Education in America; S. Alder

This mandated that believers be literate; it also mandated that education be part of evangelism. Parents bore the responsibility for seeing that children were literate, educated in the faith, and able to provide for themselves in society. This concept was rooted in the Biblical teaching that the family-not the church and not civil government-was cre ated by God as the primary governing body in society. Well-governed families produced well-ordered societies. Thus, the family was the guardian of a society's character and culture. Pastors and elders in the church were to encourage parents in their work and supple ment it as necessary by instructing the parents or by direct involvement with the Susan Alder is co-author of Perot: The Populist Appeal of StrongMan Politics. 59 children when, for example, the pastor ful filled his catechizing responsibilities or the parents asked the pastor to tutor the child.

Often when several parents wanted the pastor to tutor their children, the pastor would instruct the children in a group in stead of individually, thus forming a type of "school. " If parents were derelict in their duties, they opened themselves up to church-not civil-discipline, the goal of which would be that the parents fulfill their responsibilities as parents. Parents did not even consider that the civil government in any way had the responsibility or should assume the respon sibility of providing for the education of children. Even in the early years of the colonies, parents were able to choose from a variety of means to round out their children's edu cation-private tutors (usually a minister), private schools, church schools, and ap prenticeships. Private colleges were founded to provide higher education. Academies sprang up in larger towns to prepare stu dents for college. A notable exception to parental education came in the Massachusetts colony. A law passed by the General Court of the Massa chusetts colony in 1642 required civil au thorities to see that families educate chil dren, servants, and apprentices. In 1647,the Massachusetts colony enacted a School Code which required appointment of a 60 THE FREEMAN • FEBRUARY 1993 teacher in every township of 50 households.

The teacher's salary was to be paid by parents or citizens of the community through a tax. Townships of 100 families were to set up grammar schools supported by the town. Educator Samuel Blumenfeld says of these compulsory laws, "They were the ordinances of a religious community up holding the orthodoxy of its doctrines and providing for its future leadership. None of the other English colonies, with the excep tion of Connecticut which had been settled by Massachusetts Calvinists, enacted such education laws." 1 Blumenfeld also points out that the Bible commonwealth, peculiar to the Massachusetts colony, "lasted no more than sixty years.,,2 With its demise and a relaxation of compliance with the old laws, private education boomed in the Mas sachusetts colony so that by 1720 private schools outnumbered public ones in Boston. In 1636,John Cotton of Boston willedhalf of his property to establish a school for disadvantaged children and orphans. Thus the Boston Latin School became the first school established in America outside the home.3 Educational endeavors in the colo nies also included mission work. In 1649,the Corporation for the Propagation of the Gos pel in New England reported 101 Indian missions in New England.4 There were other mission agencies and missionaries active at this time as well.

Education at this time was not only Chris tian in that it included instruction in articles of Christian faith, but Christian also in that it sawall reality defined by precepts and principles laid out in the Bible. As historian Clinton Rossiter has said, "The colonial mind was thoroughly Christian in its ap proach to education, philosophy, and social theory .... ',s The Great Awakening Religious revivals occurred sporadically in the American colonies in the early 1700s. These culminated in The Great Awakening which spread from Nova Scotia to Georgia in the 1740s-1760s,touching the lives of the majority of colonists. The great preacher of the Awakening was George Whitefield. Prior to Whitefield's coming, traveling pas tors spoke to congregations only at the invitation of their pastor. Whitefield by passed this convention and preached in the open air to anyone who would listen. He insisted on a personal experience of salva tion, and urged the laity to become involved in personal service to God. He insisted on an equality among believers and encouraged his listeners to question leadership if their teaching did not measure up to the truths of Scripture.

Since the revival took place wherever listeners could be gathered, no particular church had a claim to the converts. In fact, this revival brought converts into every fold. People who had seen God's hand at work apart from denominational affiliation became more accepting of each other-in spite of religious controversies that arose during this time. Historians have pointed to this time of revival as the beginning of a Protestant consensus among Americans. The number of lay ministries increased. Many were formed by people from different denominational backgrounds who found they could work together in a common cause without a common theology. Among the ministries were schools for Indians, Ne groes, and children of indentured servants. 6 Likewise, more colleges were formed to handle the swell of young men goinginto the ministry as a result of the revival. Presby terians were especially active at this time establishing schools like William Tennent's "Log College" (1727).7 According to one historian, "After 1750, a real flourishingof independent educational efforts seems to have swept through the colonies. New secondary academies, a pro liferation of free lance teachers in the towns, often young ministers, sometimes formerly indentured and without congregations, be gan to spread a new educational ethos.,,8 The number of schools continued to grow in pre-revolutionary America. By far, the majority were maintained by the churches and either provided educational opportuni ties for children of the church or for the George Whitefield (1714-1770) poor. The number of charity schools in creased in proportion to the influx of immi grants. Consequently, charity schools were more numerous in the northern colonies.

