Education

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Education ** __Teachings__ ** -[|Reading], Writing, and Arithmetic - Everything was memorized and recited - There was no critical thinking, free expression, or thought - Outside of the Classroom - At Vocational Schools
 * (Everyone was required to at the least know how to read to be able to read the Bible)
 * Boys were taught farming skills
 * Girls were taught to spin weave and [|sew]
 * This was meant to teach kids basic life skills
 * Boys were taught navigation, seafaring, surveying, shipbuilding, mathematics, accounting, and business
 * Girls were taught the "female arts", piano, voice, French, dancing, needlework, and painting

- The majority of teachers were male - Very few women at this time went into teaching - They were extremely poor - They were19 or 20-year old Harvard graduates - In many cases children were instead homeschooled by their parents or neighbor's parents
 * __Teachers(Schoolmasters) __**

- Thump on the back of the wrist - Slap with the ruler on palm of hand [|- Suspension] if parents failed to pay school tuition
 * __PUNISHMENT__ **

- There was no real structure in these first schools - There was no set time teachers would teach certain subjects, hence they had no schedule - They taught by personal preference - There were no grades for children of different ages - They also did not have a schedule for the entire school year
 * __Classes __**
 * Students of all different ages were put in one class, youngest in the front to oldest in the back
 * It was common for older kids to drop out
 * Thus the class was shaped in a triangle from front to back decreasing by age
 * Classes were held year round
 * They had rare and short vacations



- Types of schools were based on the size of the town - The number of students in grammar schools and colleges were never very large because not many families could afford to send them to both - There were also Vocational schools where students went to learn labor skills of all sorts - School dames were held in rented rooms or meetings houses in which women would teach their children and those of others 2-3 years old - The most common grammar school of this time was Boston Latin school - Many of our best colleges were constructed at this time - 1638 they opened their first college, [|Harvard] college - Soon after two other colleges that are now considered Ivy League schools were opened
 * __Types of Schools__ **
 * If it held 50 families or less they only had a reading school
 * If it held 100 families or more they had a [|grammar] school that they attended for 7 years to prepare them for college
 * Yale in 1701
 * Brown in 1764

__School Conditions__ - Generally small, dark, poor quality drafty [|buildings] - Within the building there was a central room, a foyer and a loft - Desks were made out of rough planks - Seats were backless filled with splinters and gummy resin - There was a fireplace that provided light and heat

- There were no levels of education within each school itself - School was not organized enough at this time to have the divisions by grade as we do now
 * __Levels of Education__ **
 * again everyone was put together in one class and was taught the same thing
 * The only difference in levels was when transitioning from grammar school to college



- Parents paid school tuition with wood for the fireplace in the winter when it was most needed - They also paid for school through government taxes - It was expensive to send children to both secondary school and college - Many parents could not afford to pay so much money
 * __Costs__ **

- Religion was the base of all education during this period - They learned to read from the Bible - Learned to write by writing verses from the Bible - They were to memorize parts of the Bible - Thus learned to live exactly like the Bible taught/told them to
 * __Religions Role In Education__ **

- Students attained and used the basic life skills needed - However many students did not follow in their religious teachings - Many were found doing things "unholy" and self-pleasing out of the classroom - Such behavior was frowned upon by their schoolmasters when they witnessed it
 * __Religions Affect on Students __**

- Religion is not implemented in the school curriculums of today - Religion is no longer required to be taught at schools; on the contrary other than in private schools it is not allowed - Therefore a student's education now is very different then before
 * __Religion’s Importance in Education __** **__Then __** **__vs. __** **__Now __**
 * There are religious education classes available to anyone who wants it but only at churches or other religious places
 * It is now considered a choice to believe rather than a requirement
 * Everyone has a right to their own beliefs without judgment or punishment
 * The Bible and other God related subjects are no longer the focus of one's education
 * Presently there are so many different religions it is too controversial to teach in schools

= **__Bibliography__** = [] __ [] __ [] //**__[|Daily life in colonial New England]__** //
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