train her up in that moral and religious way from which when she is old she may not depart. The accommodations of the school-house will allow eighteen children to be thus wholly received into it, and maintained; and though this number has for the last few years been necessarily reduced to fifteen, the present committee have now the pleasure to report that the full number will in a few weeks be put into the establishment, and they indulge the hope that long will be the time before that full number is again obliged to be curtailed. The number of children, therefore, now in the school is as follows:- Forty children educated and clothed, of whom eighteen, besides education and clothing, are wholly maintained. This number is certainly small when compared with the size of the parish, and much it is to be wished that more of the female population could derive the benefit of gratuitous instruction; happily, females are the only children for whom provision need be made, on account of the royal and munificent foundation of the grammar school of Queen Elizabeth, which not only holds out the advantage of a classical education to those whose parents are desirous that they should avail themselves of it, but extends to some hundreds of the children of a lower class of persons, that measure of useful learning which, were it not for the existence of this institution, the parishioners of Saint John would, undoubtedly, feel the expediency of providing for them. 242. Eighteenth-Century Indenture of Apprenticeship London, 1912) The following is a transcript of the record of an Indenture of Apprenticeship preserved at Corsham, England, and dated January 16, 1708. Its similarity to the thirteenth-century document, given in Reading No. 99, will be evident by comparison of the two, and will reveal how little the regulations of apprenticeship changed during five hundred years. This Indenture made the sixteenth day of January in the seventh yeare of the Reigne of our Sovraigne Lady Anne of Greate Brittain ffrance and Ireland Queene Defender of the ffaith ex Annoqo Dom 1708 Betweene William Selman of the pish of Corsham in the County of Wiltes Husbandman and Richard Selman son of the sd William Selman of the one pte and Thomas Stokes holder of the pish of Corsham aforesaid Broadweaver of the other pte Witnesseth that the said Richard Selman of his owne voluntaire will and with the consent of his sd ffather William Selman Hath put himselfe an Apprentice unto the said Thomas Stokes and with him hath covenanted to dwell as his Appntice from the day of the date hereof untill the full end and terme of Seaven Yeares fully to be Compleate and ended during all which tyme the said Richard Selman shall well and faithfully serve him the said Thomas Stokes his master his secrets lawfully to be kept shall keep his Commandmts lawfull and honest shall doe and execute hurt unto his said master hee shall not doe nor consent to be done Tavernes or Alehouses hee shall not haunt Dice Cardes or any other unlawful games hee shall not use ffornication with any women hee shall not committ during such tyme as he shall stay in his Masters service Matrymony with any woman hee shall not contract or espouse himselfe during the said Terme of Seaven yeares The goods of his said Master inordinately hee shall not wast nor to any man lend without his Masters Lycense from his Masters house or business hee shall not absent himselfe or plong himselfe By Night or by day without his Masters leave, but as a true and faithful servant shall honestly behave himselfe towards his sd Master and all his both in words and deedes And the said Thomas Stokes doth for himselfe his Executors and Administrators promise and Covenant to and with the sd William Selman and Richard Selman his Appntice to teach or cause the said Richard Selman to be taught and instructed in the trade Art science or occupation of a Broadweaver after the best manner that he can or may with moderate Correction finding and allowing unto his sd Servant meate drinke Apparrell Washing Lodging and all other things whatsoever fitting for an appntice of that trade during the said term of Seaven yeares And to give unto his sd Appntice at the end of the sd terme double Apparell (to witt) one suite for holy dayes and one for worken days. In witness whereof the said pties to the psent Indentures interchangeably have sett their hands and seales the day and yeare first above written Sealed and Delivered in the psence of Thomas Stokes. 243. Learning the Trade of a Schoolmaster (Citty of N. Yorke Indentures, 1694-1707. MS. folio volume. Copied by Seybolt) The following New York City indenture of apprenticeship, under registry date of July 18, 1722, indicates that, so general was the apprenticeship plan in use, that at times even the schoolmaster served an apprenticeship to learn his calling. This Indenture witnesseth that John Campbel Son of Robert Campbell of the City of New York with the Consent of his father and mother hath put himself and by these presents doth Voluntarily put and bind himself Apprentice to George Brownell of the Same City Schoolmaster to learn the Art Trade or Mystery . . . for and during the term of ten years. . . . And the said George Brownell Doth hereby Covenent and Promise to teach and Instruct or Cause the said Apprentice to be taught and Instructed in the Art Trade or Calling of a Schoolmaster by the best way or means he or his wife may or can. 244. The Schools of Germany before Pestalozzi (Diesterweg, Adolph; trans. in Barnard's Am. Jour. of Educ., vol. IV, pp. 343-45) One of the schoolmen of Prussia most deeply influenced by the reform work of Pestalozzi was Adolph Diesterweg, who has often. been called "der deutsche Pestalozzi." In an address in Berlin at the celebration of the centennial of the birth of Pestalozzi, in 1846, Dr. Diesterweg contrasted the schools of Germany before the days of Rousseau and Pestalozzi with the modern schools. That part of his address which described the old schools is given below. that is schools date from Our present system