Part 35 (2/2)

that there shall be a rent of 20 lb a year for ever imposed upon Tomsons Islandtoward the mayntenance of a schoole in Dorchester

This rent of 20 lb yearly to bee payd to such a schoole-lish, latine, and other tongues, and also writing The said schoole-master to bee chosen from tyme to tyme p'r the freemen

Newbury, in 1639, voted ”foure akers of upland” and ”sixe akers of salt ement to keepe schoole for one yeare,” and later levied a town rate of 24 for a ”schoole to be kepte at the ra Schollars, and fitting the_” (R 185)

The support for the town schools thus founded was derived fro of tuition fees, the income from town lands or fisheries set aside for the purpose, [6] voluntary contributions from the people of the town, [7] a town tax, or a co of the ”free (grammar) school” at Roxburie, in 1645, is representative (R 188) of the early methods There was no uniforland

FOUNDING OF HARVARD COLLEGE In addition to establishi+ng Latin grae was founded, in 1636, by the General Court (legislature) of the Massachusetts Bay Colony, to perpetuate learning and insure an educated ministry (R 185) to the churches after ”our present e, located at Neas lish Puritan college in which land colonists had studied, [8]

and in loving e In 1639 the college was christened Harvard College, after a graduate of Ee, by the name of John Harvard, who died in Charlestown, a year after his arrival in the colony, and who left the college his library of two hundred and sixty volumes and half his property, about 850

The instruction in the new college was a coiven in a h at Harvard the President, Master Dunster (R 185), did all the teaching For the first fifty years at Harvard this continued to be true, the attendance during that ti twenty The entrance requiree (R 186 a) call for the coraovernious motive; and the schedule of studies (R 186 c) and the requirerees (R 186 d) both show that the instruction was true to the European type In the charter for the college, granted by the colonial legislature in 1650 (R 187 a), we find exely of the older European foundations A century later Brown College, in Rhode Island, was granted even more extensive exemptions (R 187 b)

THE FIRST COLONIAL LEGISLATION: THE LAW OF 1642 We thus see land the deep Puritan-Calvinistic zeal for learning as a bulwark of Church and State We also see the establishlish educational systeion by the parents in the home and by the masters of apprentices, and later by a town schooler towns, to prepare boys for the college of the colony; and an English-type college to prepare theland, too, all was clearly subordinate to the Church

Still further, as in England also, the systeht the congregations to A depended upon to insure for all the necessary education and religious training

It early becah, that these voluntary efforts on the part of the people and the toould not be sufficient to insure that general education which was required by the Puritan religious theory Under the hard pioneer conditions, and the suffering which ensued, lectful of their educational duties Accordingly the Church appealed to its servant, the State, as represented in the colonial legislature (General Court) to assist it in coations The result was the famous Massachusetts Law of 1642 (R 190), which directed ”the chosen men” (Selectmen; Councilmen) of each town to ascertain, fro to their educational duties; if the children were being trained ”in learning and labor and other employmentsprofitable to the Coht ”to read and understand the principles of religion and the capital laws of the country,” and empowered them to impose fines on ”those who refuse to render such accounts to them when required” In 1645 the General Court further ordered that all youth between ten and sixteen years of age should also receive instruction ”in ye exercise of aruns, halfe pikes, bowes & arrows, &c”

[Illustration: PLATE 9 Two TABLETS ON THE WEST GATEWAY AT HARVARD UNIVERSITY Reproducing colonial records relating to the founding of Harvard College]

The Law of 1642 is re world, a legislative body representing the State ordered that all children should be taught to read The las clearly not only the influence of the Reformation theory as to personal salvation and the Calvinistic conception of the connection between learning and religion, but also the influence of the English Poor-Law legislation which had developed rapidly during the half-century i of the Puritans to Alish Poor Law of 1601 (R 174) our New England settlersto the principles there established (p 326) a distinct Calvinistic contribution to our neorld life that, the authorities of the civil town should see that all children were taught ”to read and understand the principles of religion and the capital laws of the country” This law the Selectmen, or the courts if they failed to do so, were ordered to enforce, and the courts usually looked after their duties in the matter (R 192)

_The Law of 1647_ The Law of 1642, while ordering ”the chosenof children was not neglected, and providing for fines on parents and masters who failed to render accounts when required, did not, however, establish schools, or direct the employment of schoollish fashi+on, was still left with the homes After a trial of five years, the results of which were not satisfactory, the General Court enacted another law by overnreatest service to the future”

After recounting in a preamble (R 191) that it had in the past been ”one cheife proiect of y't ould deluder, Satan, to keepey' fro of y'e originall” by ”false glosses of saint-see ”buried in y'e grave of o'r fath'rs in y'e church and comonwealth”; the Court ordered:

1 That every town having fifty householders should at once appoint a teacher of reading and writing, and provide for his wages in such ht deter one hundred householders rammar school to fit youths for the university, under a penalty of 5 (afterwards increased to 20) for failure to do so

This law represents a distinct step in advance over the Law of 1642, and for this there are no English precedents It was not until the latter part of the nineteenth century that England took such a step The precedents for the compulsory establishment of schools lie rather in the practices of the different German States (p 318), the actions of the Dutch synods (R

176) and provinces (p 335), the Acts of the Scottish parliaeneral Calvinistic principle that education was an iious State

PRINCIPLES ESTABLISHED The State here, acting again as the servant of the Church, enacted a law and fixed a tradition which prevailed and grew in strength and effectiveness after State and Church had parted company Not only was a school system ordered established--elementary for all towns and children, and secondary for youths in the larger towns--but, for the first ti people, there was an assertion of the right of the State to require communities to establish and maintain schools, under penalty if they refused to do so It can be safely asserted, in the light of later developments, that the ts of 1642 and 1647 represent the foundations upon which our American state public-school systems have been built Mr Martin, the historian of the Massachusetts public-school systeislation, as follows: [9]

1 The universal education of youth is essential to the well-being of the State

2 The obligation to furnish this education rests priht to enforce this obligation

4 The State may fix a standard which shall determine the kind of education, and the eneral tax, may be used to provide such education as the State requires The tax h the school attendance is not

6 Education higher than the rudiments may be supplied by the State

Opportunity must be provided, at public expense, for youths ish to be fitted for the university

”It is important to note here,” adds Mr Martin, ”that the idea underlying all this legislation is neither paternalistic nor socialistic The child is to be educated, not to advance his personal interests, but because the State will suffer if he is not educated The State does not provide schools to relieve the parent, nor because it can educate better than the parent can, but because it can thereby better enforce the obligation which it iious ignorance it was important that education be provided To assure this the colonial legislature enacted a law requiring the maintenance and support of schools by the towns This law became the corner-stone of our Aland colonies Connecticut Colony, in its Law of 1650 establishi+ng a school system, coh stated in different words (R 193), and the Law of 1647, stated word for word New Haven Colony, in 1655, ordered that children and apprentices should be taught to read, as had been done in Massachusetts, in 1642, but on the union of New Haven and Connecticut Colonies, in 1665, the Connecticut Code becae was founded (Yale) and finally located at New Haven, to offer preparation for the ministry in the Connecticut colony, as had been done earlier in Massachusetts, and Latin grammar schools were founded in the Connecticut towns to prepare for the new college, as also had been done earlier in Massachusetts The rules and regulations for the grammar school at New Haven (R 189) reveal the purpose and describe the instruction provided in one of the earliest and best of these