USA > Massachusetts > Worcester County > Worcester county; a narrative history, Volume II > Part 31
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their better performance of their trust committed to them, they may divide the town amongst them, appointing each of the townsmen a certain number of families to have oversight of."
In these laws are to be found the foundation of the common school system of Massachusetts. Education was to be taken in hand by the people them- selves through officials elected by the people, and this was an entirely novel proceeding, State provision for education being not only almost unknown, but as seen by Macaulay's argument nearly two centuries later, one of the things still lacking in the English system of education. The Puritan laws laid the foundations for the elementary or country school, where was taught the three R's; for the secondary school, the grammar school with its limited curriculum intended to prepare for college; for the higher school or univer- sity, although that institution was little more than a training school for min- isters in the beginning. Both religious and industrial training was provided for, and the germ of the district school system, the system that ruled the State educational work until a better scheme was substituted centuries later. In every way the laws were remarkable, particularly when it is realized that the makers were so recently from England and were steeped in the educa- tional traditions of that country.
There was practically no change in the major school laws until after the Revolution. The town was the unit of school administration. In 1789 a law was enacted that legalized a practice that was growing, and which had been made possible by the law of 1683, that is, the districting of a town, or the dividing it into sections for the management of school affairs. In 1827 the district was empowered to become a corporation, could tax itself to build and furnish schoolhouses, and select teachers. As one writer comments, this was "the high-water mark of modern democracy, and the low-water mark of the Massachusetts school system." By 1850 the district system was in force in 316 of the 333 towns in the State, and in Worcester County there were only a few where this system was not in operation. The average of the State was nine districts to the town, some having as many as forty. It was, of course, proving itself to be a very expensive and inefficient system.
The history of the Worcester County school system, and of Worcester, differs but little from that of any other section of the Commonwealth not immediately located around Boston. When Lancaster, the first settled town in the present county, adopted a "covenant of laws and orders," provision was made for the maintenance of a "minester Pastor or Teacher." The bonds, or agreements, of later towns stated somewhat more definitely the rule of having and supporting a "schole" and usually indicated the penalties for neglect. It takes more than law, or agreements, however, to establish habits or systems. The pioneers of Quinsigamond were neither wealthy, nor
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was the number of educated men sufficient to leaven the whole. The people were too busily engaged in subduing the land and forcing it to provide a living for parents and family, to worry about finding the means to pay a schoolmaster and to build a schoolhouse. The Indian attacks of the latter part of the seventeenth century put an end, for the time, to settlement in the Worcester region, and to education problems. In the first quarter of the following century rapid progress was made in resettlement, and there were fourteen towns in the territory set apart as Worcester County, in 1731.
Education did not keep pace with settlement. So far as accepted records go, it was not until 1825 that Worcester voted to "provide a writing master to instruct the youth." One Jonas Rice was engaged on April 4, 1726, as the teacher, "to instruct pupils to read and write" as the law directs ; to keep the school open from May to December of that year ; his wage to be paid by the town. Rice used his own home for a schoolhouse, and his stipend did not exceed $75 the year. Evidently this salary proved too high, for within a week after Jonas Rice completed the school term, Worcester voted to forego any more instruction and instructors. This being contrary to the law of the Province, the town authorities were called before the General Court and a fine of sixteen pounds, ten shillings imposed. The shocked town fathers immediately arrived at the conclusion that it was very little more expensive to support a school than to pay fines to the court. A committee was appointed to see that thereafter the town complied with the minimum of the law's requirements. It would seem that Worcester's educational past is a bit shady in spots ; that progress was made under pressure. Probably few of the educational records made by the county towns in the eighteenth century would bear close scrutiny.
