USA > New York > Dutchess County > History of education in Dutchess County > Part 10
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The history of public education in Dutchess County re- flects the development of public education in the United States in general. The pattern for any period has been set by its needs. In the early days in America, the population was small and scattered, communication facilities were primitive, economic security was solely the responsibility of the family, and community life was restricted to isolated neighborhoods. We have changed from a rural-agrarian to an urban-industrialized society. Economy built around an individual or family as a self contained unit has largely dis- appeared.
Problems have been shifted from the family to the community. Social and physical health, welfare, safety, sanitation, communication, transportation, etc., are all now the problems of the community. In particular a tremendous change has come in the operation of the enterprise of public education. Growth of public schools has been large.
Educational opportunities in America in the mid-1800's were confined to the mechanistic and rudimentary study of reading, writing, arithmetic, English grammar, and spelling. College training was almost exclusively along philosophical and literary lines. Few professional schools were in exist- ence, with the exception of seminaries, and there were no
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public high schools, vocational, trade schools; little adult training and few nursery schools. The purpose of formal ed- ucation was the training of the mind. Science was recog- nized slowly and by 1850 science courses were found in the curriculum of most advanced colleges. More attention was also being devoted to history. The fundamental expansion of educational services was in evidence. Examination of his- tories and Board of Education reports in Dutchess County indicates that public education in the county followed the same general pattern.
The great expansion of educational opportunity was initiated during the period of 1850-1900, with the develop- ment of the high schools and professional schools. Compul- sory school attendance laws were passed, and time spent in school was increased. Many new subjects were being taught in school. In 1959 we can see many new schools throughout the county, a look in any school will show the vast changes from only a few years ago. In schools like the new Pough- keepsie High School, such courses as power sewing machine operation, beauty culture, window dressing, store operation, radio, auto mechanics, ceramics, and many similar courses are offered. In effect the modern high school offers, literally, a vocational program for those students desiring to learn a trade or career, and who cannot or do not desire a college education.
In the field of education there has been considerable change from the year 1716 when the first settlers came to the county and built a church crudely constructed of logs, which also served as their school.
Today our public educational system covers all areas of Dutchess County. Public schools are located close to all children thus enabling them to receive free education which our forefathers were unable to have.
Dutchess County has progressed rapidly in the edu- cational field, not only offering students free education, but to those who desire it many opportunities in private schools.
There are eleven colleges, one military academy, four schools of nursing, two private day schools, six nursery schools, nine boarding schools, four Catholic High Schools, fourteen elementary Catholic Schools, three elementary church schools sponsored by the Greek, Seventh-day Advent-
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ist and Russian Churches, one remedial school and three schools for retarded children. We also have the distinction of having the only business college between New York and Albany located in Poughkeepsie called "Krissler Business Institute."
This, then, is a brief history of education in Dutchess County, New York, from the 1700's to the present. What the future will bring only time will tell, but, judging by past events, it seems that the future of Dutchess County along educational lines will be just as radical, just as dramatic, and even more interesting than in the past.
Dutchess County citizens are aware of the importance of education for their children; they are, and have always been, willing to assume the burden of its support, they are increasingly alert to progressive trends ; and we do not think they will change. Education should continue to be an ex- citing development in the years to come in historic Dutchess County !
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APPENDIX
HISTORICAL CALENDAR
Elementary Education
1633-Elementary school established by Dutch (NY).
1642-Earliest colonial educational law passed (Mass.).
1647-"Old Deluder" Act passed (Mass.).
1651-Existence of dame school recorded in New Haven (Conn.).
1792-Grants of funds to sectarian schools forbidden by state consti- tution (N. H.).
1834-Free elementary education first adopted by a state (Penn.).
1837-"Common School revival," started by Horace Mann.
1852-First compulsory law for part-time school attendance passed (Mass.).
1890-First full-time compulsory school attendance law passed (Conn.).
1893-The six-six plan of school organization recommended by Com- mittee of Ten.
1896-Experimental school established at University of Chicago by John Dewey.
1918-Progressive Education Association started.
1918-Compulsory education made effective in all states.
1938-Federal grant for support of elementary education recommended by Advisory Committee on Education.
Calendar based on Chris DeYoung, Introduction to American Public Education, 169.
HISTORICAL CALENDAR
Secondary Education
1635-First Latin grammar school founded (Boston).
1751-Franklin Academy organized ( Philadelphia).
1821-First English High School started for boys (Boston).
1826-First high school organized for girls (Boston).
