belief in the minds of many schoolmasters. How those schoolmasters obeyed the teachings!

Who were the teachers of the older children in the eighteenth century?

The conditions in the early 1700's were much the same as those of the latter part of the 1600's. The teacher remained the same honest, God-fearing person (with some exceptions of course) whose chief duty it was to instruct his charges in religion, reading, writing, and arithmetic. Not all the teachers of this period were high-minded, but most of them were. Records show that one Dutch schoolmaster was tried for drinking, slander, and other forms of misconduct. Many of the teachers of the time were men, usually employed for their ability to keep order. Women taught only the younger children in schools known as the dame schools. Teachers were given very little training, if any. The qualifications of most teachers included their ability to keep school regardless of what they taught.

Where were the better teachers educated in the eighteenth century?

As time went on conditions improved. Some of the more fortunate villages boasted Harvard or Yale students as teachers. The pay in the profession was very small; not many people desired to become teachers. The duties of the teacher ranged from those of janitor of his own schoolhouse to preacher for the church when the local parson was absent. Most of the teachers of the early Latin grammar schools had been educated in England. They were not only college graduates, but also experienced men in their profession. Harvard University supplied good teachers for the Colonies. Of course, the schoolmasters had to know their Latin, but they also had to be expert pen makers. If the teacher couldn't make or mend the students' goose-quill pens, he was considered a failure at his profession. Can you picture spending a day in a Latin grammar school like the one given in the motion picture, The Howards of Virginia?

The master of the Southern Latin grammar school, dressed in black, entered the schoolroom. Immediately there was a scuffle and then an expectant hush. The young boys within had scattered to their respective seats, snatched up their Latin books, and then were gazing guiltily at the intruder. The person who silently sat down at the teacher's desk was not a pretty young miss nor a delightfully softhearted older miss. Never! The teacher was a stern, middle-aged

man.

All this was happening in Virginia while Indian uprisings were being squelched in Ohio. That day war stories had been filling the heads of those boys instead of Latin translations. As a result, their master happened upon a scene in which Matthew Howard, one of the boys of the school, was excitingly describing a battle. The

silence became unbearable. The boys began to squirm. Slowly the schoolmaster opened his book. He selected the page and the section to be studied. When he assigned it to his class, there was a nervous leafing of pages. Then silence!

"Scan the first sentence, Master Howard," said the master, finally choosing a victim, the suspected ringleader of the disorder.

A boy of about 12 years arose rather unsteadily. He gulped and looked blankly at his open book.

"Go on," the schoolmaster urged mercilessly.

"Quicquam," stammered Matt. "Quicquam

He struggled through the rest of the sentence, then sat down with a sigh of relief. But he was not to remain relieved. The schoolmaster continued to direct his glare at the young culprit.

"Now translate," he said. It was like a death sentence.

Master Howard stood up again and began to translate: "Whowho

The master increased the force of his glare. In order to save his good friend, Thomas Jefferson (one day to become President of our country) prompted, "Whatever." But poor Matthew misunderstood him, and lamely began with: "Where or when

At this point the schoolmaster intervened.

"Whatever you do," he bellowed, "do with all your might. Come up here, Master Howard."

The boy got up.

"Bring that piece of paper with you. deeply interested in before I came in."

The one everyone was so

Taking the paper from Matt, he looked at it and questioned its meaning. Matthew told his teacher about the Indians in Ohio and how the Virginians were defeating them. But the schoolmaster was not satisfied.

"Turn around," he commanded.

The master reached a strong arm for a bunch of switches. Thoroughly angry at Master Howard, he lashed the boy. In measured strokes he beat him with the switches, repeating: "Whatever you do, do with all your might."

Such was one Latin class eighteenth century boys attended, as shown in the motion picture, The Howards of Virginia.

How did the public schools come about?

While the Puritans had complete control of early education in New England, there was a mixture of different church groups in the Middle Colonies (that is, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Delaware, Maryland, and Virginia) and no one sect was in control of all of the schools. At first the State governments did nothing about public education, but depended upon the various churches and private agencies to provide for the education of the children. Each church group did as it wished.