The local census of 1731, carried on in connection with the erection of the county, disclosed that Worcester had more than one hundred families. The law required all towns of this population to establish a grammar, or Latin, school in addition to the elementary schools (reading and writing schools). Worcester again had to be "presented" to the court and fined, before complying with the law. This criminal neglect savors of good sense, for Worcester at the time, 1731, already had arranged for the employment of a schoolmaster and "not exceeding five school dames, at the charge of the town, for teaching of the small children to read." Grudgingly the town fathers established a grammar school, but apparently they put it off long enough to save more than the fine paid, and started it soon enough to escape another fine. At any rate, in 1733 there was a grammar school, which the aforementioned Jonas Rice taught for a month, and which Richard Rogers taught for eight years. Rogers' salary, fifty pounds, evidently was consid- ered a good one, judging from the length of his stay.
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In 1733, so far as is known, the town voted to build its first schoolhouse "in ye centor of ye South half of ye Town" and to be "Twenty-four feet Long, Sixteen feet wide and seven feet Studd to be Compleatly finished with a good Chimney." It was "compleated" five years later, and is of historical interest as the house in which "John Adams, the successor of Washington in the Presidency, taught the grammar school from August, 1755, to October, 1758." This schoolhouse was much better than the average in the county and probably cost about one hundred and fifty dollars. The annual school appro- priations in the 1730's, covering instruction in one classical school and in four elementary school districts may have totaled another like sum. In 1740 the amount appropriated for school purposes was one hundred pounds, evenly divided between the sole grammar school and the four school dis- tricts. Important provisions of this year were: To save the town from "presentment" in court and fine ; there must be "twelve months schooling of (by) a writing master"; and that all schools must be free. The "twelve months schooling" was to be divided equally among the four "skirts" or town districts, or three months teaching in each. The twelve-week session of the common school was considered ample for many years, not only in Worcester but in most of the towns in the State. In 1842 the apportion- ment in Worcester of the twelve months schooling was-nine months to be divided equally between the four quarters of the town for teaching at the homes of Dr. Moore, Thomas Parker, Henry Lee and Elisha Smith, and the other three months in the grammar schoolhouse. Whatever one may think of the simple story of Worcester's development of a school system thus far, it must be granted that at least the town had primary and secondary schools which were free as regards tuition, a school committee, or board, and the nucleus of the district system, or accurately, a town district system, and all this almost two centuries ago.
It is doubtful whether this early interest in education came from within. The history of the next half century seems to indicate that our forefathers cared more for escaping the penalties of laws established a hundred years before than for education itself. From the 1740's to well after the Revolu- tionary War, the town records include many references to educational pro- posals made in town or school committee meetings, but very few really pro- gressive measures carried out. In 1745 a town committee recommended the appropriation of LII0 for the support of schools; that measures be taken for the protection of families living far from a school, by excusing them from the payment of school taxes; and to keep the town out of court with the inevitable fine. Like most such reports it was laid away and forgotten. In 1755 John Adams, at the behest of Rev. Thaddeus Maccarty, M. D., began his career as master of the Latin, or grammar school, and during his
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three-year régime, this school remained steadfastly in the "Centre" of Worcester. With his departure the town reverted to the "moving school" scheme, and in 1759 the grammar school evidently was discontinued. A few years later, 1763, John Chandler, James Putnam, and others, were granted permission to build at their own expense, a "classical" school, the first of the private schools of Worcester. The town fathers had the bright idea of hav- ing this school called the Town's Grammar School, "for the benefit of such persons in town as shall incline to send their children there." but it took more than three years to get the people and General Court to adopt this idea.