of common or public schools which are open to all children under certain regulations the discovery of printing, in 1436, when books began to be furnished so cheaply that the poor could buy them. Especially after Martin Luther had translated the Bible into German, and the desire to possess and understand that invaluable book became universal, did there also become universal the desire to know how to read. Men sought to learn, not only for the sake of reading the Scriptures, but also to be able to read and sing the Psalms, and to learn the Catechism. For this purpose schools for children were established, which were essentially reading schools. Reading was the first and principal study; next came singing, and then memorizing texts, songs, and the Catechism. At first the ministers taught; but afterward the duty was turned over to the inferior church officers, - the choristers and sextons. ters and sextons were paramount, and as schoolmasters only secondary. The children paid a small monthly fee; no more being thought necessary, since the schoolmaster derived a salary from the church. FIG. 58 ADOLPH DIESTERWEG (1790-1860) Their duties as choris Nobody either made or knew how to make great pretensions to educational skill. If the teacher communicated to his scholars the acquirements above mentioned, and kept them in order, he gave satisfaction; and no one thought any thing about separate institutions for school children. There were no school books distinctively so called; the children learned their lessons in the Bible or the Psalter, and read either in the Old or the New Testament. Each child read by himself; the simultaneous method was not known. One after another stepped up to the table where the master sat. He pointed out one letter at a time, and named it; the child named it after him; he drilled him in recognizing and remembering each. Then they took letter by letter of the words, and by getting acquainted with them in this way, the child gradually learned to read. This was a difficult method for him; a very difficult one. Years usually passed before any facility had been acquired; many did not learn in four years. It was imitative and purely mechanical labor on both sides. To understand what was read was seldom thought of. The syllables were pronounced with equal force, and the reading was without grace or expression. Where it was possible, but unnaturally and mechanically, learninį by heart was practiced. The children drawled out texts of Scripture, Psalms, and the contents of the Catechism from the beginning to end; short questions and long answers alike, all in the same monotonous manner. Anybody with delicate ears who heard the sound once, would remember it all his life long. There are people yet living, who were taught in that unintelligent way, who can corroborate these statements. Of the actual contents of the words whose sounds they had thus barely committed to memory by little and little, the children knew absolutely almost nothing. They learned superficially and understood superficially. Nothing really passed into their minds; at least nothing during their school years. The instruction in singing was no better. The master sang to them the psalm-tunes over and over, until they could sing them, or rather screech them, after him. Such was the condition of instruction in our schools during the sixteenth, seventeenth, and two-thirds of the eighteenth centuries; confined to one or two studies, and those taught in the most imperfect and mechanical way. It was natural that youth endowed, when healthy, with an ever increasing capacity for pleasure in living, should feel the utmost reluctance at attending school. To be employed daily, for three or four hours, or more, in this mechanical toil, was no light task; and it therefore became necessary to force the children to sit still, and study their lessons. During all that time, especially in the seventeenth century, during the fearful Thirty Years' War, and subsequently, as the age was sunk in barbarism, the children of course entered the schools ignorant and untrained. "As the old ones sung, so twittered the young." Stern severity and cruel punishments were the order of the day; and by them the children were kept in order. Parents governed children, too young to attend, by threats of the schoolmaster and the school; and when they went, it was with fear and trembling. The rod, the cane, the raw-hide, were necessary apparatus in each school. The punishments of the teacher exceeded those of a prison. Kneeling on peas, sitting on the shame-bench, standing in the pillory, wearing an ass-cap, standing before the school door in the open street with a label on the back or breast, and other similar devices, were the remedies which the rude men of the age devised. To name a single example of a boy whom all have heard of, of high gifts, and of reputable family, Dr. Martin Luther reckoned up fifteen or sixteen times that he was whipped upon the back in one forenoon. The learning and training corresponds; the one was strictly a mechanical process; the other, only bodily punishment. What wonder that from such schools there came forth a rude generation; that men and women looked back all their lives to the school as to a dungeon, and to the teacher as a taskmaster, and jailer; that the schoolmaster was of a small repute; that understrappers were selected for school duty and school discipline; that dark, cold kennels were used for school FIG. 59. AN EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY (Reproduction of an engraving by J. Mettenleiter, rooms; that the schoolmaster's place, especially in the country, was assigned him amongst the servants and the like. This could not last; it has not, thank God! When and by what efforts of admirable men the change took place, I shall relate a little later on. 245. English Free-School Rules, 1734 The following rules and regulations were recently printed in an English periodical, as of the date of 1734, but without stating the school for which they were framed. They may be regarded, |