1856-First co-educational high school (Chicago).
1872-Taxation for secondary schools upheld by Kalamazoo High School Case (Mich.).
1884-Manual training high school started (Baltimore).
1893-Recommendations of Committee of Ten published as Report of Committee on Secondary School Studies.
1899-Recommendation of Committee on College Entrance Require- ments published.
1902-First public junior college founded (Joliet, Ill.).
1910-First junior high schools started (Berkeley, Calif., and Colum- bus, Ohio).
1918-Report on Commission on Reorganization of Secondary Educa- tion published.
1933-Reports of National Survey of Secondary Education published.
1933-Committee on Orientation of Secondary Education appointed.
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1933-Nearly a thousand secondary schools evaluated in Cooperative to Study of Secondary School Standards.
1939
1941-Results of eight-year study of Progressive Education Associa- tion published.
Based on Chris DeYoung, Introduction to American Public Education, 108.
Historical Calendar of Federal Activities in Education
1787-"Schools and the means of education shall be forever encour- aged" (Northwest Ordinance).
1788-"To promote the general welfare," (United States Constitution).
1791-Education reserved to states (Tenth Amendment).
1802-First Saline Land Grants made.
1803-Section 16 given for education in Ohio.
1818-Five per cent fund distributed ( first money grant to states).
1836-Distributive fund paid from national surplus.
1841-Internal improvement grants made by Congress to the various states.
1862-First Morrill Act passed (land grant for colleges).
1865-Freedmans Bureau created.
1867-Department of Education created.
1887-Hatch Act passed (agricultural experiment farms).
1917-Smith-Hughes Act ( vocational education).
1931-Report of National Advisory Committee on Education published.
1933-Emergency education grants started.
1936-George-Deen Act passed (vocational education).
1939-Office of Education transferred from Department of Interior to Federal Security Agency.
Based on Chris DeYoung, op. cit., 8-9.
HISTORICAL CALENDAR FOR DUTCHESS COUNTY
1609-Dutchess County first seen - by Henry Hudson.
1683-Dutchess County created out of province of New York - one of 12 original counties.
1701-County provisionally annexed to Ulster County.
1716-First School (established by Germans - Rhinebeck).
1716-Establishment of first churches in county - Poughkeepsie and Fishkill, Dutch Reformed; Rhinebeck, German Lutheran.
1717-Livingston Manor dropped from Dutchess County.
1740's-Establishment of Chauncy Graham's Academy - Brinkerhoffville. 1760-Hopewell School.
1780's-Establishment of Dutchess County Academy.
1795-An Act for Encouragement of Schools passed.
1796-Nine Partners Boarding School established-South Millbrook.
1800's-Poughkeepsie known as City of Schools.
1805-District School System initiated in Rhinebeck.
1812-Putnam County dropped from Dutchess.
1835-Poughkeepsie Collegiate School formed.
1840-Rhinebeck Academy opened.
1843-First public school in county - Poughkeepsie. 1860-DeGarmo Institute established.
1865-Spackenkill School District organized.
1920-Arlington District established.
1930's-First centralized schools in county - one of earliest - Pine Plains.
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1940-Dedieation of Hyde Park Central School by Franklin D. Roose- velt.
1940-Opening of Wappingers Central Sehool.
1941-Establishment of IBM in Dutchess County.
1951-Arlington centralized.
1956-Opening of Poughkeepsie High School on Forbus Street.
1958-Opening of Dutchess Community College.
1958-Our Lady of Lourdes High School was opened.
1959-Poughkeepsie Junior High School opened.
DIRECTORY OF DUTCHESS COUNTY SCHOOLS - 1959 BOARDING
Anderson School Staatsburg eo-educational, grades 3-12, post graduate 1-2, College prep.
Crow Hill School Rhinebeck
eo-educational, grades Kindergarten - 4 Clinton Corners
High Valley School co-educational, grades 1-9 Millbrook
Millbrook Sehool boys only, grades 8-12, college prep. Oakwood School Poughkeepsie eo-educational, grades 9-12, college prep.
Trinity-Pawling School Pawling boys only, grades 9-12, post grad. 1, college prep. Viewpoint School Amenia co-educational, grades 5-12, college prep.
