Hamilton High School - Hamiltonian Yearbook (South Hamilton, MA)

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4 The Hamiltonian V aledictory HISTORY OF EDUCATION IN MASSACHUSETTS ' I ' ‘HE doors are open! We are about to go out into the world — some of us to higher educational institutions, some of us to positions in the business world. W hicbever the case may be, Hamilton High School has fitted us well for our future. I hose of us who intend to go on witli our education have received well organized training in Mathematics, Sciences, Lan- guages, Literature, and History which has formed a necessary foundation for ad- vanced education. Those who intend to enter positions in the commercial world have received efficient instruction and prac- tice in commercial subjects to fit tbem for such positions as the may achieve. In order to appreciate fully the means by which we reap the benefits of such well organized education, we should know something of our educational system, especially that of our own state which has been one of the leaders of progress in education in the United States since the beginning of the country. Let us begin with the founding of •Massachusetts Bay Colony. History says that nothing differentiates the men of Massachusetts Bay from other settlers more than their zeal to perpetuate educa- tion and enlarge their scope of intelligence. They were, in general, well informed men who understood and felt the value of edu- cation. Seven years after their arrival, the General Court of their colony had made appropriations for a school or college at New ’Eowne which is now Cambridge. In 1635, five years after the arrival of Governor AV inthrop, Massachusetts Bay Colony began to provide for tbe education of her youth. This same year Boston Latin (irammar School was established and the following year brought the opening of Harvard College. In 1642 the General Court of IMassa- chusetts issued the first rea l law for pro- vision of education of children, vesting the selectmen in every town with the power to take account of all parents and masters in regard to their children’s education. Each town was divided into sections — a sec- tion to each selectman, and each selectman was responsible for the families in his dis- trict. He must see that all children learn to ler.d, know tlie principles of religion, and the laws of the country. He must also see that each child be put to some useful work. The law also made it obligatory that parents w ' here schools were lacking should teach their children to read the English tongue. This brought into use the “Dame Schools” which were schools set up in the homes by women for teaching the elements of reading, spelling, writing, and arithmetic in return for a small fee. In 1647, the school law which is the foundation of IMassachusetts’ School Sys- tem of today was enacted by the General Court. This law reejuired each town of fifty families to maintain an elementary school and each town of one hundred families to maintain a secondary school. It also reijuired these schools to be, at least partially, supported by ta.xation. To the schools established in accordance with this law there were three drawbacks. First, there was no compulsion to attend school ; second, tuition fees could be collected only from those who could afford them ; third, the primary purpose of the schools was religious and the ' were closely allied with the church. Despite the presence of these disad antages, the enactment of the school laws of 1642 and 1647 laid out the basic principles upon which Massachusetts’ School History rests: — First, “The uni- crsal education of youth is essential to the well-being of the state.” Second, “The obli- gation to furnish this education rests pri- marily upon the parent.” Third, “The state has a right to enforce this obligation.” Fourth, “The state may fi.x a standard which shall determine the kind of educa- tion and the minimum amount.” Fifth, “Public money raised by general tax may be used to provide such education as the state requires.” Sixth, and last, “Educa- tion higher than the rudiments may be sup- plied by the state, and public expense must provide opportunity for youths to train for universities.”

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The Hamiltonian 3

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The Hamiltonian 5 All schools at this time were controlled hy the town. 1 he town voted to have the school, determined the grade of school, chose the master, fixed his compensation, inducted him into office, and arranged all details of school economy. In the early schools, the masters were very poorly paid ; their salaries in most cases, allowing a small sum for board, is estimated to have barely reached sixty or seventy dollars a full term. During the middle of the seventeenth century, many parents demanded free schools for their children. To some extent this demand was gratified, but most schools at this time required some tuition fee. As only the wealthy could afford fees for their children, this tended to develop class dis- tinction. Attempts to overcome this were made, and entirely tax-supported schools were established in order to induce chil- dren of all classes to attend school. This caused many to look upon free schools as charitable institutions; therefore, attend- ance was not complete in them. This caused a decline in school spirit in New England and approaching the eighteenth century, education went backward, we are told, and no further progress in establishing public schools was made until about 1735 when school districts began to appear. The towns were divided into districts and each district was allowed to draw its share of the school money to be spent as it liked. By 1789, the question of war had been removed and the old subject of popular education again came to the fore. Around this same period too, school dames were appointed and women teachers became more prominent in the schools. I ' his was due primarily to the fact that the towns absorbed into their public systems of edu- cation, the “dame” or “kitchen” schools, as they were called, which had existed since early colonial times. This same year a law was enacted which required teachers to be college or university graduates and to present a certificate of qualification and moral character from a minister or select- man from their own town. This law also provided for official supervision of schools either by ministers and selectmen or by a committee especially appointed for the pur- pose. All these so-called new practices had been in existence in many towns since 1647, hut now the law legalized them for the whole state. Up to this time, school houses and equip- ment were voluntarily provided for by contributions of tbe people but tins was remedied in 1800 when the power to tax was conferred upon the people of the school districts, and following this very naturally in 1817, districts were made corporations. This resulted in the passage of a law in 1827 requiring each district to choose a committeeman who should select teachers and have care of the school and property in his district. The first city superintendent of schools was apponted in Springfield, A I assachusetts in 1840. In 1821 Boston established the first pub- lic high school in the United States and in 1825 it established one for girls. By 1827 a law in this state required towns of a certain size to establish free schools. Few towns acted upon this, however, until Horace Mann became secretary of the Board of Education. The early high schools were not so closely related to the elementary as our high schools of today; one did not pass through seven or eight so-called “grades” of elementary school and then enter high school. For a long time the high school was a selective school in that admission requirements were such as to exclude all but the more competent. Gradually the public high schools became upward ex- tensions of the elementary schools and one who had satisfactorily completed the latter could enter high school. The grading system was not developed until the latter part of the nineteenth century and high schools were not particularly numerous until then. In 1873 the state authorized the towns to own books and equipment and loan them to pupils, and in 1884, this was made a law and all sch(X)l books and equipment were free to children in all grades of public schools. Let us leave the public schools at this time and consider a vital factor in the growth of education in Massachusetts, the growth of the academies. I ' he academy was really a creation of the Revolutionary- War, although the first academy in Massa- chusetts was established in 1763 when Wil- liam Dummer of Boston died and be- cpieathed his mansion and farm to be made