BENNY-DICTION ON-LINE!
Volume 11, Number 2, On-Line Edition, May 23, 1999
BENNY-DICTION ON-LINE!
Volume 11, Number 2, On-Line Edition, May 23, 1999
Education Was Harsh and Strict by Aurora D. '04
Education in the colonial period was harsh and strict. Some of the things that were done then to punish children are unimaginable today. At first, only boys were allowed to attend school. But after the Revolutionary War, girls were allowed to attend two out of the eight regular school hours. The masters, or teachers, would hurt their students intentionally, if they thought the children did something wrong. The purpose of going to school was to learn to read the bible for church, so school and religion had a tight bond. Sometimes the masters would hurt the students so badly that boys would drop out of grammar school. If children didn't attend school, they might pick up reading in church or from a primer at home.
Schooling in the colonies began when Puritans decided that their children should be properly educated so that they could read the bible. This led to the opening of the first secondary school in America, the Boston Latin, in 1635. One year later the first college was built. It was named Harvard College. Harvard is in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and it was established to educate future ministers.
The colonists had a few tools to help children learn to read. The first book a child started with was a hornbook. A hornbook was a single piece of paper with a handle. It had the ABC's, the Lord's Prayer, and letter combinations for a student to practice. After the hornbook, students would be in reading a primer. The primer was a book with short passages, like reading fluencies. It was printed in 1690. When students learned the primer, they would begin reading the bible. Most boys dropped out before they could even read the bible. To learn subjects like Latin and Greek, students needed to attend college.
Discipline in colonial schools was very strict. The master would be very hard on the kids and would embarrass them intentionally. Puritans didn't mind that their children were treated like this. In fact, they thought that a school day without discipline was a waste of time. A student who came to school without knowing his lesson would be called a dunce boy, and he would have to wear a dunce hat and sit in the corner. An inattentive student would have to wear a sign around his neck that said "Idle Boy." Nail biters would have to wear signs saying "Bite Finger Baby." Punishments were made to embarrass boys or hurt them physically. No one thought that learning should be fun.
Now Massachusetts has over 100 colleges and universities. Boston has become one of the world's best learning centers. Boston colleges are so popular that the city's population increases 250,000 each school year.
I am happy that I didn't live in colonial times. I would feel that I was being neglected if people told me I didn't have the ability to read just because I am a girl. It's amazing how far schooling has come.