Education in the South was completely private until 1730, and by 1776, only five public schools existed in the South.9 Edu cational opportunities were provided for poor children through apprenticeship programs. Tutors were popular among wealthy plant ers. Plantation schoolhouses were common where children, not only of the owner, but neighborhood children came to learn. In 1783, Noah Webster wrote his "Blue backed Speller" which taught principles of religion and morals in addition to language. Authors Beliles and McDowell comment that the' 'Blue-backed Speller," which sold over 100 million copies in a century, "did more for American education than any other single book, except the Bible." 10 Secondary schools designed especially to prepare young men for college dotted the colonies. However, tutors were often used in private homes to prepare the college bound. Nine colleges were in service on the EDUCATION IN AMERICA 61 eve of the American Revolution: Harvard, Yale, William and Mary, King's at New York, the College of New Jersey at Princ eton, the College of Philadelphia, Rhode Island College, Queen's, and Dartmouth. II Literacy abounded in the colonies prior to and after the Revolution. The Frenchman Pierre Du Pont de Nemours described what he saw in America in a book written at the request of Vice President Thomas Jefferson, entitled National Education in the United States ofAmerica. Having surveyed educa tion in America, De Nemours wrote: The United States are more advanced in their educational facilities than most countries.

They have a large number of primary schools; and as their paternal affection protects young children from working in the fields, it is possible to send them to the schoolmaster-a condition which does not prevail in Europe. Most young Americans, therefore, can read, write and cipher. Not more than four in a thousand are unable to write legibly-even neatly; while in Spain, Por tugal, Italy, only a sixth of the population can read; in Germany, even in France, not more than a third; in Poland, about two men in a hundred; and in Russia not one in two hundred. England, Holland, the Protestant Can tons of Switzerland, more nearly ap proach the standard of the United States, because in those countries the Bible is read; and in that form of religion the sermons and liturgy in the language of the people tend to increase and formulate ideas of responsibility. Controversy, also, has developed argumentation and has thus given room for the exercise of logic.

In America, a great number of people read the Bible, and all the people read a newspaper. The fathers read aloud to their children while breakfast is being prepared-a task which .occupies the mothers for three-quarters of an hour every morning. And as the newspapers of the United States are filled with all sorts of narratives-comments on matters po62 THE FREEMAN • FEBRUARY 1993 litical, physical, philosophic; information on agriculture, the arts, travel, naviga tion; and also extracts from all the best books in America and Europe-they dis seminate an enormous amount of infor mation, some of which is helpful to the young people, especially when they arrive at an age when the father resigns his place as reader infavor of the child who can best succeed him. It is because of this kind of education that the Americans of the United States, without having more great men than other countries, have the great advantage of having a larger proportion of moderately well informed men; although their educa tion may seem less perfect, it is neverthe less better and more equally distributed. 12 After the Revolution The victory of the Revolution and the great freedoms guaranteed by the new Con stitution· were made possible in part by the consensus of thought and purpose which emerged from America's first national event-the Great Awakening. Mter the Revolution, Americans thought their Re public could be maintained only by continu ing with the same national solidarity.

America's first challenge to its new na tional solidarity came in the nineteenth cen tury with the westward expansion, the growth of industrialized cities, and the influx of immigrants. Many feared those moving west would return to barbaric ways in the wilderness. The quick expansion resulted in several states being added to the union, thus shifting the balance of political power away from the East. The churches were challenged on two fronts-proclamation of the Gospel to a rapidly expanding audience and education of the newly converted. Voluntary societies were formed to help meet these needs. Some were involved in providing missionaries to preach the word, some supplied teachers, some helped publish and supply books and tracts for the new converts; others· were involved in humanitarian activities. Books and tracts became important items Noah Webster (1758-1843) for traveling pastors; they provided a con tinuing education in the absence of the pastor. Voluntary societies were formed to supply these. Most notable alnong the agen cies formed at this time were the American Bible Society in 1816 and the American Tract Society in 1825.

Missionary and educational societies were formed to establish churches and train ministers. Mter the Ordinances of 1785 and 1787 set aside land in every township for the maintenance of public grammar schools, ministers served as schoolmasters until the schools could be made operational. In 1824, the American Sunday School Union began teaching the "Three R's" in addition to Bible lessons to children who might not otherwise attend school. Churches, in par ticular Presbyterian and Congregationalist, were very active in founding academies and colleges for higher education. Textbooks relied on a Biblical under standing of reality and a Protestant under standing of history. Webster's famous dic tionary of the American language, published in 1828, was the first American dictionary and defined words from a Biblical perspec tive using Scriptural references. Webster's "Blue-backed Speller" continued to be used. In 1836, William Holmes McGuffey published his McGuffey Readers. One hun dred twenty-two million copies were sold in 75 years. Like Webster, McGuffey under girded the content of his books with Biblical concepts and morality.