BUSINESS
Krissler Business Institute
Poughkeepsie
CATHOLIC
ELEMENTARY SCHOOLS
Holy Trinity Poughkeepsie
Immaculate Conception
Amenia
Nativity School Poughkeepsie
Our Lady of Mt. Carmel Poughkeepsie
Regina Coeli Sehool Hyde Park
St. Joachim's Beacon
St. John's Beacon
St. Joseph's Millbrook
St. Joseph's
Poughkeepsie
St. Mary's
Poughkeepsie
St. Mary's Sehool Fishkill
St. Mary's School
Wappingers Falls
St. Peter's Poughkeepsie
St. Sylvia's
Tivoli
HIGH SCHOOLS
Fathers of the Blessed Sacrament Hyde Park
boys for priesthood
Marianist Preparatory School Beacon
High school for teachers
St. Joseph's Normal Institute Barrytown
boys for priesthood
Our Lady of Lourdes
Poughkeepsie co-educational
COLLEGES - Noviate - 1 yr.
Our Lady of Good Council
New Hamburg
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Ursulines Noviate for Nuns (Hiddenbrook Estate) Beacon COLLEGES - 2 yrs.
Eymard College Hyde Park
St. Andrew's-on-Hudson Poughkeepsie
COLLEGES - 4 yrs.
Marion College Poughkeepsie
Mt. Alvernia Seminary Wappingers Falls
COLLEGES - 6 yr.
St. Lawrence Monastery - (Theology and Philosophy) Beacon
CHURCH - co-educational. grades 1-8
Greek Church School Poughkeepsie
Russian Church School Poughkeepsie
Seventh-day Adventist Church School Poughkeepsie
COLLEGES
COMMUNITY
Dutchess Community College Poughkeepsie 2 yrs., co-educational, under N. Y. State University
FOUR-YEAR
Bard College Annandale-on-Hudson
4 yrs., co-educational, Liberal Arts, private
Poughkeepsie
Vassar College
4 yrs., women, Liberal Arts, private
JUNIOR
Bennett Junior College Millbrook 2 yrs., women, Liberal Arts, private
DAY SCHOOLS
Dutchess Day School Millbrook co-educational, grades 1-8, also some boarding students
Poughkeepsie Day School Poughkeepsie co-educational, grades 1-9, day only
EMOTIONALLY DISTURBED
P. S. 619-M at Astor Home Rhinebeck co-educational boarding, grades 1-12, part of N. Y. City school system
HOME
Greer School Millbrook grades 1-12, co-educational, boarding, for children from broken homes
MILITARY
Cardinal Farley Military Academy Rhinecliff
NURSERY - pre-kindergarten, non-sectarian
Bard College Nursery School Annandale-on-Hudson
Bennett Junior College Nursery School Millbrook
Christ Church Nursery School Poughkeepsie First Presbyterian Nursery School Poughkeepsie Poughkeepsie Day Nursery Poughkeepsie
Wimpfheimer Nursery School -- ( Vassar College) Poughkeepsie
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NURSING
Harlem Valley State Hospital School of Nursing Wingdale
Hudson River State Hospital School of Nursing Poughkeepsie St. Francis Hospital School of Nursing Poughkeepsie Vassar Hospital School of Nursing Poughkeepsie
PUBLIC SCHOOL DISTRICTS
CENTRAL
Arlington Poughkeepsie
Hyde Park
Hyde Park
Millbrook
(Washington District #1) Millbrook
Pawling
Pawling
Pine Plains
Pine Plains
Red Hook
Red Hook
Rhinebeck
Rhinebeck
Wappingers
Wappingers Falls
Webutuck
(Northeast District #1) Amenin
CITY
Beacon
Poughkeepsie
COMMON - Active
Red School (Fishkill District #4) Fishkill
Wappingers District #4
Chelsea-Brockway
COMMON - inactive
Clinton District #9
Red Hook District #7
UNION FREE
Dover Plains (District #2) Dover Plains
Fishkill District #3
Glenham
Spackenkill (Poughkeepsie District #2) Poughkeepsie
Staatsburg (Hyde Park District #2) Staatsburg
Tivoli (Red Hook District #3) Tivoli
REMEDIAL
Maplebrook School
Amenia co-educational, grades 1-8, boarding
RETARDED
Fishkill
Little Red School House Poughkeepsie
co-educational, nursery and educable retarded, day only
Rhinebeck Country School Rhinebeck
co-educational, grades 1-9, also for emotionally troubled, boarding only
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Fairview School boarding only
ORGANIZATION AND ADMINISTRATION OF PUBLIC EDUCATION#
WE, THE PEOPLE
ELECT
ELECT
ELECT
ELECT
President of the United States
-
appoints
Federal Security Administration
directs
Commissioner of Education
Governor of State
appoints
State Board of Education
appoints
State Commissioner of Education
County Board of Education
appointa
County Superintendent
Local Board of Education
appoints
Superintendent of Schools
recommends
Teachers
Connects chief educational officers. The above chart shows the organization and administration of public education on a National. State, County, and local basis. "Based on chart, page 3, Introduction to American Education, De Young, McGraw- Hill
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FAMOUS EARLY EDUCATORS WHO HAD INFLUENCE ON THE AMERICAN SYSTEM OF PUBLIC EDUCATION*
MARTIN LUTHER: (1483-1546) Luther was born on the 10th of November, 1483, at Eisleben, Germany. He came from the free peasant class.
