INTERIOR OF SCHOOLROOM, SLEEPY HOLLOW, N. Y.
(Courtesy of The School Journal, New York.)
The master set the copies by writing a lesson which was to be imitated by the pupils. There was no set style, but usually the teacher wrote a bold, legible hand which in time was acquired with a fair degree of success. Arithmetic was taught without text-books. Sums were given out by the master and worked out on paper on the desk. Nothing but the more rudimentary principles was taught, and the higher branches of algebra and geometry were unknown in the public schools of this time. Spelling was one of the favorite studies. It gave free scope for the memory, and provided an opportunity for one of those public exhibitions in which Americans have always delighted. “Spelling on the book,” says Wickersham, “was taught by attempting to lead the pupil to give the names of syllables and words by naming the letters of which they are composed. The first lesson consisted of combinations of a word with one or more consonants, arranged so that a kind of rhyme aided the pronunciation, as ab, eb, ib, etc.” ... “Spelling off the book” consisted in naming the letters of words pronounced for that purpose. But the chief enjoyment of spelling came from the old-fashioned contests, or “spelling-bees.” Sometimes it was to discover the best speller of the district; again, one district might be pitted against another. The spellers would be arranged in two rows. The first word would be given to the first speller on one side, the next to his rival, the third to his comrade, and so on. If one missed a word, he at once took his seat; presently the contest would narrow down to a few, until at last all would have missed save one, and he or she became the champion speller.
The teachers of the time formed a group of varied attainments, and oftentimes with little professional enthusiasm. Teaching has always suffered from the fact that a great number of young men enter upon its practice, who use it merely as a stepping-stone to some other and more attractive pursuit. The number of those who have taught a few terms, in order to save money for a college, law, or medical course is legion; and this fact has laid the profession open to the reproach that only the unambitious and the unalert follow it permanently. In the early days of our country’s history, this stigma was intensified by the number of “itinerant schoolmasters,” men who wandered from place to place, teaching a term in one village and then moving to the next,—“odd in dress, eccentric in manners, and oftentimes intemperate.” Their work was simple in its nature; they were to keep order and to teach the rudiments. Their methods in the latter have already been referred to; for the former, they relied, almost universally, upon the unsparing use of the rod.
The wisdom of the practice of flogging has only been questioned in the latter part of this century. In the early days it was the one recognized punishment, even for students whose maturity and attainments would suggest an appeal to reason. With this mode of punishment was associated a more or less ingenious series of devices, such as the dunce-block, the fools’ cap, etc., all calculated to bring the offender into ridicule, but utterly destructive of that good feeling between teacher and pupil, upon which so much stress is laid to-day.
In the course of the century the old-fashioned school has either passed away or else has been modified materially. To-day it is to be found in only sparsely settled districts, while in the cities and in the more cultured neighborhoods one finds carefully planned systems of education that show the fruits of the study and direction of some of the keenest minds that our country has produced. While it is impossible in the space of a single chapter to refer to all the changes, yet some of the most important will be considered.
A.
In Adam’s Fall,
We sinned all.
B.
This Book attend,
Thy Life to mend.
C.
The Cat doth play,
And after slay.
D.
The Dog doth bite
A Thief at Night.
E.
An Eagle’s flight
Is out of sight.
F.
The Idle Fool,
Is whipt at School.
G.
As runs the Glass,
Man’s Life doth pass.
H.
My Book and Heart
Shall never part.
I.
Jesus did dye,
For thee and I.
K.
King Charles the Good,
No man of Blood.
L.
The Lyon bold,
The Lamb doth hold.
M.
The Moon gives Light,
In time of Night.
N.
Nightingales sing,
In time of Spring.
O.
The Royal Oak our King did save,
From fatal stroke of Rebel Slave.
P.
Peter denies
His Lord, and cries.
Q.
Queen Esther came in Royal State,
To save the Jews from dismal fate.
R.
Rachel doth mourn
For her first-born.
S.
Samuel anoints
Whom God appoints.
T.
Time cuts down all,
Both great and small.
U.
Uriah’s beauteous Wife,
Made David seek his Life.
W.
Whales in the Sea
God’s voice obey.
X.
Xerxes the Great did die,
And so must you and I.
Y.
Youth’s forward slips
Death soonest nips.
Z.
Zaccheus, he
Did climb the Tree,
His Lord to see.