The above quoted words date not from 1763, but 1769. In the interim Worcester County and town had been endeavoring to have the law repealed requiring the support of a Latin, or grammar, school in towns the size of Worcester. The representatives to the General Court had been instructed to promote the passage of a ruling "that no more than one such school should be kept in a county." It was claimed then, as later, that the secondary school, call it grammar, Latin, classical, academy, was intended (I) to "begin the training of Congregational ministers"; (2) to create an aristocracy based upon useless knowledge and showy manners; (3) to increase the burden of the poor for the benefit of the rich. The opposition forces did not prevail, hence the endeavors of the town to make a deal with the private school whereby the few who really desired something more than a rudimentary education, should be able to gain it at the smallest possible cost to the town. In this it was successful, and for some years thereafter, sixteen pounds were paid annually to the private school, whose proprietors agreed "that the school should be free to all persons in the town desirous of learning the languages, i. e., Latin and Greek." "It became a very successful preparatory school for Harvard College, among those being graduated therefrom to Harvard being Rufus, Nathaniel and William Chandler, Dr. William Paine and his brothers, Samuel and Nathaniel, James Putnam, Jr., and David Bigelow."
During the two decades from 1769 to 1789 progress in education was retarded or absent. The rising tide of rebellion which eventuated into the American Revolution affected all parts of Massachusetts, although not so sharply as Boston. Neighbor turned against neighbor ; many of the wealth- iest citizens were Loyalists ; no concerted action could be taken in the support of the common, and particularly the grammar schools. When the break from the Mother Country actually occurred all energies were devoted to the pro- motion of the Revolution to the neglect of many things, among which was education. Even the coming of peace brought no surcease from difficulties, for the Continental currency was almost valueless and there was too small an amount of foreign coins to serve as a base or standard. In 1781, the school
Photo by Gardner Artist Studio
AERIAL VIEW OF THE GARDNER HIGH SCHOOL AND NEW ATHLETIC FIELD
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appropriation of Worcester was £4,000; a year later it was £100; the intrinsic value of the expenditure was about the same in both years. By 1786 the aftermath of the Revolution, the taxes imposed for the expense of forming a State and national government, with the resultant poverty and unrest which led to the Shays' Rebellion of that same year, thrust the prob- lem of education farther into the background. Worcester was called again and again before the court, but although shown guilty of neglect, was not fined, probably because there was no money to pay a fine, and none to carry on schools as required by the ancient law.
In 1789 Massachusetts made its first real change in a hundred years in its school system and, as seems customary, made the change from the top down. It has been pointed out that the first Puritans became interested in starting a college (Harvard) and Latin schools, in their small agricultural community, prior to the firm establishment of primary schools. It is also true of the building of the modern educational system that the State often has been first in introducing improvements in higher education while failing to set the pace in common school development. The explanation may be that the Common- wealth has been insistent upon permissive legislation during the most of its educational history. For example, in 1839 the consolidation of schools was permitted but was not made compulsory until a half century later. The practice of forming districts which had long been in use was only legalized under the "New System of Education" on September 23, 1789. At this time also pseudo-legality was given to the schooling of girls. In that same year Worcester was up before the court once more, and the second private classical school, or seminary, took over the teaching of the town's grammar school pupils. The seminary had been founded by an "association of gentle- men, uniting in a stock company (1784) which hired a lot of land, and erected a schoolhouse." As it had been before, the town was irregular in its support of the seminary, and resorted to the "moving" school prior to 1808. In 1819, or 1820, a true primary school was started for children of both sexes under seven years of age, which was intended to fit the children for the "writing" schools. "In these schools (writing) the children of both sexes (are) to be taught to spell, accent and read both prose and verse; also to be instructed in English grammar and composition" according to the rules laid down by the school committee, and also were to be taught arithmetic "includ- ing vulgar and decimal fractions," although the last provision was permissive and often neglected.
The Worcester of 1825 made a genuinely notable contribution to school management in the State. In this sketch the words "school committee or
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board" have been used loosely and not as referring to the school boards of more modern times. They were, in most cases, groups of men appointed to consider specific problems upon which they were expected to report. The town meeting usually elected teachers, fixed their salaries, voted supplies, and determined the location and building of schoolhouses. Occasionally the town or its selectmen appointed inspectors, or visiting committees, but school com- missioners, or board of overseers, were "permitted" only after 1789, and did not in Worcester come into use and power until about 1825. It was not until the last century that they functioned in anything like the way that is now so familiar. In 1823, however, Worcester began to show some public school spirit, and awakened to the need of better conditions in its school practices. A quick recovery had been made from the effects of the War of 1812; its population was increasing rapidly and by varied racial elements ; industri- alism was replacing agriculture, and the time for emergence from a peaceful, almost somnolent, order of things was at hand.