In regards to education, Luther placed great stress upon the dignity of the individual. In his treatise on "The Christian Liberty" he wrote :
Nor are we only kings and the freest of all men, but also priests forever, a dignity far higher than kingship, be- cause by that priesthood we are worthy to appear before God, to pray for others, and to teach one another mutually the things which are God.1
Luther also taught that the Bible was the ultimate source of religious truth, which made education a necessity. Man now had a reason for education. If he was to be his own priest and if the Bible was to be his guide, then he could not fulfill his life's mission unless he was able to read. This led to a great spread in education.
JOHN AMOS COMENIUS: (1592-1671) Comenius was born at Nivnitz in Moravia. He attended the village school and at the age of 15 entered the grammar school at Prerau. The schools of the day were very poor and Comenius was dissatisfied with them.
Comenius, who became a bishop in his church, lived for seventy-nine years, mostly in exile. He gave all his thought and energy to the advancement of mankind through religion and education. He chose to be a priest but spent most of his life as an educator and wrote a great many books in both fields.
While in exile he was in charge of a school at Lissa, Poland. He worked in Sweden, England, then went back to
* Biographies based mainly on material in Frasier, Introduction to American Public Education.
I F. V. N. Painter, Luther on Education, Lutheran Publication Society. Phil., 1889.
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Sweden again, and on to Hungary and finally to Amsterdam where he completed his life work.
Comenius was without doubt the greatest educator of his century. In fact many of his ideas are incorporated in our present educational system. He proposed a method of grading based on the growth and development of children. His plan called for a single track educational program which applied to the boys and girls of all classes. He rejected the idea of one school system for upper class children and another for children of the lower classes. Comenius wrote in the "Great Didactic," "Everyone ought to receive a univer- sal education and this at school."
The most important educational proposal made by Comenius concerned the organization of a school system. He proposed four levels of education. Each stage was to be a different kind of school, and each school was to be six years in length. Roughly the division corresponded to his concep- tion of the four periods in the life of a growing child.
There should be a mother's school, in the home, for children from birth to age 6. There should be a vernacular school in every village for all children from 6 to 12. There should be a gymnasium in every city for children from 12 to 18. The gymnasium was to be followed by six years at the university.
He also thought that education should follow nature, and that it should proceed from the simple to the more diffi- cult. He felt that children should learn to do by doing. He also put much emphasis on the practical things; he wished to eliminate all useless materials. He made a plea for gentle discipline in place of the brutal methods that were common in his time.
JEAN JACQUES ROUSSEAU: (1712-78) Rousseau was an educational pioneer. He revolted against the relig- ious, educational, social, and governmental conditions of the time. His influence was felt in America, and much that was written at the time of the American Revolution drew heavily on Rousseau's ideas. He advocated the overthrow of the existing autocratic government in France and the establish-
2 Will S. Monroe, Comenius, Charles Scribners & Sons, N. Y., 1900, 78.
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ment of a Republic. He believed in universal suffrage based on : "Liberty, fraternity, and equality."
In the field of education, Rousseau's ideas were just as radical. He protested against the stern, unreal, and artificial schools of his time, in which little boys were treated as small men. Education was meaningless. The methods were stiff and unnatural. There was excessive emphasis on religious instruction and book education. Like Comenius a century before, Rousseau preached the substitution of life amid na- ture, childish problems, ways and sports.
Rousseau believed that education was the remedy for the ills of society and that in the process of education the child should be the center of gravity. According to Rous- seau, the child was to be considered a child and taught as a child rather than a miniature adult. His chief concern was to provide the child with real, vital, concrete experiences. Rousseau's educational program was concerned with the child's physical and mental life.
