USA > Massachusetts > Suffolk County > Boston > The memorial history of Boston : including Suffolk County, Massachusetts. 1630-1880, Vol. IV > Part 33
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The final decision of the committee was to institute a Girls' Latin School, under the direction of a principal having the rank of master, with as many assistants as the exigencies of the school might require. In January, 1878, Mr. John Tetlow, A. M., a graduate of Brown University, an eminent scholar and teacher, was elected principal.1 Public opinion sustained the action of the School Board in establishing this institution, probably the only one of the kind in New England. As the so-called " Annex " at Cambridge, an organization established for the collegiate education of women, had adopted the same requisitions for admission that are established at Harvard Univer- sity, it was found practicable to arrange, on the basis of these requisitions, a six years' course of study which should be equally well adapted to both public Latin Schools. Accordingly, the Boys' Latin School and the Girls' Latin School have now the same standard of admission, the same course of study, and the same diploma examination as a test of fitness for collegi- ate instruction.
At the first examination for admission there were forty-one applicants, of whom thirty-one were accepted. About three fourths of these evidently came with an earnest desire to secure the best and speediest preparation possible for college. The remaining one fourth were probably attracted by the novelty of the experiment, or came because they were for some reason dissatisfied with their surroundings in the schools with which they had been previously connected. All, however, brought from their parents certifi- cates declaring that they intended to enter some college after completing the established course of study here. In 1880 the number of applicants for admission was eighty-four, of whom sixty were accepted. The whole number now in the school is one hundred and forty-eight, and the average attendance has been one hundred and forty-five.2 The school, therefore,
1 On the 12th of the following month the school was opened for regular class instruction. Brief addresses were made by Honorable Charles L. Flint, chairman, and Miss Abby W. May, sec- retary of the High School committee; by Miss Lucretia Crocker, of the Board of Supervisors ; and by the Principal of the school.
2 In less than three years, therefore, from .the organization of this school, the number of pupils had increased from thirty-one to one hundred and forty-eight, notwithstanding the fact that from one fourth to one third of the applicants at successive examinations had been rejected.
255.
. EDUCATION, PAST AND PRESENT.
may be fairly said to have passed beyond the stage of experiment, and to have become a recognized part of the Boston school system. It can no longer be urged that there is no demand in the community for a classical education for girls.1
The Horace Mann School for the Deaf was established in 1869 by the Boston School Committee, in co-operation with the State Board of Education, as a day-school for deaf children over five years of age. Mr. Mann, when he was secretary of that board, in one of his annual reports (1843) described the German method of teaching articulation to the deaf, and urged its adoption in this country. Dr. Samuel G. Howe, when ad- dressing a committee of the State Legislature, said it took twenty years for this suggestion to bear fruit; but its importance is now universally admitted, and it seems eminently fitting to associate with this school, sus- tained in part by State funds, the name it now bears, since it is included in the public educational system of Massachusetts for the improvement of which Horace Mann labored so earnestly.2 The school is designed to give an elementary English education; but as a preparation for this it must first impart the meaning and use of ordinary language. It aims to teach all its pupils to speak, and read the speech of others from their lips.3 Deaf children are able to pursue a course of study similar to that prescribed for our public schools; but the starting point is different and the progress necessarily slow, as the deaf child must spend five or six years in acquiring much that the hearing child learns without effort before leaving the nursery. The mental powers of the deaf are developed by the same methods that are successful in the education of those who can hear. That dumbness is natu- rally attendant upon deafness is a fallacy happily disappearing. Sewing is the only branch of industrial training taught in the school; but the princi- pal, Miss Sarah Fuller, interests herself in obtaining for her pupils, out of school hours, opportunities for that practical training which shall prepare them for the varied duties of life.4
1 The last graduating class contained six members, all of whom entered Smith College. A letter from President Seelye, after speaking in complimentary terms of all the class, says that one of them had taken the prize of two hundred dollars, awarded to the student who was best prepared for college. The number admitted to Smith College this year was about seventy.