A committee appointed in 1823, consisting of Samuel M. Burnside, Rev. Aaron Bancroft, Governor Levi Lincoln, Otis Corbett and Samuel Jennison, studied the schools of the Worcester Centre District, and reported the fol- lowing resolutions :
Your committee recommend that a board of twelve overseers be chosen annually by ballot, whose duty it shall be in conjunction with the selectmen to determine upon the qualifications of instructors and to contract with them for their services; to determine upon the attainments of scholars to be admitted to said schools respectively ; to prescribe the course of instruction therein and all necessary rules and regulations for the government thereof ; to determine upon all complaints of instructors, of parents, or of scholars, which may arise in relation to said schools, or either of them; to visit and examine said schools respectively at stated periods during the year; to encourage in every suitable manner both instructors anad scholars in the performance of their relative duties ; and to make a report in writing annually to the District of the condition of said schools during the period of their office.
The town of Worcester went much more thoroughly into the matter than other townships, and after the system had been tested in the local schools and found to be "highly beneficial and practical," Mr. Burnside carried the recommendations to the State Legislature where eventually a law was enacted bringing the Worcester School System into effect in all school districts of Massachusetts. This was a noteworthy achievement, "and laid the founda- tion of the present admirable school system of the Commonwealth." At all events, the practice of vesting the exclusive jurisdiction over the public schools in a committee elected directly by the people is believed to have been
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first adopted in Worcester; and its extension over the whole State was, it seems, chiefly due to the efforts of Mr. Burnside of Worcester.
The first Board of Overseers appointed in Worcester included all of the original committee, excepting Mr. Jennison, the other members being Aretius B. Hull, Loammi Ives Hoadley, John Davis, Theophilus Wheeler, Enoch Flagg, Benjamin Chapin, and Frederick W. Paine. The schools were graded, and assignments made as recommended; and three years later Mr. Burnside succeeded in extending the system over the State.
The report of the Board of Overseers for the year 1828 showed that, in addition to the grammar school, which was for boys only and was directly supported by the town, there were eight permanent schools and one tempo- rary school in the town. They comprised the north and south infant schools, kept in small schoolhouses built in 1800, and situated respectively on the west side of Summer Street, and on the southeast part of the Common ; the North and South primary schools, both of which were kept in the Centre School- house ; the Second Female School and the English School for Boys; and the Female High School, which corresponded with the Latin Grammar School, excepting that only English branches were taught; the African School, situated on the eastern corner of Pine Street Burial-ground; and the Apprentices' School, kept for three winter months for apprentices and clerks.
It may be said in connection with this period, as regards the State as a whole, that Horace Mann was elected to the Legislature in 1826. This bril- liant educator was chosen secretary of the first Board of Education, of Massachusetts, in 1837, giving up his profession, law, to devote himself to the creation of a common school system. In nothing was he more heroic than in his continued appeal for professional supervision of schools. Worces- ter did not have a superintendent of schools until 1857, Rev. George Bush- nell, although Horace Mann was recommended for this post in 1840. While in the Legislature in 1835 Mann drafted the bill which made possible, in 1839-40, the opening of the Bridgewater, Lexington and Barre Normal schools. The rapid increase of private academies was checked by 1840, and the high school came into its own. In 1840 there were one hundred and fourteen academies in the State, and eighteen high schools; in 1860 there were one hundred and two high schools in which Latin and Greek were taught. "In 1820 there was no educational virility anywhere in the country, but every movement of Horace Mann in Massachusetts had touched a live social and civic nerve in Pennsylvania and Ohio, and was vibrating sympa- thetically from those states west and north."
