The Middlebury register. [volume] (Middlebury, Vt.) 1850-1882, 1855-02-21
Education in Vermont.

city of N. Y, after the expiration Of
100 ycars,is still in prosperous state.
1t is under the charge of a Dutch lady,
consists Of about 200 scholars, is week.
ly visited and catcchised by the pastors
of the church under whose patronage
it is. and it still bears the Puritanical
impress of its benevolent originators.
However the boldest innovation up
on all pre,existing policy and usages,
ever known since the commencement
Of the Christian era-thc introduction
and establishment Of q system of ropu-
lar education. was the noble work Of
the Pilgrim Fathers, who colonized
Massachusetts Bay. They adopted di-
rect and expensive measures to edu,
cate the rising generation, and to train
up the whole body polite, to industry,
to intelligence, to virtue, and to indie
pendent thought. They had little
wealth and of course very limited
means but whatever they had seems
to have been held sacred to the acqui.
sition of the treasure--infcrior TO moth.
ing except holiness of moral nature-a
disciplined and enlightened mind. The
first entry in the public record in the
city of Boston was made Sept. 1884.
About 6 months later, in April 1875,
the following entry is found, at VAS
generally agreed upon. that our broth
er Pl.lamon Purmont shall be instruct
ed to become our school master, for
the teaching and nurturing children
with u.s." AS an inducement, besides
other fees paid by the parents, tract
of 30 acres of land was given him by
the government. About the same time
an assignment of garden plot was
made to Mr.. Daniel Maude, school
master, upon condition of building
thereon. From this date "thcse gold
en- threads are thickly interviewer in
the texture of all the public records Of
Boston," And the grand results may
be learned from the history of Mass.
for more than two centuries. The y
may be oonjectured by such facts as
these. In Boston the appropriations
for school purposes in 1854, as before
stated, were one fourth of the annual
tax, that is, $437 600. The amount
paid for new school houses, in that cit
in 1858, was $4,000. In the state.
the amount annually raised by school
tax, to educate the 100000 children
who attend school, is about $3.50, 900.
Here is seen the fruit Of the correct
beginning and of the energetic prose
cution Of the noble enterprise Of popu-
lar, universal education.
But more extended examination o.
Massachusetts records cannot be con-
sidered irrelevant to the design O.
these letters. in 1912, a Law was
passed which required the municipa
authorities to see that every chile
within their respective jurisdictions
should be educated. BY the terms o.
this act the selectmen Of every town
were required to shave a vigilant eye
over their brother neighbors-to sec
first that none of them should suffer SC
much barbarism in any of their faml-
lies, as not to cndeavor to teach by
themselves or by others, their appren
tees, so much learning as may enable
them perfectly to Nad the English
tongue and obtain knowledge Of the
capital laws, upon pain Of So 90 fol
each neglect therein"
Such was the idea of barJorism en-
tertained by the colonists of Mass. Bay
more than two centuries ago. Tried
by this standard, even at the present
day the regions of civilization be:omc
extremely narrow. According to the
opinion of the Pilgrim Fathers, there
are in our times, great multitudes o.
barbarian fathers and barbarian chi''
dren. The settled determination Of
the colonists to have no uneducated
children, may be seen by another pro
vision of this act. 1t empowered the
selec.men and magistrates to take chill
dron and servants from the custody ol
those parents and masters, who "after
admonition still were negligent Of their
duty in the particulars above mention
ed, or neglected to educate their chill
dren as the law provided, and bind
them out to such masters as they should
deem worthy to supply the place oi
the unnatural parent-boys until the
age of twenty one, and girls until the
age of eighteen" The law of 1642
cnioined universal education, but did
not make education free; nor did i
impose any penalty upon muLicipa
corporations fol neglecting to maintain
school. But the spirit of the Law
worked effectually in the hearts of thu
people, for in 1645,-2l0 years since
there we're divers free schools in Rox
bury andsBoston. The principal had
5000 per annum and house, and tn
assistant $50. In these schools chill
dren we're taught to read, write and ci
pher, and Indian children were taugh
freely. "Other towns did the like
providing maintenance by severa
means" In 1647, law was passec
making the support of schools conpal
sorry and education both universal ant
free. BY this law every town contain
Ing fifty householders was required Il
support teacher "to teach all sucl
children as shall resort to him, to rea'
and write :" and any town ccntainin
ona hnndtad bonzeholdars vas ra