2 [A statue of Horace Mann, moulded by Emma Stebbins, and paid for by subscriptions among the teachers and school children of the State, stands in the State House grounds. Horace Mann was born in 1796, and died in 1859. His life has been written by Mary Mann, his widow. He became a resident of Boston in 1836. - ED.]
3 From reports of twenty-six institutions in our country, it appears that the sign language is taught in all, while fifteen employ also articula-
tion teachers; and three - the Institution for the Improved Instruction of Deaf-Mutes of New York, the Clarke Institution for Deaf-Mutes at Northampton, Massachusetts, and the Horace Mann School for the Deaf (formerly the Boston Day School for Deaf-Mutes) - make articula- tion a specialty. The schools in our country are not limited to either system, but endeavor to take advantage of both.
4 In March, 18So, six girls entered a class at the Boston Cooking School for a course of twelve lessons. With some assistance from one of their teachers, who always accompanied them, these girls were able to understand and to follow the directions given as intelligently as the other members of the class. The school is allowed a principal and as many assistants as may be re- quired, not exceeding one teacher for every ten scholars.
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THE MEMORIAL HISTORY OF BOSTON.
Pupils over five years of age are admitted free, in accordance with an act passed by the Legislature of 1869.1
At the close of the school year of 1880 there were seventy-nine pupils, - forty-six girls and thirty-three boys. Of this number twenty were from towns in the vicinity of Boston, and three from other States. There is a corps of nine teachers.2
The Eliot School in Jamaica Plain is an endowed institution, free for children residing there.3 The first donation " for the use of a school only to the inhabitants of Jamaica" came from John Ruggles, who gave that tri- angular piece of land on which the soldiers' monument now stands.4 The deed of conveyance is dated Oct. 16, 1676. Early in the same year Hugh Thomas and Clement his wife proposed to the people at the Jamaica end of the town to make over to them their house, orchard, home-lot, and night- pasture, provided they would agree to take care of and provide for them, in sickness and health, during their lives, and decently inter them after their death. This proposition was accepted, and the property conveyed to John Weld, Edward Morris, and John Watson as trustees. The agreement was signed by twenty-five inhabitants, and the said Thomas conveyed all his real estate by deed, dated April 7, 1677, and by assignment all the real estate of his nephew, John Roberts, which was conveyed to him by the will of said Roberts a short time previous; also by another assignment, in 1681, all his bills, bonds, legacies, etc.
In 1693 John Watson gave three acres of salt marsh, Mrs. Gurnal six
1 " The Governor, with the approval of the Board of Education, is hereby authorized to send such deaf-mutes or deaf children as he may deem fit subjects for instruction, at the expense of the Commonwealth, to the American Asylum at Hartford, to the Clarke Institution for Deaf- Mutes at Northampton [or any other school for deaf-mutes in this Commonwealth], as the par- ents or guardians may prefer."
2 "The National Deaf-Mute College at Wash- ington is doing excellent work in all its depart- ments. It has already furnished well-trained deaf-mutes to several of the State institutions, in which elementary and secondary instruction is given. This co-ordination in the responsibility of deaf-mute instruction is having a beneficial ef- fect upon the seyeral institutions engaged in the work."- Report of Commissioner of Education, published in 1879.
3 Its origin may be shown by an extract from its ancient records : -
"Having by sad experience been sensible of the great damage in education, or rather in the want of the means of education, of children oc- casioned by the remoteness of our habitations from the school at town, and also by the experi- ence of a year's trial, having been somewhat in- formed what a great blessing a school among ourselves may be to us and to our posterity, as it
has made us to thirst after it, so also, according to our poor abilities, it hath caused us to en- deavor the attainment of the same. To which end, we whose names are underwritten do ob- lige ourselves and our estates for the annual pay- ment of our respective subscriptions for the space of twelve years from the date of these presents, for the procurement and payment of a master that shall undertake said work, and teach all such children as shall be sent unto him by the subscribers. And the values of our subscriptions are to be discharged, for the use of said master, at or before the 25th day of March yearly; and the place where the school is agreed upon to be kept is between William Davis's and Nathaniel Gane's.
