohibiting literacy, so any attempt to educate the more than four million people of color who were in bondage circa 1825, brought down the power of the state on the heads of those who attempted to do so. By 1841, New York State, a free state had taken an affirmative stand towards educating people of color (sort of.) The legislature noted in a bill:

“Colored children are entitled equally with all others, to the privileges and advantages of the district school: and wherever they can be grouped together in a separate school…they will be far more likely to derive the full benefits of such instruction as may be best adapted to their circumstances and condition, while at the same time, the disadvantages inseparable from their attendance at the district school, will be avoided.”

But while the white majority in the New England states might be anti-slavery as far as free blacks were concerned, they were not nearly as enthusiastic about spending money to provide for the educations of the Negro⁶ as the historical documents note (ibid.) And while black students in the north were not prohibited from attending classes with white students, they were most likely discouraged from doing so, because there was a de facto segregation in the north as far as common schools were concerned.

Massachusetts became the first state in 1855 to end segregation in schools. As far as the rest of the country, segregation was firmly entrenched by the High Court in Plessy (1896.)

VOCABULARY

Common schools (See normal schools.)

Hornbook: The Horn Book was used for rote memory assignments in the absence of a textbook. First used in the fourteenth century, it was a convenient and cost-effective measure to provide study assignments, though by 1825 it was on the way out. In some broad sense, it was a primitive precursor to today’s e-tablets which provide many thousands of pages more of material but also in a convenient tablet form.

Normal schools: Early nineteenth reformers in education such as Horace Mann, Henry Barnard, Catharine Beecher, and James Carter saw a need to provide a comprehensive training program for fledging teachers. These New Englanders saw a need for educational reform. Horace Mann, an attorney by profession dedicated his life to these reforms.

“He was the first secretary of the nation’s first board of education in 1837, and began a statewide campaign to establish Common Schools – essentially, secular public schools with state oversight, to ensure at least a minimum level of academic standards were in place.”

A truly revolutionary aspect of this movement was the call for a new model of better trained, formally educated professional teachers, the model for the modern education profession. “Normal schools” became the way many of these aspiring teachers learned instructional methods and educational subject matter, which started America’s formal academic study of pedagogy — the art, science, and discipline of teaching and instruction.”

Pedagogue: From the Greek prefix pedo (child) and root agogos for leader. Sometimes used in Greco-Roman history to identify a slave who responsibility was to accompany and supervise a child in their care.

The New England Primer: The New England Primer was a book in use in New England from 1690-1843. It was actually a collection of prayers, books of the Bible, a catechism, instructions on the alphabet, Roman numerals, etiquette, stories and common words used in Latin. It was a compliment to the Hornbook. The Primer was revised routinely by Benjamin Harris and the London Coffee House in Boston and different editions had differing number of pages.

Pupil: Etymology from Latin pupillus (fem. pupilla) “orphan child, ward, minor,” diminutive of pupus “boy” (fem. pupa “girl”), probably related to puer “child.” Ophans, wards and minors all needed strict supervision, as do students in schools (now more than ever, perhaps.)

Rote learning: Rote learning occurs when the same material is repeated over and over. Like earning the names of the eight planets in the solar system, or the names of the states in the Union. Much of the leaning in 1825 was rote, and entire speeches from famous people, passages from literature and Scripture. and poems were learned this way. Today, rote learning is still necessary (particularly in undergraduate instruction) but not sufficient, give the need to learn how to apply it.

Socratic Method: A style of teaching involving questions and answers.

A TYPICAL DAY AT SCHOOL

This is provided by The “Late Nineteenth Century One Room School, by Oak Hill School Teacher’s Resource and Curriculum Guide.”

“The school day would typically start around 8 a.m. Before school started, students would need to finish their chores on the farm, and then walk up to 3 miles to school. Teachers would also commonly assigned morning duties (to be finished before 8 a.m.) to older, stronger students. This included gathering firewood in the winter and collecting water for drinking and washing.

Before classes could begin, schools had a ritualized practice to go through. The students would line up outside in two lines (boys and girls) from youngest to oldest. Then, the girls would enter the school, curtseying/bowing to the teacher as they walked by. The girls would then stand at attention and wait for the boys to follow their lead. After all the students entered the school children would recite the Pledge of Allegiance. This would be followed by either the Lord’s Prayer or a moral lesson that typically involved the Bible. Finally, children would be seated, take roll call, and begin the academic portion of the day.

Reading was the first lesson taught. The teacher would assign work for each level, and once students were working, one level would be called to the front to “toe the line”. This meant that they would be required to recite a passage from memory or read aloud from a textbook. When it came time for arithmetic class, the teacher would have the younger children solve problems on the blackboard. After this was finished, the older students would come to the front and practice solving math problems orally. Penmanship came next. Students would write their names, dates, and a moral saying. Penmanship class was accompanied by an oral explanation of the written morals.

Lunch was next. After students ate, they would gather more firewood and water if necessary. Then they could use the remaining time to play.

The first lesson of the afternoon would be grammar and spelling. This would be followed by a history lesson. The last class of the day was geography.

After the teacher assigned chores for the next day, most students would gather their things and head home. The teacher could give after school punishments to students who misbehaved. This commonly involved some sort of cleaning. Thus, you have a day in the life of a 19th-century student.”

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FOOTNOTES

¹The original Pledge of Allegiance went “We give our heads and our hearts to God and our country; one country, one language, one flag.“

²Washington agreed to sit for the portrait in 1796 when he was 64. The portrait was deliberately left incomplete. This painting eventually wound up in the Athenaeum, a Boston library, and it became the “master copy” whenever Washington’s likeness was needed for dollar bills, stamps, etc.

³Per AI search

⁴“Abstract of the Massachusetts School Returns for 1838/39”; (https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/mb)

⁵“Abstract of the Massachusetts School Returns for 1838/39”; (https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/mb)

⁶I hope I am not offending anyone by using a term which is provocative today. I am simply quoting it in its historical context.