Colonial Education

Colonial Education • Schoolroom was located at the edge of town and teacher would live in it • Every child from the town would go to the same school. • Classroom was heated with a fireplace • Students used a quill pen and ink. • Students normally had slate boards which were little boards that the students could hold and wipe off • Students also had hornbooks which were wooden paddles with a paper with numbers, the alphabet, a sentence, or a Bible verse or prayer attached to the board. • The teacher was called a schoolmaster; if a boy, and school-mistress, if a girl. • Most girls didn’t go to school past the sixth grade and boys stayed until the eighth grade and a few were able to go to college. • Discipline was very strict. The teacher would crack fingers, put the student in a corner with a dunce hat, or even spank them. The girls swept the schoolroom and the boys gathered firewood. They helped keep the school warm and clean.

Christopher Lamb’s Colonial Classroom

• Served 5 year apprenticeship before accepting position to teach • Unorthodox style of teaching • Teacher called students “Lazy Pupil” if they did not have assignment memorized or made mistakes in reading • Other students would assist in taunting the “Lazy Pupil” and reminding the student of their mistake • If students would learn their lesson then they would go from being called “Lazy Pupil” to being called “Diligent” • Lamb rejected rod approach and instead used rewards and punishment

Colonial New England Education

• Religion played a big role in education • New England was the cradle of American Education • Education was a path to heaven, reading, writing, and moral development • Education often started at home and the family was the major educational resource for the kids • Children 1st learned reading, values, manners, social graces, and vocational skills • Most women would turn their homes into schools and so the women were known as “dames” and their schools were called “dame schools” • Dame-well respected woman with interest in education • The dames taught reading, writing, and computations