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January (search for this): chapter 1
wn repeated the performance—voted to build the school-house, and then refused to raise the money. On the 17th of January, 1732, the town again refused to raise money to build a school-house. On 25th of September, 1732, the town voted to build a school-house, to be finished the 25th of November. Captain Brooks was chairman of a committee of three to attend to the matter, and, although no appropriation was made at the time, and no allusion is made to the matter at a meeting held the next January, I am inclined to think the building was erected. From about 1736 Medford seems to have had what may be called an annual school—that is, for seven or eight months each year, as this year the people voted to have a school from September to May. On the 30th of July, 1738, they voted to have a school for the space of a year, and July 23, 1739, they voted to have an annual school. The hiring of the master and the care of the school was usually put in the hands of a special committee, a
March (search for this): chapter 1
be raised by levy on the inhabitants, provided it was not furnished by voluntary subscription. A committee of six men was chosen to find out whether Mr. Davison would accept the town's offer, and Thomas Tufts and Ebenezer Brooks were chosen to collect the above subscription in case it could be collected. At a meeting held Feb. 22, 1720, the town voted to choose a committee of five men to select a site for a school-house to accommodate the whole town, and to report at the next meeting in March. This committee consisted of Capt. Peter Tufts, Dea. John Whitmore, Capt. Ebenezer Brooks, Mr. John Willis, and Mr. John Richardson, but no report of their doings appears on the records of the town. The minds of the people seem to have been suddenly turned to the subject of erecting a new meeting-house, and the school-house must wait. The next winter two schools were kept, one at the east end of the town under Master Henery Davison, and one at the west end under Master Caleb Brooks.
September (search for this): chapter 1
to build a school-house, to be finished the 25th of November. Captain Brooks was chairman of a committee of three to attend to the matter, and, although no appropriation was made at the time, and no allusion is made to the matter at a meeting held the next January, I am inclined to think the building was erected. From about 1736 Medford seems to have had what may be called an annual school—that is, for seven or eight months each year, as this year the people voted to have a school from September to May. On the 30th of July, 1738, they voted to have a school for the space of a year, and July 23, 1739, they voted to have an annual school. The hiring of the master and the care of the school was usually put in the hands of a special committee, as now, but for some years before the Revolution the selectmen were charged with that duty. The studies pursued were very few, but they sufficed. Reading, writing, and the fundamental operations in arithmetic—the three R's—were all tha<
October 5th (search for this): chapter 1
t Master Caleb Brooks was the father of Gov. John Brooks. From this time forward to the present day we may safely conclude, I think, that Medford has rarely been without its public winter school. Town meetings in which the subject of schools was to be considered, or meetings called for that special purpose, became frequent, and evidently the people were waking up to the importance of education for their children, but we hear no more about building a school-house till 1730. On the 5th of October in this year the town voted to build a school-house on the town land by the meetinghouse, chose a committee of five men to attend to the matter, and then promptly refused to appropriate any money therefor. The next year, 1731, the town repeated the performance—voted to build the school-house, and then refused to raise the money. On the 17th of January, 1732, the town again refused to raise money to build a school-house. On 25th of September, 1732, the town voted to build a school-ho
November 25th (search for this): chapter 1
ted to build a school-house on the town land by the meetinghouse, chose a committee of five men to attend to the matter, and then promptly refused to appropriate any money therefor. The next year, 1731, the town repeated the performance—voted to build the school-house, and then refused to raise the money. On the 17th of January, 1732, the town again refused to raise money to build a school-house. On 25th of September, 1732, the town voted to build a school-house, to be finished the 25th of November. Captain Brooks was chairman of a committee of three to attend to the matter, and, although no appropriation was made at the time, and no allusion is made to the matter at a meeting held the next January, I am inclined to think the building was erected. From about 1736 Medford seems to have had what may be called an annual school—that is, for seven or eight months each year, as this year the people voted to have a school from September to May. On the 30th of July, 1738, they vote
