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HISTORY OF THE TOWN OF MEDFORD, Middlesex County, Massachusetts, FROM ITS FIRST SETTLEMENT, IN 1630, TO THE PRESENT TIME, 1855. (ed. Charles Brooks), Chapter 8: Education. (search)
, that our Puritan Fathers believed that the establishment of schools was a duty they owed to justice and humanity, to freedom and religion; and, second, that they had resolved that these schools should be free. Here, then, was a new idea introduced to the world,--free schools! And, from free schools and congregational churches, what could result but republicanism? They held our republic as the.acorn holds the oak. It is important to state that free schools originated in Massachusetts. In 1671, Sir William Berkeley, first Governor of Virginia, writes to the king thus:-- I thank God there are no free schools nor printing-presses here, and I trust there will not be this hundred years; for learning breeds up heresies and sects and all abominations. God save us from both! Now look at Massachusetts. The Rev. John Robinson, before the Pilgrims left Leyden, charged them to build churches, establish schools, and read the Bible without sectarian prejudice. He said, I am convinced t