Elementary Education

The Rise of Elementary Schools

Elementary education was in its infancy stage in the colonial period. In the country's early days, it was quite common for parents to educate their own children at home. No legislation had been passed requiring the development of a national school system or compulsory education, and only one law in Massachusetts—in 1642—mandated that New England parents educate their children. Children's education was strictly religious then, and children learned to read, write, and recite biblical scriptures. In fact, Massachusetts passed the Old Deluder Satan Act in 1647 requiring every 50 (or more) households to find someone to teach children the scriptures and keep Satan from deluding them about biblical knowledge.

A group of families often hired a woman, a “dame,” to teach the neighborhood children of varying ages (4 to 7) and academic levels. Often a housewife would teach a group while she worked on her [Page 332]household chores. These schools—vacant rooms in the dame's house, front porches, and churches—became known as dame schools and flourished in the New England colonies from 1650 to 1800. While many children learned reading, writing, religion, and character and social values, dame schools were incapable of teaching large numbers of children.

Young children in the middle colonies were educated in parochial schools because the settlers believed that churches were responsible for educating young children. Southern colonists, on the other hand, commonly accepted the notion that an education was reserved for the children of noblemen, not the children of laborers. Consequently, children from wealthy families had private tutors or were sent abroad for their education. Apprentices, poor, or orphaned children in all colonies received no formal education or had to attend “pauper schools.” These children came from families so poor they could not afford a private or parochial school's tuition and had to be educated at public expense. Pauper schools held a stigma so severe that many children refused to attend.

At the beginning of the nineteenth century, Lancastrian schools flourished from New England to the southern states shortly after being introduced into the New York schools in 1805. Lancastrian schools gained popularity because of the sheer number of children that could be educated by a teacher and her assistants, who were called monitors. As many as 1,000 students could be seated in large halls comprised of two large rows of bench seats. The teacher's desk was situated on a platform at the end of the hall, and smaller desks for her monitors were flanked to each side. About 10 students were seated on each bench, and after the monitors, usually older children, were instructed by the teacher, they would help the younger children.

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