"To the performance of every and particular premises before named we bind ourselves, our heirs, executors, and administrators, subscribing our names this second day of October, 1676.
" The sums according to subscription to be made in corn, the half Indian and the other half English, at the current prices among us."
This subscription was signed by thirty-eight of the inhabitants. The highest sum subscribed by an individual was one pound, the lowest two shillings, and the whole amount was £14 IIS.
4 In front of the meeting-house of the third Parish.
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pounds, and Mrs. Mead seven pounds, in money, for the " Jamaica or Pond School." On July 10, 1689, Rev. John Eliot conveyed by deed about seventy- five acres of land to John Weld, John Gore, John Watson, and Samuel Gore, and to their heirs successively forever, in trust, "for the maintenance, sup- port, and encouragement of a school, and school-master, at that part of said Roxbury commonly called Jamaica, or Pond Plain, for the teaching and instructing of the children of that end of the town (together with such negroes or Indians1 as may or shall come to said school), and to no other use, intent, or purpose, under any color or pretence whatever."
In 1727 Joseph Weld, the only survivor of this body of men (which, according to Mr. Eliot, was to last forever), petitioned the Legislature to appoint three other persons as trustees, with power to fill vacancies. The petition was granted, and Nathaniel Brewer, Jr., Caleb Stedman, and John Weld were joined with the memorialist as trustees. In this appointment an unwise condition was made, by which each piece of property was placed under special members of the board. This in course of time produced so much embarrassment, that in 1804 an act was passed incorporating seven men trustees of the Eliot school, with power to fill vacancies by the election of freeholders in that section of the town. In 1818 Mrs. Abigail Brewer bequeathed to the trustees sixteen acres of land adjoining the estate of the late Dr. John Warren, the income to be applied for the instruction of girls, children of the inhabitants of the third parish in Roxbury. In 1831 the trustees erected the brick school-house on Eliot Street, which would accom- modate two hundred pupils. The upper room was occupied by a primary school, supported by the town. The grammar department was taught in the lower room, and was entirely under the control of the trustees.
From March 31, 1834, to 1842, the trustees and school committee had a united supervision of the Eliot school. More recently a proposition was made to place the girls in one building under the supervision of the trustees, and the boys in another under that of the town. This proposition was accepted. Previous to this time the income of the Eliot fund had been applied to the education of children in the common English studies. The sale of some lands having increased the income considerably, the Eliot school became a high school in connection with the Roxbury city schools. After the annexation of West Roxbury to Boston, the trustees dissolved their connection with the city, and re-opened the school on Eliot Street, where it was formerly taught. It is still substantially a high school, with an elementary department, free for both sexes, and under the control of the trustees exclusively. The head-master is D. S. Smalley.
Five years after the settlement of Charlestown, it would appear from the employment of Mr. William Witherell,2 that a public school-and, judging
1 [Various papers touching the education of the Indians will be found in a transcript from manuscripts in the Bodleian Library, entitled " Pa- pers relating to the President and Society for the VOL. IV. - 33-
Propagation of the Gospel in New England," in Harvard College Library .- ED.]
2 [See Vol. I. p. 397. Oldmixon, in his history, calls Charlestown the mother of Boston. - ED.]
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from the salary, a free school at least for a "twelve-month"-was established there on the principle of voluntary taxation, being eleven years prior to the law of Massachusetts compelling towns to maintain schools. The General Court, Sept. 8, 1636, granted Lovell's Island to the town, " provided they employ it for fishing by their own townsmen, or hinder not others." This island was rented, and the income applied to the support of the school. Jan. 20, 1647, the records say "it was agreed that a rate of fifteen pounds should be gathered of the town towards the school for this year, and the five pounds that Major Sedgwick is to pay this year (for the Island) for the school; also the town's part of the Mistick weir for the school forever." In 1661 Ezekiel Cheever took charge of the town school. Five years later he petitioned the selectmen " that they would take care that his yearly salary be paid, the constables being much behind with him." Also putting them in mind of their promise at his first coming to town, - " that no other schoolmaster should be suffered to set up in the town so long as he could teach the same. Yet Mr. Mansfield is suffered to teach and take away his scholars." There is no mention of a school-house until 1648, when one was ordered to be built on " Windmill Hill," and paid for by "a general rate."
