Edwardsville spectator. [volume] (Edwardsville, Ill.) 1819-1826, 1820-12-26
MASSACHUSETTS, SCHOOLS.

MASSACHUSETTS, SCHOOLS.
Massachusetts is divided into $50
townships, each six miles square, and
subdivided into or 8 school districts,
making the number of districts in the
whole state $500. No scholar is obliged
to walk further than three fourths of
mile from the extremity to the centre of
the district, where the school is situated.
Each township is by law obliged to
raise money for schools not less than
800 dollars, if | mistake not, and as
much more as it deems proper: the
sums raised usually vary from to Is
hundred dollars, each township, accord
ing TO the ability Of its inhabitants, each
Of shon pays his proportion, not as a
contribution or subscription, but as tax
regularly assessed, as other taxes are,
for other purposes. Two methods of
distributing the money among the peo-
pie are used: lst the quantity received
by each is regulated by its number of
scholars I'd the district receives no
more than was raised in it. Generally
for three or four months in the winter, a
master is engaged at from ten to twenty
dollars per month and a mistress for
five or six months in the summer, at
from four to eight dollars per month";
A person who is not qualified to teach
Geography, Grammar, and not well re-
commended for his morals, etc. is forbid
under heavy penalties, by law, to take
charge Of a school. Thus the legisla-
ture becomes guardian and protector
ofils constituents. The expense ofsup-
POI ing these schoois, Goes uof on al
average, exceed three dollars per scholar
q year. The poor it costs nothing; and
the rich have no reason to complain
for the education OF the children of the
less than it does in the middle or
southern states. His gifts to the poor,
unlike other gifts, is accompanied with
the satisfaction that il cannot be abused.
But economy is one of the least benefits
arising from their system of education.
We behold 5000 schools in operation
at the same time: and as many young
masters or mistreses qualified to super
intend them the child as soon as it has
begun to walk and speak has some
thing to do; acquires habit Of order,
obedience, and above all, Of attention,
which influences his conduct through
life. The children of the poor, instead
of spending their time in idleness, be-
coming contemplate by their inability
to be useful, or being avoided for their
crimes; become industrious, frequently
respectable, and always useful members
of society. Education in one respect
putting the inhabitants on terms Of
equality; poverty, which because always
accompanied by ignorance is an insuper-
able barrier in other countries, is there
no obstacle to employments both honor
able and lucrative. Genius and talents
wherever found are encouraged and re-
warded. Many, very many young men,
have burst from the obscurity of their
situation, thrown as bright luminaries in
the literary and political horizon. We
are not surprised to see the laborer or
mechanic after the labor of the day,
amuse or instruct himself with news
paper or book and farmers spending
their long winter evenings with their
families around the cheerful fire side in
cleaning the contents OF their own or the
town library. We see circulating libra
ries established in all the towns. Many
not only are conversant in politics, but
in divinity, natural and moral philosophy.
Who can enumerate all the blessings
flowing from the fountain ola proper sys-
TEN of education ! Blessings which am
sure Massachusetts would not exchange
for all the rich productions of the south
and east and all the precious mines Of
Peru. Greens6urg Gazette.