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III GIRLS IN THE PUBLIC SCHOOLS OF BOSTON.

Prior to 1789, according to the biographer* of Caleb Bingham, no public provision appears to have been made for the instruction of girls in the city (then, the town) of Boston. The only schools to which girls were admitted in 1784 were called Writing Schools, (in which penman. ship, reading and spelling were taught,) and were kept by the teachers of the public schools between the forenoon and afternoon sessions. In that year Mr. Bingham opened a private school for girls, and such was his success, that in 1789, in the "Great Reform" which was in that year made in the public schools, he was solicited and prevailed on to take charge of one of the three Reading Schools, into which girls were admitted on a footing of equality with boys,-the girls attending the Reading School in the morning and the boys the Writing School, (each school having these two independent departments, which thus acquired the name of the double-headed system, and was continued for more than a half-century,) and in the afternoon the boys attended the Reading School, and the girls the Writing School,-the masters never changing rooms, and the boys and girls changing the half-day once a month. Even under this arrangement, girls were only allowed to attend the schools six months in the year, from April to October, and during the winter months half the boys attended the Reading School while the other half attended the Writing, alternating as the boys and girls did in summer. This state of things continued till 1826.

In May, 1825, at a meeting of the School Committee, on the motion of the Rev. John Pierpont, a Special Committee was raised "to consider the expediency and practicability of establishing a public school for the instruction of girls in the higher departments of science and literature." This Committee reported on the 22d of June following in favor of estab lishing such a school, to be conducted on the monitorial system, and the City Council was requested to appropriate two thousand dollars for this purpose, which was done on the 25th of September, 1825. The school was instituted by the School Committe on the 13th of January, 1826, and was called the High School for Girls, and the examination of can

WILLIAM B. FOWLE Memoir of Caleb Bingham—in “Barnard's American Teachers and Educators." Vol. 1., p. 55.

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didates for admission was commenced on the 22nd of February following, and the school was opened under the charge of Ebenezer Bailey.

The following extracts are from the Report of the Committe appointed to consider the subject in May, 1825. The Report was written by Rev. John Pierpont:

In the first place, in regard to the general expediency of placing women, in respect to education, upon ground, if not equal, at least bearing a near and an honorable relation, to that of men, in any community, your committee think that no doubt can, at this day, be entertained by those who consider the weight of female influence in society, in every stage of moral and intellectual advancement; and especially by those who consider the paramount and abiding influence of mothers upon every successive generation of men, during the earliest years of their life, and those years in which so much, or so little, is done, towards forming moral character, and giving the mind a direction and an impulse towards usefulness and happiness in after life. As to the general expediency, then, of giving women such an education as shall make them fit wives for well educated men, and enable them to exert a salutary influence upon the rising generation, as there can be no doubts, your committee will use no arguments at this board; but will confine themselves to the particular expediency of provision for a higher education of our daughters, at the public expense.

And your committee think favorably of making an effort to this end, for the following reasons which are particular, as well as for the many reasons which are more general in their nature.

In the first place, it would render more efficient, and, consequently, more profitable to the city, the provision which has already been made for the public education of its daughters.

As our public Grammar schools are now constituted, some of the finest scholars in the girls' department are seen in the first class, at the age of eleven or twelve years, by the side of girls fourteen or fifteen yerrs old, who have been rather tolerated in the first class, either from courtesy to their age, or from pity to their unsuccessful efforts, than entitled to a place there, on the score of their good scholarship. As the class must, on the present system of organization, move on together, the former are continually held in check, that the latter may keep in their company; and, as the masters have neither time nor the authority to go with them into higher studies, it is easy to see, what is of every day's occurrence, that the more sprightly girls find it difficult to fill up their hours profitably to themselves; and are in constant danger of falling into habits of inattention, and mental dissipation; a danger which now presses upon them for two or three of the last years that they are allowed their seats in the public schools. Now, by the school proposed, this evil, which is a very serious one, would be obviated. The same field would be opened in this school, for the girls, as has, for a few years, been so successfully opened in the English High School, for the boys in the Grammar schools. An object would be presented of honorable ambition, and of lively competition, to the misses who are now condemned to two, and sometimes three years, very inadequately and unprofitably employed; and those indolent habits of mind might be avoided, which it is so much easier to prevent than to correct.

Secondly, the school contemplated seems to your committee to be particularly expedient for this city, in respect to the impulse that would be given by it to the whole machinery of our public instruction, through the medium of the Primary schools.