JOHANN HEINRICH PESTALOZZI: (1746-1827) Pestalozzi was born in Zurich, Switzerland. As a young man he came under the influence of the teachings of Rousseau. He tried out Rousseau's methods of teaching, first on his own children, and discovered many shortcomings. In 1774 he established a school on his farm, which was conducted for two years, until the family funds ran out, and the school had to be closed. But out of it, Pestalozzi received a firm belief in the power of education, and found answers to many pressing educational problems of the day. He later undertook many different teaching positions, which took him from one place to another. His last position was as director of the institute which he established at Yverdon and conducted for twenty years. Here he demonstrated with children the methods that were to make him famous.
Pestalozzi begins his teaching with nature and the five senses. But he did not trust nature as Rousseau did. He be- lieved that sense impression of nature is the only true foundation of human instruction, because it is the only true foundation of knowledge. There should be a sequence in the instruction the child receives, so that beginning and prog- ress should keep pace with the beginning and progress of the powers to be developed in the child.
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Pestalozzi also wrote a guide for teaching spelling, and another for teaching reading. His contributions to educa- tion were largely along philosophical lines, and the relation- ship of the teacher to the child.
The teaching method of Pestalozzi spread first to Prus- sia, then to other European countries and later to the United States.
FRIEDRICH FROEBEL: (1782-1852) Froebel was the son of an orthodox Lutheran minister, who had an un- happy home life. He was not a successful pupil at the vil- lage school, but he was able to attend Jena, the foremost uni- versity in Germany, again with little success. The most im- portant thing that happened to him was his work with Pesta- lozzi at Yverdon. Froebel remained at Yverdon for two years, first as a pupil and later as a teacher. His educational philosophy was profoundly affected by Rousseau and Comen- ius as well as by Pestalozzi.
In 1837 Froebel opened his first kindergarten in Blank- enburg and this became his greatest contribution to educa- tion. Froebel said that the object of the kindergarten was to give the children employment in agreement with their whole nature, to strengthen their bodies, to exercise their senses, to engage their awakening minds, and through their senses to bring them acquaintance with nature and their fel- low creatures.
Froebel spent the last years of his life with his kinder- garten. He also established a school for kindergarten teach- ers.
Froebel's two main principles, self-activity and social participation, are very important today. Music, supervised play, drawing, group work, singing, dancing, dramatics, handwork, and many other activities in the modern school are part of the school for little children planned so well by Froebel more than a century ago.
JOHANN FRIEDRICH HERBART: (1776-1841) Herbart was a German professor and a contemporary of both Pestalozzi and Froebel. He spent most of his life as a university professor of philosophy and education. Herbart was first and foremost a scholar, he did not share with Pes- talozzi and Froebel their passionate desire to help the poor and needy. He established the first demonstration school in connection with a university and taught a small selected
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group of children. His teaching and writing were done at the Universities of Göttingen and Königsberg.
Herbart based his educational theories upon ethics and psychology. He laid down definitely at the outset that the one supreme aim of education is the development of moral character. He worked in the fields of psychology and meth- od and was for many years called the father of modern psy- chology and modern method.
Although Herbart was another great pioneer in the field of education, his ideas did not last long. In the field of psychology, Herbart believed that the mind functioned as a unit instead of being divided into "faculties." It was in the field of educational method that Herbart made his greatest contribution. He and his followers worked out a system to make teaching an orderly and scientific process. This system included five formal steps in teaching, namely: (1) prepara- tion, (2) presentation, (3) comparison, (4) conclusion, and (5) application.
It should be pointed out that this plan calls for in- ductive thinking. Herbart's mistake was in assuming that all teaching could be made to fit this pattern. Those who followed his plan soon found that teaching in accordance with it was often formal and not of any great value. From the standpoint of modern educational philosophy, the plan's greatest fault is that it is always the teacher's problem that the children are solving.
THOMAS JEFFERSON: (1743-1826) Jefferson was born in Virginia and lived on a large estate, except for his years in public service. Jefferson had faith in democracy and the rights of the common man. Therefore it is only natural that he had much interest in education. He be- lieved that man was created to govern himself, and that edu- cation was necessary in a democracy. Otherwise how could man govern himself, if he could not understand the economic and political problems around him ?
In 1779, while a member of the Virginia legislature, Jefferson introduced a bill providing for free public educa- tion in his state. This bill, which he called "A Bill for the More General Diffusion of Knowledge," was the first definite proposal in America for the establishment of a state system of public schools. Since this was Virginia, an area where
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not many believed in free or public education, the bill was defeated. However, Jefferson did live to see the University of Virginia established, and his plan for separating the church from the state was successful.
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