From an order (Jan. 12, 1666,) it appears that as "many of our youths were guilty of rude and irreverent carriage in the times of the public ordi- nances of praying and preaching on the Lord's Day," it was commanded to all the inhabitants to further their cheerful endeavors by sitting in turn be- fore the youths' pew during the morning and evening exercise; and "it is our joint expectation, that all youths under fifteen years of age, unless on grounded exception by us, do constantly sit in some one of those three pews made purposely for them, except Mr. Cheever's scholars, who are re- quired to sit orderly and constantly in the pews appointed to them to- gether." In 1671 Benjamin Thompson, a celebrated teacher, was engaged . to keep the Town School.1 He retained the charge of the Charlestown school until Nov. 7, 1674, when the selectmen gave " Mr. Samuel Phipps of this town a call to the work," and of the events of his day some record has been made in another chapter.2.
The Industrial School for Girls, now established in Dorchester,3 was opened in 1853. Its object was to remove from their miserable homes children whose circumstances surrounded them with temptations, and whose education furnished them with no means of resistance; to train them to good personal habits; to instruct them in household labor; and to exert a
1 On the following terms : -
1. That he shall be paid thirty pounds per annum by the town, and receive twenty shillings a year from each particular scholar that he shall teach, to be paid by those who send children to him to school.
2. That he shall propose such youth as are capable of it for college, with learning answerable.
3. That he shall teach to read, write, and cipher.
4. That there shall be half a year's mutual notice by him and the town, before any change or remove on either side.
2 [Sec Vol. I. p. 397; also for later events, Vol. II. p. 320 .- ED.]
3 Previously in Winchester.
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moral influence and discipline over them which should fit them to be faith- ful and efficient in domestic service, or any other probable mode of gain- ing their own livelihood. It is an incorporated institution, Miss Annette P. Rogers being its President, and Mrs. Theodore Lyman, Vice-President. We have many institutions strongly armed and appointed for the punish- ment of evil doers. The object of this school is to prevent evil; to cut off some of the sources of our jails and houses of correction; to apply preven- tion to evils of which the cure remains among the problems still unsolved.1 Two hundred and five girls have been admitted since the beginning of the school. The number may appear small, but it must be remembered that this is not a temporary home, but one in which a girl's stay is from one to eight years; and as the house accommodates but thirty, the number of those admitted must depend on the number sent out, and that on the ability of the girls to earn their own living, or the capacity of relatives to provide homes for them. The Industrial School is supported by voluntary contribution. According to the last printed report there were one hundred and ninety contributors.
In addition to the educational institutions before mentioned, the city sus- tains many special schools. Of these there are eleven elementary evening schools, an evening high school, four evening drawing schools, and two schools for licensed minors.2
An absurd charge is sometimes raised against our public schools that they are "godless and immoral." The charge comes mainly from those who think that religion should be taught in them, meaning too often re- ligion as viewed through their denominational spectacles. They would have sectarian instruction, which very wisely is forbidden. In the early days of the colony, when the people were of one faith in religious affairs, they did not hesitate to teach that faith in the schools and colleges; but the rapid growth of the Catholics since that time has been accompanied by strong protests against the prevalence of Protestant instruction, and unquestionably the tendency is now to exclude from the schools all religious teaching. In- deed, so much in earnest are we in this matter that many of our most influ- ential citizens are opposed even to the reading of the Bible in our schools,
1 " On the ground of prevention," says the last report, "we rest our claim to public favor and support. Help us that we may extinguish the sparks which surely kindle a flaming ruin ! Money brings more than money's worth when it is made definitely serviceable to purifying and strengthening a child's character, and educating the probable outcast into an upright and indus- trious woman."
