Part 45 (1/2)

THE TEACHERS The development of the vernacular school was retarded not only by the doious purpose of the school, but by the poor quality of teachers found everywhere in the schools The evolution of the elementary-school teacher of to-day out of the church sexton, bell- ringer, or grave-digger, [14] or out of the artisan, cripple, or old da to other e as well as one of the yet-to-be-written chapters in the history of the evolution of the elementary school

Teachers in elehteenth century were few in number, poor in quality, and occupied but a lowly position in the social scale School daland (R 235) and later in the American Colonies, and on the continent of Europe teachers ere ers, shoemakers, tailors, barbers, pensioners, and invalids than teachers, too often for body for the elementary vernacular school (Rs 231, 232, 233) In Switzerland, the Netherlands, and some of the A local seht be i monopoly to the elementary teachers of Prussia, [15] in 1738, and Krusi's recollections of how he became a schoolmaster in Switzerland, in 1793 (R 234), were quite typical of the time In Catholic France, and in soations (p 345), so for their work, were in charge of the existing parish schools These provided a so body than that frequently found in Protestant lands, though by the latter part of the eighteenth century the beginnings of teacher-training are to be seen in soland, too, had by this ti Societies [16] for the preparation of teachers for Church-of-England schools, both at home and abroad In Dutch, German, and Scandinavian lands, and in colonies founded by these people in America, the parish school, closely tied up with and dependent upon the parish church, was the prevailing type of vernacular school, and in this the teacher was regarded as essentially an assistant to the pastor (R 236) and the school as a dependency of the Church

[FIG 135 A ”CHRISTIAN BROTHERS” SCHOOL La Salle teaching at Grenoble Note the adult type of dress of the boys]

In England, in addition to regular parish schools and endowed elementary schools, three peculiar institutions, known as the Daious charity-school, and the private-adventure or ”hedge school” had grown up, and the first two of these had reached a hteenth century Because these were so characteristic of early English educational effort, and also played such an important part in the American Colonies as well, they merit a feords of description at this point

THE DAME SCHOOL The Daland after the Refor desire for a rudi could be satisfied, and at the same time certain women could earn a pittance This type of school was carried early to the American Colonies, and out of it was in tiland, the American elementary school The Dame School was a very ele-room by some woman who, in her youth, had obtained the rudiments of an education, and who now desired to earn a s to the children of her neighborhood her s For a few pennies a week the dame took the children into her ho the beginnings of reading and spelling Occasionally a little writing and counting also were taught, though not often in England In the American Colonies the practical situations of a new country forced the employment as teachers of wo the A, Rithlish literature, both poetry and prose, that it s of eleland Of this school Shenstone (1714-63) writes (R 235):

In every village marked with little spire, Embowered in trees, and hardly known to fame, There dwells, in lowly shed and mean attire, A matron old, e schoolmistress name, Who boasts unruly brats with birch to tame

[Illustration: FIG 136 AN ENGLISH DAME SCHOOL (Fro of a school in the heart of London, after Barclay)]

The Reverend George Crabbe (1754-1832), another poet of homely life, writes (R 235) of a deaf, poor, patient ho sits

And awes some thirty infants as she knits; Infants of hu price for freedoreatly in A of Infant Schools, early in the nineteenth, was ed into these to form the American Primary School

[Illustration: FIG 137 GRAVEL LANE CHARITY-SCHOOL, SOUTHWARK Founded in 1687, and one of the earliest of the Non-Confor on its work in the original schoolroom at the time this picture appeared, in _Londina Illustrata_ in 1819]

THE RELIGIOUS CHARITY-SCHOOL Another thoroughly characteristic English institution was the church charity-school The first of these was founded in Whitechapel, London, in 1680 In 1699, when the School of Saint Anne, Soho (R 237), was founded by ”Five Earnest Laymen for the Poore Boys of the Parish,” it was the sixth of its kind in England In 1699 the ”Society for the Proe” (SPCK) was founded for the purpose, a catechetical schools for the education of the children of the poor in the principles of the Established Church (R 238 b) In 1701 the ”Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts” (SPG) was also founded to extend the work of the Anglican Church abroad, supply schoolmasters and ministers, and establish schools, to train children to read, write, know and understand the Catechiss and worshi+p of the Church To develop piety and help the poor to lead industrious, upright, self- respecting lives, ”to make them loyal Church members, and to fit them for work in that station of life in which it had pleased their Heavenly Father to place them,” were the principal objects of the Society

All were taught reading, spelling, and the Catechisht be added The training ht also be coupled with that of the ”schools of industry” (workhouse schools, as described by Locke [R 217]) to augment the economic efficiency of the boy Girls seem to have been provided for alht to read and spell, were taught ”to knit their Stockings and Gloves, to Mark, Sew, and irls were usually provided with books and clothing, [17] a regular uniforirls of each school

[Illustration: FIG 138 A CHARITY-SCHOOL GIRL IN UNIFORM Saint Anne's, Soho, England]

The chief h, was to decrease the ”Prophaness and Debaucheryowing to a gross Ignorance of the Christian Religion” (R 237) and to educate ”Poor Children in the Rules and Principles of the Christian Religion as professed and taught in the Church of England” Writing, in 1742, Reverend Griffith Jones, an organizer for the SPCK in Wales, said:

It is but a cheap education that ould desire for theious branches of it, which indeed is the n of this charity is to inculcate upon suchas can be prevailed upon to learn, the knowledge and practice, the principles and duties of the Christian religion; and to ood people, useful members of society, faithful servants of God, and men and heirs of eternal life

These schools ular institutions, as the following table, showing the growth of the SPCK schools in London alone, shows:

Year Schools Boys Girls Total 1699 0 0 0 0 1704 54 1386 745 2131 1709 88 2181 1221 3402 1714 117 3077 1741 4818

In England and Ireland combined the Society had, by 1714, a total of 1073 schools, with 19,453 pupils enrolled, and by 1729 the number had increased to 1658, with approxiland the charity-school idea was early carried to the Anglican Colonies in America and became a fixed institution in New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland, and somewhat in the Colonies farther south In the Pennsylvania constitution of 1790 we find the following directions for the establishment of a state charity-school system to supplement the parish schools of the churches:

Sec I The legislature shall, as soon as conveniently may be, provide, by law, for the establishhout the State, in such ratis_

[Illustration: FIG 130 A CHARITY-SCHOOL BOY IN UNIFORM Saint Anne's, Soho, England]

The first Pennsylvania school law of 1802 carried this direction into effect by providing for pauper schools in the counties, a condition that was not done aith until 1834 In New Jersey the system lasted until 1838

THE PRIVATE-ADVENTURE, OR ”HEDGE,” SCHOOL This was a school analogous to the Dame School, but was kept by a man instead of a wo a shoe cobbler teaching, represents one type of such schools The ter was forbidden the Catholics, and secret schools arose in which priests and others taught as possible Of these McCarthy writes: [18]

On the highways and on the hillsides, in ditches and behind hedges, in the precarious shelter of the ruined walls of some ancient abbey, or under the roof of a peasant's cabin, the priests set up schools and taught the children of their race

The terht in an irregular ular schools, under equivalent names, also were found in German lands, [19] the Netherlands, and in France, while in the American Colonies ”indentured white servants” were frequently let out as school advertisement of a teacher for sale is typical of private-adventure ele the colonial period