Ever since the landing of settlers in North America there has been an emphasis placed upon the education of children. This action among the newcomers was their way of indirectly stating that they wanted to stay and tame this wild unsettled country. The first colonials tried to recreate the European system of schooling that they had known before. But this was a new world, a new place in which to develop new styles of learning and educational experience. In this paper I would like to examine the beginnings of the American public school system. I would also like to look how the perspective of the nation’s view on educational policy correlates to those in Georgia and in the Athens area.

In early colonial times the family was seen as “the essential unit of social organization and informal education in the colonies.”1 Many colonial homes were the place of both literary and vocational instruction. Parents played the major role in the instruction of their children in the early days. The mother usually tended to the reading and writing instruction, while the father had the children engaged in chores that would train them in the economic activities of the New World. This method of informal education would lay the groundwork for the formation of a child’s formal education. “It was upon this foundation of the non-formal agencies of the family and the household that the formal educational structures of the school and the college were built.”2

Fresh off of the heels of the evangelical movement known as the Great Awakening, the town schools of New England taught mainly reading, writing, and religion. These skills were looked at as the essential tools for a child to possess. At that time Calvinist theology went hand in hand with perceptions of education. Religion and education were seen as interrelated entities that formed the basis of educational thought. The Calvinist placed and emphasis on reading and writing because they found it to be an important attribute of the clergy that would allow them to read and understand the scriptures. These features provide reasons why the church and school were so intimately connected.

In Georgia a heavy emphasis was placed on education almost immediately at its inception. The Trustees of the Colony in England wanted to make sure that this was going to be an educated colony. The town of Savannah soon after its charter began to make arrangements for the education of the colonists there. People began to notice that “ In the middle of the town they have reserved a spot of land, which they intend to build a church on, as soon as possible, though they have a place, at present, set apart for public worship on Sunday, where the Children are educated all the rest of the week.”3 The emergence of the importance of education in Georgia was also based upon the need for religious training. Men such as General James Oglethorpe, John Wesley, Charles Wesley, and John Martin Bolzius were all graduates of European institutions and that is why attention was given to schools for children. In the beginnings of Georgia schools were built for Indians and other schools were sponsored by religious organizations. Some of these were the Irene school, which functioned as an Indian school that was set up by John Wesley, and Salzburgers and Moravians also set up their own respective schools.

It was not until the American Revolution that the emphasis on public schooling and schooling in general began to take national precedence. It was then that republican ideals began to uncover that education was the key to a more prosperous nation. These ideals would be championed by many of the political and social leaders of the time. “In the late eighteenth century, Thomas Jefferson popularized the ideas that a democratic republic required an enlightened citizenry and that government had a duty to promote education in order to foster a meritocracy based on talent and ability.”4 This idea aided in the movement away from ideas promoted by the Federalists at that time. The Federalists were staunch Calvinists believed in monarchial rule and that greatness is reserved for a select few. It was through the work of Thomas Jefferson and Benjamin Franklin that Americans turned away from tradition and began to believe that they could control their own destiny through their own personal experiences. The most important of these was the educational experience.

In the early nineteenth century immigration and increased social disorder placed a heightened pressure on public schooling. Cities were becoming overcrowded and segregation began to be play a key role in everyday affairs. “Working-class leaders viewed public schools as a way to promote upward mobility and to remove a source of economic competition.”5 Schools were also seen as a way to answer the problems of crime and poverty. These schools were to take over the role of the church and provide the students with basic literacy and exposure to science and technology.

WHERE DOES THE SOUTH AND ATHENS FIT IN

The Declaration of Independence was a major influential factor in the establishment of schools in Georgia. It allowed for Georgia to adopt its first state constitution a year later, which stated, “schools shall be erected in each county and supported at the general expense of the state as the legislature shall hereafter point out and direct.” 6 Later state constitutions reduced the requirements to just permitting counties to establish forms of formal public education. What seems to be the trend in education in Georgia was the establishment of private academies.

In the South the educational landscape looked a little different than its northern counterparts. In the north, especially in Massachusetts, the common school allowed each and every child to receive an education regardless of social background. This was not the case in the south. “In the South, education remained largely confined to private academies and informal “old-field” schools.”7 The old field school was the first form of public education. “The first Old Field School was a one room log building erected by a group of parents in an old, barren field.” 8 At this time money or the lack there of, was the main contributing factor if the town had public schooling or not. These old field schools were exactly that. They were often placed on undeveloped and unusable parcels of land on the edge of town. Many time the parents of the children in the area had to fund the building and teaching themselves. “During most of Georgia’s first 100 years as a state (1776-1872), public schools were mere charities." 9 The schoolmasters during this time were often passers by who had to convince the parents of the town to let them teach.

During this time state legislatures were placing all of their focus on academies. By 1850, “Georgia had 219 chartered academies.”10 The children who were born into the social elite were usually the ones who attended these schools because attendance required tuition. The people of Athens were firm believers in this form of education. Athens was a college town meaning that the town grew up around the college. This would naturally attract those of higher social status. In Athens, “The agitation for public schools first began in 1879.”11 The people of Athens also had their reasons for this. “The conservatives opposed it. They had never been to a public school, they had been well educated without it, and the private school was good enough for them and their children.”12 The people felt that a form of public education would only bring about an increase in taxes. What stuck out in the minds of Athenians was that “moreover the public school was a Massachusetts invention and we were becoming Yankeeized fast enough anyhow.” 13 This mindset goes to show the amount of sectionalism that was present at this time. “Educational progress in the South lagged behind that of New England because of the lack of a sense of community goals comparable to the religious orientation in New England.”14

Sources

1. Lawrence A. Cremin, American Education: The Colonial Experience, 1607-1738 (New York: Harper and Row Publishers, 1970), pp. 136-136

2. Gerald L. Gutek, An Historical Introduction to American Education (Illinois, Waveland Press, 1991), p.2

3. Collections of Georgia Historical Society, Vol. II, 40.

4. Steven Mintz, Moralists and Modernizers: America's Pre-Civil War Reformers(Baltimore, Johns Hopkins Press), p.107

5. Ibid., 110.

6. Joiner, Bonner, Shearhouse, Smith, A History of Public Education in Georgia, 1734-1976(Columbia, South Carolina: R.L Bryan Company), p.ix.

7. Mintz,Moralists and Modernizers, p.112.

8. Joiner,etc.,History of Public Education in Georgia, p.ix.

9. Ibid., x.

10. Ibid. ix.

11. Augustus Longstreet Hull, Annals of Athens 1801-1901(Danielsville, Georgia Heritage Papers), p.395

12. Ibid., 396.

13. Ibid., 396.

14. Gutek,An Historical Introduction to American Education, p.11.