Teachers

Ideas about teaching and education circa 1750 drew heavily on the cultural and religious heritage of the colonists. The earliest civic legislative call for the compulsory education of all children came in theocratic New England in 1642, and was followed by the organization of compulsory public (though not universal) education in 1647. In the middle colonies, however, denominations tended to establish schooling systems to inculcate pupils in the virtues of the doctrine of the particular faith. Thus, schooling tended to be parochial and in the hands of individual churches rather than the state. In the southern colonies, the upper-class distinction and Anglican faith of the ruling property owners forged a private and philanthropic model for education. The upper class educated their own children through private tutors or tuition schools, and philanthropic efforts provided "pauper schools" to some families without means.

Just as these three models of education varied in the early national period, so did the roles and status of teachers. In New England teachers often were preachers and college-educated. Most teachers, and nearly all of the Latin grammar school instructors, were men. The most important qualification was religious and moral character. Of secondary importance were his skills at reading and writing and, more rarely, ciphering. In towns with at least one hundred families, school law required the instruction of Latin, though compliance was not universal.

Children achieved basic literacy before entering these schools, either at home or sometimes at a petty or dame school. Dame schools provided an arrangement of day care and basic education for younger children, probably under the age of eight. As the name suggests, a woman, typically a widow, earned small fees from parents by taking in young children and teaching the older ones to read and write. By the time of the American Revolution, the practice of having women teach the fundamentals and men the more advanced curriculum was probably quite common.

There is less comprehensive information available about teachers in the middle and southern colonies, but records suggest that many were local clergymen, farmers, or individuals who used teaching to supplement their incomes. Others were indentured servants who worked to pay back their passage from Europe. But some were highly qualified and provided high-quality instruction in a broad array of subjects. Overall, the work and social roles of teachers varied significantly across and within the colonies depending on the role of the state, the size of the community, the education of the instructor, and the preparatory orientation of the school.

As the ideologies of independence and equality came to be seen as central to the new Republic, George Washington, among others, called for the development of institutions that "enlightened" public opinion. Still, free public schools, or "common" schools, did not emerge until the late 1830s. In the early Republic, it was parents' responsibility to pay fees for their children to go to school; sometimes local communities helped them pay for the schoolhouse and some of the materials. During this time, two trends set the direction of education: First, education became increasingly secular, and "Rithmetic" replaced "Religion" as one of the three Rs. Second, education also began to shift its focus from the classics—a curriculum that aimed to prepare students for college—toward practical education. Useful subjects such as bookkeeping and gunnery were common additions to the curricula, and records suggest that pupils learned practical skills such as writing receipts and bills of sale.

Even in the absence of significant government involvement, education grew increasingly important. For men, in this period of high mobility, having an education became increasingly important in obtaining employment off the farm in a new city or new town. For young women, school-keeping became a viable option to escape the drudgery of housework and child rearing. The incomes of these young women often enabled families to send yet more children to school.

Teaching was seasonal and often itinerant work. Teachers traveled far and wide in search of better schools, more supportive communities, and better pay. Nahum Jones (born 1779) used money from teaching to buy a farm near his father's in Massachusetts. After failing to make a living at farming, he returned to teaching, although he complained of having to "walk around" New England. The increasing presence of women as "schoolmarms," the term common for a schoolmistress, in the summer months when men were occupied with agriculture, allowed them to make inroads into teaching in the winter season and, in turn, a more advanced curriculum to older children.

Without a system of teacher certification, the credentials and skills of teachers varied widely, as did teaching conditions and pay. Either out of need or lack of ability to verify teacher credentials, many communities hired young teachers who could read but barely write. A teacher might have been qualified after only a few seasons of formal learning. As time passed, more teachers became trained, and some had studied in the newly emerging "academies," which would have required advanced study of the classics as well as basic skills.

During the early national period, teacher contracts also came to govern the community-teacher relationship. Many specified the number of days to be taught and the methods to be used. Typically, teachers would assign individual lessons and would monitor pupil progress through listening to their recitations. In addition to the single schoolmaster model, the "monitorial" system (as was adopted in New York) became a popular and inexpensive teaching methodology from around 1800. In these schools the oldest and best pupils were responsible for conveying lessons to approximately five hundred to one thousand younger pupils.

In turn, school trustees or parents often provided a schoolhouse, the children's materials, and textbooks, which became increasingly secular and American in character. (Popular at that time were Noah Webster's American Speller and Nicholas Pike's Arithmetic.) Teachers were paid wages and sometimes board. Although compensation was rarely enough to justify teaching as a primary or even permanent vocation, it did offer a way to make a modest living and provided a stepping stone to other careers or marriage.

The common school movement, a public initiative to provide free, universal public education for all, grew over the course of the nineteenth century, and created the need for greater numbers of qualified teachers. This demand was partly met in the establishment of new teacher training schools. Lectures on Schoolteaching, notes on the "art of teaching" by Samuel R. Hall, the founder of a private teacher-training school in Concord, Vermont, constituted the first American professional textbook for teachers in 1829. The demand was also met by a growing teaching force of women. Teaching provided one of the very few jobs in which a woman could use her education. Skilled women not only expanded the supply of teachers, but they reduced the cost at which communities might provide education to local children, thus securing low-cost schools for the future.

See alsoChildhood and Adolescence; Education: Elementary, Grammar, and Secondary Schools; Education: Professional Education; Education: Public Education; Education: Tutors; Women: Professions .

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Martha J. Bailey