These schools are daily gaining the confidence of the community, and, consequently, are daily furnishing a greater and greater proportion of the children to our Grammar schools. Of course, it is of continually increasing importance that these first schools should be taught by those who are themselves well educated. They are, and probably will be, tought exclusively by women; and it is doing no injustice to the city, or to the gentlemen who so faithfully superintend these schools, to say, that they are not always able to find women qualified as they ought to be, to take charge of these very interesting public institutions. A school like that now in contemplation, would certainly and permanently furnish teachers for the Primary schools, competent in every respect to render the city efficient service; and espec

ially in this respect, that they will have gained, by their own experience, a thorough knowledge of our whole system of public instruction, and the relations of its several parts to each other. Thus, the city will insure to itself a greater excellence and uniformity in the primary schools, than is possible at present, and be always able to recur to its own resources, to meet its own wants;-exhibiting thus, in morals-what has been so long a desideratum in mechanics-a piece of machinery that, by its own operation, produces the power by which itself is driven.

Thirdly, your committee think a school such as is proposed particularly expedient to this city, in regard to the experiment that might be made of it, of the practicability and usefulness of monitorial or mutual instruction; or, at least, of so much of that system as on experiment would be found to accord with the genius and habits of our community. That something of this system might be introduced into all our public schools, to the benefit of the schools and to the pecuniary advantage of the city, your committee can hardly doubt. One experiment has been made, and made successfully. But there were considerations which prevented the carrying of that system up from the school in which it was tried, into the higher public schools. The same system, with some qualifications, has been under successful experiment in a subscription school, composed of the daughters of our most respectable families; and your committee are persuaded that, under the control of a master of judgment and genius, so much of that system might be profitably introduced into a female High School, as would prove to the public in this city, that the same might be carried into our Grammar and Reading schools, at least, to great advantage. At any rate, a satisfactory experiment might be made. Should it fail, as it hardly can, the city will lose nothing but the time and comparatively trifling expense of making it; and should it succeed, the city will secure to itself the better instruction of onethird more children than are now instructed, and at probably one-third less expense. Your committee are not sure that it falls within the spirit of their commission to present a statement of the studies which should be pursued in the proposed institution. But, without attempting a particular statement, or a definite arrangement, of the studies,-leaving that duty to a future committee, should the city think favorably of the project, your committee wonld beg leave to recommend, in general, that in the female High School should be taught reading; writing words and sentences from dictation; English grammar, embracing frequent exercises in the composition, transposition, and resolution of sentences; composition, to be taught systematically, and to be a regular exercise in all the classes; rhetoric; geography, ancient and modern, embracing the use of maps and globes; elements of geometry, so far as is necessary to the construction of maps, and to the study of natural philosophy; arithmetic, intellectual and written; book-keeping by single entry; general history; history of Greece, Rome, England, and the United States; natural philosophy, with as much of chemistry as would be useful in domestic economy; moral philosophy; natural theology; and astronomy.

Of these studies, however, your committee would recommend that some be required and others only permitted, as tokens of merit and incitements to industry; thus opening, in this school, what this is intended to open to all the Grammar schools of the city, a course of higher instruction, as an object of honorable emulation, and the most unexceptionable reward of industry

Having spoken thus of the general character of the school, and of the considerations which, in their opinion, render the establishment of it particularly expedient, your committee would, in the second place, state briefly their views of the practicability of establishing it.

To this there can be but one objection,-that of expense. But your committee are persuaded that this is not an insuperable obstacle to the effecting of an object, which seems to be so important to the best interests, and to one of the most cherished objects, of the citizens of Boston,-their system of public education.

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When liberally supported, they more than support themselves. They are a source, not of honor only, but of pecuniary profit, to the city; for, taking into view-as an enlightened policy does take into view-the whole period during which these institutions exert their influence upon the community, they more than indemnify the city for the expense of their maintenance, in that the knowledge they diffuse through the great mass of the population, throws open new and wider fields to enterprise, gives higher aims to ingenuity, and supplies more profitable objects to industry. The following extracts are from the Report of the Committee on the

organization and standing of the school, which was accepted by the Board in October, 1825:

Your committee would propose that the candidates for admission to this school shall be eleven, and not more than fifteen years of age; allowance, in particular cases, to be made according to the discretion of the School Committee; that they shall be admitted on examination in those studies, which are pursued in the public Grammar schools of the city; and that the examination may be strict or otherwise, as the number of candidates shall hold relation to the accommodations provided for them:

That the course of studies in this, as in the English High School, shall be calculated to occupy three years:—

That, in pursuance of the suggestion of the original report on this subject, some studies shall be required of all the scholars, and others allowed as evidences of honorable proficiency, and as motives to higher efforts; and that the following be the studies of the school, according to the order in which they shall be pursued, until otherwise ordered by the School Committee.

FIRST YEAR.

Required: No. 1. Reading-2. Spelling-3. Writing words and sentences from dictation 4. English grammar, with exercises in the same-5. Composition-6. Modern and ancient geography-7. Intellectual and written arithmetic-8. Rhetoric-9. History of the United States.

Allowed: Logic, or botany.

SECOND YEAR.