In some of the Colonies, particularly in Virginia, there was a belief that free public education was intended for orphans and poor children only, and that children of the upper and middle classes should be taught in private schools, where they paid tuition, or in their own homes by private tutors. These colonists believed that the education of the poor children was a matter of church charity and was no affair of the State. The church schools for poor children were called pauper schools and were very unpopular with the majority of the people, especially those who could not afford to send their children to other schools and did not want to brand them as paupers. After stiff fights in Pennsylvania and New Jersey, and later, in the other States, the legislatures were forced to order free public schools in all the districts (in Pennsylvania, as early as 1848). In the beginning it was common for the State to aid church schools without establishing separate public schools.

How did many of the colleges and universities get started in early America?

The early Greeks and Romans had a very high type of education and had profited by lessons from great teachers like Plato and Aristotle. In the Middle Ages there had been formed groups or guilds of students and teachers who banded together to study, inspired by a common love of learning and a desire for knowledge. The term "university" was applied to these societies of scholars and masters that grew up in certain cities of Italy, as well as in Paris, in Oxford, and in Cambridge, during the twelfth and thirteenth centuries. Because the students were interested in education they formed groups to require the presence of their professors at all classes. These students also demanded that the professors give them regular examinations and that they cover the material in their books completely. The professors had to be well qualified, and the certificate to teach became the first form of degree granted. In return, the professors formed groups or "colleges" and these colleges set up certain qualifications as requirements, no student being able to enter without the consent of the college. Thus arose the formal organization of universities with the system of entrance requirements, prescribed courses of study, and degrees, which has lasted for more than 700 years and which continues in some form today.

When the colonists began to think of colleges, it was natural for them to choose an English model. This choice was important in the development of American colleges. Today our institutes of higher learning scarcely resemble British Oxford and Cambridge, but at one time there was little difference between English and American colleges. The earliest English universities had been modeled upon the medieval universities, but American universities were patterned after the English institutions; they have since developed into forms characteristically American.

Harvard, the first college in America, was established in 1636. Many of the Puritan leaders were educated men, and the people, as a whole, were not only anxious to continue the tradition of learning, but, being deeply religious, wanted to provide schools for the training of clergymen for their churches. As church and state were closely connected at this time, leaders in the church were also leaders in the government of the communities; thus, their education was of great importance. The Massachusetts court which appropriated 400 pounds for the founding of Harvard is said to have been the first body in the history of the world in which the people, by their representatives, ever gave their own money to found a school for higher education. The chief purpose, of course, in establishing Harvard was to prepare ministers for the Congregational Church. Some were ready to go into their profession at 15 years of age.

Just as in England, all the students had to live in the college dormitory. Those were the days when discipline was one thing a student learned in college, if nothing else. In fact, one time a student was refused his Master of Arts degree because he had snubbed his fellow students. Imagine an American college today refusing a degree to the college grouch!

Not to be outdone by Massachusetts Colony, the other colonies began to establish colleges. The new colleges that cropped up during the eighteenth century were alike in most respects. The usual admission requirements were these: To be able to read and speak Latin and to have a knowledge of Greek grammar.

What happened to education during the Revolutionary War Period?

Everything was going along well when the Revolutionary War broke out. Education in the Colonies then suffered seriously. It was no longer safe for the children to go to school, even if there were schools open. The teachers no longer had time to rap smartly on the desk and bellow: "Parse that sentence, Master So-and-so!" Instead the very important business of waging war with England had to be undertaken. All the great minds of the Thirteen Colonies were employed with war. Teachers, of course, were summoned to the defense of their country. Some were given responsible positions of state. At this time, schools taught by British subjects, using British methods, were resented by the colonists. Eventually they closed such schools. In many cases, these were the only schools in a community. During the war, in all but a few private or charity schools, education had come to a standstill. By the end of the eighteenth century these were the only schools in existence. Illiteracy was increasing rapidly.

After the war, the colonists had little time to notice their lack of education. They had a new government to create; they had homes to build; and the pioneers had new homes to find.