November 30th (search for this): chapter 1
July 20, 1719, when the town voted to hire some meet person to keep a writing school in the town for three or four months in the winter season, and a committee of seven men, consisting of Captain Tufts, Capt. Ebenezer Brooks, Lieut. Stephen Hall, Engn Stephen Francis, Mr. Jno. Willis, Dea. Whitmore, and Mr. Jona. Tufts, was chosen to treat with some person to keep said school. Nothing came from the above action, perhaps owing to the size of the committee. At another meeting, held on November 30, the same year, the town voted to have a school kept in the house of Thomas Willis, the ensuing winter, and a committee of three men, consisting of Engn Jno. Bradshaw, Capt. Ebenezer Brooks, and Mr. John Willis, was chosen to agree with some suitable person to keep a writing and reading school in town three or four months the ensuing winter, and to make return of their doings to the town at the next town meeting. We note in the action at this meeting that the people have diminished the s
December 11th (search for this): chapter 1
four months the ensuing winter, and to make return of their doings to the town at the next town meeting. We note in the action at this meeting that the people have diminished the size of their committee, have enlarged the curriculum of their school to include reading, have settled on a place where the school shall be kept, and instructed their committee to go ahead and to report their doings. Evidently they are in earnest and mean to have a school kept next winter. At a meeting held December 11 of the same year, 1719, this committee reported the name of Mr. Henry Davison for schoolmaster for three months, and the town voted to pay him £ 3 and his board. Whether Mr. Davison was to board round or not the vote does not specify. The money was to be raised by levy on the inhabitants, provided it was not furnished by voluntary subscription. A committee of six men was chosen to find out whether Mr. Davison would accept the town's offer, and Thomas Tufts and Ebenezer Brooks were chos
1630 AD (search for this): chapter 1
passed by the Colonial Court in 1692 required every town of fifty householders to support a school for reading and writing, it was not till twenty-seven years later that Medford made any move to establish such a school. Lying so near Boston, we may feel certain that if she had had the requisite number of people she would have been obliged to comply with the law, even if reluctant to do so. Its insignificance, furthermore, may be inferred from the fact that although incorporated as a town in 1630 no one of its people seemed to be aware of the fact till about 1680,—fifty years later,—and the first white child born within its borders had become an old man of eighty-three before it had a settled minister, and this in a thorough-going puritan settlement. Very likely as she drew her preaching from ministers settled in the surrounding towns, and from young men studying in Harvard college, so her brighter and more ambitious boys managed to attend the public schools established in those p
1642 AD (search for this): chapter 1
reaks of light were visible above the eastern horizon. Neither Plato in his perfect republic nor Sir Thomas More in his ideal state had ever dreamed of such a thing as the American common school, where every child, the poorest as well as the richest, girl as well as boy, can claim, not as a charity, but as a right, the possession of the keys of all knowledge; and for the support of which a first mortgage is held on every cent of the accumulations of every childless millionaire. The law of 1642, while recognizing to the full parental responsibility, suggested not only the viciousness of indolence and the educative office of labor, but just as plainly indicated the state ownership of the child and its responsibility for him. Horace Mann had not yet formulated his three famous propositions on which the common school system of Massachusetts rests: 1st. That the successive generations of men, taken collectively, constitute one great commonwealth. 2d. That the property of
1647 AD (search for this): chapter 1
work and bore their share of the burdens we may be sure were the early settlers of Medford. A prominent and discriminating writer has said that everything which has power to win the respect and command the obedience of men must have its roots deep in the past. As with our political institutions so with our schools and educational system generally; they were a copy, more or less exact, of what the people had left behind in Old England. The statement is frequently made that by the law of 1647 Massachusetts established the first system of free public schools in the world. But this is hardly true. They were public schools, and many of them were free; but the law made their support permissive rather than compulsory, and direct taxation for their support was by no means universal. In very many cases the town rate, that is, the general tax, was only to supplement other sources of income; and it took many years to make apparent that tuition fees from the rich and free tuition for th
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