In Worcester the multiplication of districts went merrily on; and by the turn of the nineteenth century they were known by numbers instead of names. When the town became a city, in 1848, there were eight infant schools, five primary schools, three grammar schools, a high school and the African school, in the Centre District, and fifteen in neighboring districts. By 1855
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there were 3,300 pupils, fifty-six women teachers and seven men teachers, but the total appropriation for school purposes at that time was only $22,000. Arabella H. Tucker, in writing about school conditions in the middle decades of the last century, after pointing out the many weaknesses of the system practiced, some of them due to untrained and underpaid teachers, remarks : "Many of the features of the present school system were prefigured in those days. The women teachers, vacations, graded schools, trade schools; and there were even the criticisms that the schools have to bear today (1922). The overcrowding of the curriculum was complained of in 1840; the com- mittee reported at the examination of one of the schools that the children between eight and twelve recited in grammar, arithmetic, geography, natural philosophy, mental philosophy, and chemistry, also they had daily recitations in reading, writing and spelling. Complaint was made that more schools were needed, that not enough money was spent on the schools, that parents did not show interest in the progress of the children, and so forth. In 1860 the committee reported that there were 296 more pupils than seats in the Centre District. In 1854 the public was informed that Worcester was the lowest of the cities in the State in point of school attendance. How familiar it all sounds to us !"
The Latin School for Boys was started on November 21, 1831, when a committee met to decide upon the building of a school on a lot bequeathed by Isaiah Thomas, who had died earlier in the year. This lot was at the corner of Thomas and Summer streets, and by 1835 a brick school, two stories in height, thirty by sixty-seven feet had been erected. In 1851 the structure was torn down to make way for the present school which could accommodate 350 pupils. The Latin School for Boys went out of separate existence in 1845 when it was consolidated with the Girls' English High School.
Mention has been made of the efforts of Worcester citizens to provide the grammar schools required by law in towns of one hundred families,- 1731, 1763, 1784 for boys, the Latin School for Boys, 1831, and the Female High School when the town suddenly arrived at the conclusion, in 1844, that it was safe to give the girls something above an intermediate education. The Latin School and the Girls' English High School were consolidated in 1871, when a new building was erected, and dedicated on December 30, 1871. Nutt in his History of Worcester says: "For twenty years following 1872 this school was a powerful influence in the educational world; but in 1892 it had to share the honors with a young and lusty child, the English High School, at the corner of Irving and Chatham streets. By a curious trick of fate this offspring, now called the High School of Commerce, in 1914 seized upon the newly enlarged family homestead and offered its own smaller quar- ters to the 'old folks.' The change was, however, made amicably, but with
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considerable loss of traditions, for it seemed unwise to move all the accumu- lations of forty-two years of residence, and some of the schools' most cher- ished possessions are still in the old halls." Many notable educators have been the principals of the Classical and English High School; many of its graduates have risen high in the various walks of life. It has an annual enrollment of more than one thousand boys and girls.
The English High School, founded in 1892 on a broader scale than its name implies, was the forerunner of the High School of Commerce, which dates from 1914, when it replaced the English High School. An exchange of buildings was made at this time between the Worcester Classical School and the High School of Commerce. In 1901 the South High School was set up in a three-story building on Richards Street. Within four years additional quarters were needed, for the enrollment had increased from four hundred to more than a thousand. The North High School dates from October, 19II, and after two shifts of location, was established in its commodious quarters in September, 1916. Then there is the Worcester Evening High School; the Evening Practical Arts School, the Americanization School, and the Contin- uation School, with a total enrollment of above eight thousand students. The night school movement started as early as 1849, and the three original schools and four of later development, gave elementary instruction up to 1881. Nine years later there were an even dozen of these schools. In 1893 the first night high school was started in the Washington Street building. The Evening School Council was formed in 1921, with fifteen representatives from nine different nationalities. Its work has greatly increased the usefulness of these schools to the people of foreign birth.
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