2 For some of these there is no express le- gal provision, but it has been well established that a municipality may go beyond the require- ments of the law in making provisions for schools,
and that the legal power is not restricted by the legal obligation. Horace Mann says : "It is now decided by the highest judicial tribunal in the Commonwealth, that the statute only expresses the minimum of time and of quality below which the schools shall never be suffered to fall; but that it allows any town to rise as high above this lowest limit as, in its discretion, fairly and honestly exercised, it may deem best. This con- clusion was deemed to be a fair inference from the language of the law, confirmed by long usage, and demanded by the necessities of a Republican government."
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THE MEMORIAL HISTORY OF BOSTON.
because the Catholic children would be required to read one version of the Scriptures in the schools and another in their churches.
But are the results of our free-school instruction " godless and immoral"? Recent statistics taken in Massachusetts show that eighty per cent of its crime is committed by those who have had no education, or a very imper- fect one; that a still larger proportion have learned no trade; and that nearly seventy-five per cent of its criminals are of foreign birth. Intemper- ance, the natural resource of ignorance, is the parent of the greater part of this crime, and ninety-five per cent of it is hereditary from homes of vice and ignorance.
In our common schools there are no class distinctions, ecclesiastical con- trol, or social limitations. The pupils come from the humblest, as well as from the most refined and wealthy families. We see the influence of these schools in all our social system. It teaches equality and republican prin- ciples; it creates the reading public; it has produced a throng of readers such as was never known before, - countless and never satisfied. Of the 1,200,000 books taken from our Public Library in 1880, three fourths were taken by children of our public schools.1 The trustees of this institution have printed six broadsides, headed "Lists of Books prepared for the use of. Pupils in the Public Schools," and have supplied these in sufficient quantity to furnish each high and grammar class-room with a set. Dr. Samuel Eliot, late Superintendent of our Public Schools, says in one of his admirable reports : -
" These books range from stories for the very young up to works of literature, science, and art for advanced pupils, and the teachers generally. Here we have reading in abundance; we know what to read and where to find it. The library stands ready to supply it to any reasonable extent, not only at the central building, but at the branches, and therefore within easy reach of all the schools. More beneficent service could not be rendered to public education. It will give breadth to our studies, impulse to our students, and fill in the outlines of our whole system with living spirit. We have been walking, as it were, between walls which limited the view before us to a point, and shut out that on either side altogether. Now the path opens, and the prospect widens, and we see the land about us and the sky above us; for we are under the guidance not of a few half-blind text books, but of the open-eyed master-
1 This is the estimate of the librarian. The average monthly circulation of books from the Boston Public Library is one hundred and three thousand volumes, and six hundred peri- odicals. In this estimate is not included the very large number consulted or read at the li- brary, which averages one thousand per month.
The periodicals printed in the United States nearly equal those of all the rest of the educated world. In 1870 it was estimated that seven thousand six hundred and forty-two were pub- lished in Europe, Asia, and Africa; in our coun- try, five thousand eight hundred and seventy-one.
Since that time our publications have increased nearly to an equality with those of all the world besides; and our forty-five millions of people read as much, perhaps, as all the rest of the hundreds of millions upon the globe. It is estimated that the number of copies of newspa- pers and periodicals printed in Great Britain in 1870 was 350,000,000, and an equal number in France. The census returns show that in the same year 1,500,000,000 copies were printed in the United States. This shows how closely the progress of a demand for newspapers is con- nected with the advance of the common schools.
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pieces of human knowledge. If we are not, it is no longer our misfortune, but our fault. The library offers it. Shall we not accept it?"
In the preceding pages we have endeavored to give some account of the rise and progress of the free schools of Boston.1 All of them, excepting the Roxbury Latin School, the Eliot School at Jamaica Plain, and the In- dustrial School for girls in Dorchester, are under the control of our school committee. We now propose to give brief sketches of other educational institutions, which, though not schools, contribute largely to the intellectual growth of our community. Some of them bear a State or national name, but they are all identified with Boston. They were founded in that city; their officers, members, libraries, places of meeting, etc. are all there.
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