Required: Nos. 1, 2, 5, 6, 7, 8, continued-10. Book-keeping by single entry11. Elements of geometry-12. Natural philosophy-13. General history-14. History of England-15. Paley's Natural Theology.

Allowed: Logic, botany, demonstrative geometry, algebra, Latin or French.

THIRD YEAR.

Required: Nos. 1, 5, 12, 15, continued-16. Astronomy-17. Treatise on the globes -18. Chemistry-19. History of Greece-20. History of Rome-21. Paley's Moral Philysophy-22. Paley's Evidences of Christianity.

Allowed: Logic, algebra, principles of perspective, projection of maps, botany, Latin, or French.

The High School for Girls was opened on the 27th of February, 1826, with one hundred and thirty pupils out of 286 candidates examined, onehalf from private, and the other half from public schools; of these 37 were between eleven and twelve years of age, 69 between twelve and thirteen, 72 between thirteen and fourteen, 94 between fourteen and fifteen, and 14 had attained the age of fifteen. In the account of the school, prefixed to the first catalogue, published soon after its opening, the following remarks occur:

In many respects, this institution is an experiment; and it cannot be fairly tested without patient and laborious exertions. A free school for the instruction of females, founded on principles so liberal, is in itself a novelty; but such a novelty argues well for the spirit and improvement of the age, and of the community wherein it is fostered. Although the correct literary education of females is no longer regarded as a subject of comparatively little, or even of secondary importance; this is, perhaps, the first school, established by the public care and supported at the public expense, in which they may receive a systematical course of instruction in the higher departments of literature and science. Much depends, therefore, on the success of this experiment; and it is confidently hoped that the public may not be disappointed in their expectations. It will not be supposed that a school of more than a hundred and thirty scholars, who have been accustomed to almost every va riety of instruction and discipline to be found in the public and private schools of the city, can be organized on principles with which they are wholly unacquainted, and put into complete and successful operation, at its very commencement, by a single instructor. Much time will be required to ascertain, with any considerable

degree of accuracy, the respective powers and attainments of such a number of pupils, whose studies have been widely different, not only in the books used, but also in their order of succession. If the indulgence be granted, which these circumstances seem to demand, there can be no doubt that the success of the school will fully meet all the reasonable hopes and wishes of its friends.

An account of the peculiarities in the plan of government and instruction to be adopted, will not now be expected. The arrangements of the school, in these respects, are not yet fully matured. Indeed, as the spirit of improvement is at work in the business of education, with unprecedented earnestness and success, it is hoped that many valuable alterations may be introduced, from time to time, and incorporated into the method of teaching to be pursued; for it is the part of wisdom to neglect no suggestion, really useful and valuable, under whatever name or as a component part of whatever system, it may come before the world.

The following paragraphs, from the "Regulations and Catalogue" of the school in January, 1827, contain statements of historical interest:

The attainments of several of the candidates, who were rejected, were very creditable in all the required branches, excepting mental arithmetic; in this, all were deficient, in a greater or less degree. A large proportion of them had never paid any attention to the study; and some of those who professed to be acquainted with it, merely ciphered without a slate, exhibiting no acquaintance with that close and perspicuous method of reasoning, which constitutes the chief beauty and excellence of the system. It is understood that very many, desirous of entering the school, were deterred from offering themselves from examination, by a conscious deficiency in this branch; it having been embraced, but a short time, in the course of instruction pursued in the Writing Schools of the city.

No scholar shall be admitted into the school, until she shall have attained the age of fourteen years, nor after she shall have attained the age of sixteen, or shall remain in the school longer than one year. An exception is made in favor of the present scholars, who, having been originally admitted for three years, are permitted to remain until the next annual exhibition.

Candidates for admission shall be examined in Reading, Writing, Modern Geography, and Colburn's First Lessons in Arithmetic, and they shall be able to parse fluently any English composition in prose or verse.

Before the end of the second year, the school had become so popular, the applicants for admission so numerous, so many parents were disappointed that children were not received, the demand for larger and bet ter accommodations, and for increased scholars, involved such additional expenditures, that the School Committee were perplexed, and under the lead of the Mayor, Josiah Quincy, (Senior,) on the 21st of February, 1828, adopted a report and series of resolutions, by which the Girls' High School was discontinued, the branches taught in that school were introduced into the Grammar Schools, and the girls were allowed to continue through the year in the same until they were sixteen years of age, although the boys were dismissed at fourteen. The Report by which these changes were advocated was drawn up by Mayor Quincy, and was subjected, so far as the High School for Girls was concerned, to a searching "Review" by Mr. Bailey, under whom as Principal the school had attained such remarkable success. From these documents we give the following extracts as part of the history of the education of girls, not only in Boston, but in other cities-for there can be no doubt as to the influence of the example of Boston in delaying the establishment of this class of schools elsewhere.

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