Education of Negroes and Indians urged and effected
An organization, of itself, performs nothing. Its accomplishments depend on men who have purposes, and the determination and ability to execute them. A considerable number of such men were members of Friends, and expressed themselves definitely on education. Such leaders as Penn, Fothergill, Fox, Banks, Chalkley, Crisp, Crouch, Pastorius, Benezet and others as important, were responsible for its educational guidance and in the end, accomplishments. From a study of their expressions it appears that the criticisms, concerning the Quakers’ antipathy to education, are without foundation, and arose, for the most part, from their statement that a classical education was not essential for a minister. The life and the education of most of them attest the fact that they sought a higher education for themselves and promoted it for others. Not only for their own society, but for the rich and poor of others, were efforts made to establish schools. The education of Indians and Negroes was similarly urged both on the part of individuals and the organization. The tangible results of their efforts in this regard were seen in the various local meetings.
Schools established
School affairs in care of committees
Number of schools in Pennsylvania
In the establishment of schools, the direction lay in the hands of the yearly meeting. Philadelphia Yearly Meeting’s advices on that subject, for the first half century, were very general in nature and seemingly of little import to the various lower meetings. A development is noticed, however, toward a definite plan for schools to be established. The advices of 1746 and continuing thereafter, 1750, 1751, 1753, 1755, 1778, and following, are definite in their ideas as to what should be done, and the persistency with which they were urged in the meetings, where all school affairs came to be attended to by committees, seems to have effected tangible results. Committee reports on educational conditions increased greatly in definiteness after 1777, which allows a better estimate to be made of what was done. From such reports it is estimated that by the end of the century there were sixty or seventy schools established “according to direction” given by the yearly meeting. Many others are reported in various meetings, which did not measure up in any great degree to the standards set.
The Master
These standards[1339] (stated elsewhere in this work) demanded a high moral quality in masters and mistresses, as well as training in the subjects to be taught. From a study of the manuscript records and newspapers it appears that the moral standards, met by Quaker masters, were as high, and, in Philadelphia, perhaps higher than those of the other private school masters. The cases of open lawlessness are at least more numerous in the latter case. The degree of preparation for teaching ranged from the highest, the best college trained men of the day, to the lowest, those who possessed a most elementary education.
Curriculum similar to that in private schools
The opportunities offered for study, both in the lower and in the Classical School, were at all times equal at least to those of the other schools of the day.