Wilson Central School - Crest Yearbook (Wilson, NY)

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A HUNDRED YEARS OF PROGRESS Continued from page 5 Buffalo, Dickensonville, Carlton, Wheatfield, Stafford, Utica, Millville, Bennington, Alexander, Lebanon, Hamp- tonburg, Clarendon, Byron Center, and still farther away, from Alabama, Queenstown, C. W., Somerset, Michigan, Drummondville, C. W., Worcester, Ohio, California, Scarborough, C. W., Thomaston, Georgia, Thorold, C. W., Michigan, Erie, Pennsylvania, Springfield, Massachusetts, Brantford, C. W., St. Catherines, C. W. Within twenty years time from the founding of the school, and ten years after the above list, free schools had been adopted by this and other states, so that we find the students coming from a much smaller area as shown by the following list in 1863: Rochester, Youngs- town, Kendall, Niagara Falls, Tonawanda, Porter, East Wilson, Newmarket, C. W., 8th N. Y. Artillery, Qnd Mounted Rifles, Cambria, Lockport, Newfane, Somerset, Olcott, Pendleton. Because of the transportation of those days, the st.u- dents from away found it necessary to stay in the village at least during the week and boarded in private homes. In 1863 they could find good rooms for fifty to seventy- five cents a week, and board for 81.75 to 89.25 per week. Many of the students basket-boarded which means they brought their own food for the week. If they were lucky the lady of the house would prepare it for them. Imagine the task of keeping the food for eight boarders separated! The school year was divided into three terms of fifteen weeks each and tuition per term was as follows: for Com- mon English Branches and Natural Philosophy 84.00, for each of the higher branches 50 cents until three of them were taken, and the highest rate for all the sciences con- jointly was 85.50, for languages 86.00, music with use of instrument 810.00, painting and drawing 82.00 and inci- dental expenses listed as 25 or 35 cents. Tuition bills were to be paid one-half at the time of entrance, and the other half at the middle of each term. The subjects taught were as follows: Algebra, Astron- omy, Arithmetic, CManual and Mentall, Bookkeeping, Botany, Composition, Chemistry, Criticism, Evidences of Christianity, Elocution, French, English Grammar, Geometry, Geography, Greek, Geology, History, Latin, Law fConstitutional and Governmentalj, Logic, Mathe- matics, Orthography, and Orthoepy, Political Economy, Parsing, Philosophy fNatural, Mental, Moralj, Physiol- ogy, Reading, Roman Antiquities, Rhetoric, Surveying. All of these subjects with a staff of four or five teachers, and between two hundred and four hundred pupils during the various terms! The object of the school was stated as designed to give the students an opportunity to acquire a thorough and practical education. The aim was to have the pupil understand facts and their relations, rather than merely learning to repeat sentences. No dependence is placed upon the use of keys and printed questions. Every pupil was expected to write a composition once in two weeks. The gentlemen are expected to declaim and write alternately. The object of declamation is to give the pupil grace and confidence before an audience, and secure an easy, distinct and forcible enunciation of his own thoughts, or the thoughts of others. These rules will be rigidly adhered to. At the end of each term public examinations were given, partly written and partly oral. These examinations were very thorough, and according to a former graduate in an open letter fSigned D. A. to the Wilson Star in 1895 they were better than the later Regents system where a student may gain a Regents point at the minimum pass- ing grade the subject is dropped, and but a superficial knowledge acquired. In 1864 the students were divided into preparatory and academic groups. A system of pre- liminary examinations was established by the State De- partment and if passed gave the person a certificate that entitled him to admission to any Academy subject to the visitation of the Regents. By 1863-64 the Wilson Col- legiate Institute was offering diplomas for a Three Year Graduating Course or a Two Year Classical Course. However students could pursue parts of the courses or subject they chose. Under this system they had one hun- dred and five pupils in the Preparatory Course, eighty-four in the Graduating Course and eight in the Classical Course. The School was well equipped. The library had from 700 to 1000 books. A set of Chemical and Philosophical Apparatus was purchased, also maps, charts, diagrams and busts, for assisting scholars better to understand the several studies pursued. A Cabinet of Minerals and curi- osities, and an Electro-Magnetic apparatus were purchased The cost of the library and above equipment exceeded 81200. In 1845 the school was one of the ninety schools in the state designated to instruct a normal class. The number of students was limited to twenty-five and they would re- ceive gratuitous instruction for a single term. The age requirements were that the ladies must be sixteen and the gentlemen eighteen years old. According to the state law of 1855 the class was limited to twenty, and the school was paid 810 for each student, and they were to be in- structed in the science of teaching at least three per cent of the school yearf, There being no compulsory education laws at the time, all that the authorities could do was to stress in the cata- logues the importance of regular attendance and urge the parents to cooperate by sending their children regularly and asking the parents to confer with the teachers if the students became restless as pupils sometimes become discontented and dissatisfied because required to be in- dustriousf' The discipline of the school was designed to be par- ental. No motives were to be appealed to but those of duty and affection, as incentives to industry, obedience and fidelity . . . morals and manners out of school as well as in, are regarded as proper subjects of disciplinef' All students were required to be in their rooms at and after half-past seven o'clock in the evening. The object of this regulation was to protect the studious from inter- ruption at unseasonable hours, and restrain all from mis- improving their time by assembling at each other's rooms, or at places of public resort. Attendance at balls and dancing parties was prohibited unless parents sent special directions to the teachers. However in 1857, attendance was expressly prohibited and would be regarded as a flagrant offence and treated accordingly. All students were expected to attend the church of 'their choice every Sabbath unless providentially detained, and points were given on report cards for so doing. These report cards gave marks also for scholarship, deportment and punc- tuality on a point system amounting to a maximum of 45 counts per term. i u n Two literary societies were organized immediately upon the founding of the school. They were known as the Alpha Phi and the Kappa Phi. They were co-organized into a confederate association known as the Philadelphian Continued on page 10