What were colonial schools like?

Older children were educated at home or in a local schoolhouse and were taught to read the Bible. New England colonists were Puritans, and their education centered around religious life. In the Middle Colonies, children could be taught at home or in a schoolhouse with other children from the same religion.

What were schools like in the middle colonies?

A variety of local religious groups ran most schools in the middle colonies and stressed the practical aspects of education. All boys learned a skill or trade. Depending on their social class, they might also study classical languages, history and literature, mathematics, and natural science.

What were colonial schools highly influenced by?

Most of the schools in Colonial America were founded by religious groups, and lessons often revolved around the Bible and other religious tracts. Let's look at two religious groups that were very influential on early American education: the Puritans and the Quakers.

What subjects were taught in colonial schools?

The early colonial college and grammar school curriculum was based on the European tradition of instruction in classical languages and literatures though other subjects such as politics, mathematics, divinity, and ethics were taught as well.

What was a characteristic of colonial school houses?

New England schoolhouses did not have desks or chairs. Students sat straight on hard, backless benches. Because teachers were not well trained, students spent most of their time reciting and memorizing lessons. Most lessons did not teach students to think, just imitate.

Early Colonial Schools

What did kids do in school in the colonial times?

Most children did not attend much school If they did, it was only for a few years to learn to read and write, and do basic math. May learned this from a parent, or from a master after they were apprenticed at a very young age. A formal education was largely limited to elites.

What were schools called in colonial times?

The law required every town with 50 households to provide a “petty school” (the equivalent of elementary school) and towns larger than 100 households to provide both a petty school and a “grammar school” (a “Latin grammar” or secondary school).

What were the punishments for misbehavior in colonial schools?

One punishment administered to misbehaving students was this: the child would be sent out to cut a small branch from a tree and bring it in to the teacher. The teacher would cut a small gap in one end of the branch, and the child would have to balance the stick on his nose with the split end pinching it.

Did Colonial girls go to school?

Kids were taught reading, writing, and arithmetic. Mostly boys attended school. Girls were taught at home.

What was life like for children in the colonies?

Children were expected to help with a share of the family's work. Boys helped their fathers and girls did chores at home. By a time a girl was four she could knit stockings! Even with all the work they did, colonial children still found time to have fun.

Where would wealthy children go to school in colonial times?

The wealthy colonist children, if not an apprentice, attended private schools, or they had private teachers (tutors). These students were headed for the university.

What were the 9 colonial schools?

There were established in America, said the lecturer, before the Declaration of Independence, nine colleges - Harvard, William and Mary, Yale, Princeton, King's or Columbia, the University of Pensylvania, Brown, Dartmouth, and Queen's or Rutgers.

What was school like in the 1700s?

In 1600s and 1700s America, prior to the first and second Industrial Revolutions, educational opportunity varied widely depending on region, race, gender, and social class. Public education, common in New England, was class-based, and the working class received few benefits, if any.

How did colonial children have fun?

Even though colonial kids worked hard, they still found time for outdoor fun, like swimming, fishing, and flying kites.

What are the 13 colonies for kids?

In 1776 the 13 colonies declared their independence from Great Britain. The names of the colonies were Connecticut, Delaware, Georgia, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Carolina, and Virginia.

What was life like in 13 colonies?

Life varied between the thirteen colonies. Ways of life differed due to trade, commerce, religion, and political views in each colony. Southern colonies were mostly agriculture-based and less restricted than the northern colonies. Middle colonies relied on lumbering to make their profit, and traded with the British.

What did colonial girls do?

Women trained girls to be wives and mothers by having them help around the house. Girls helped with cooking, preserving food, caring for children, cleaning the house, washing clothes and gardening. They milked cows, churned butter, and made cheese. Girls' work was important to cloth making.

Why didn't all children go to school in the colonial era?

Not all children in the Colonial times made use of going to school because they would never become following leaders of some sort and their most likely job would end up being something labor intensive. School was just another way of teaching most children religion.

What were teachers called in colonial times?

Most teachers were men in colonial times. They were called schoolmasters. Some women also taught the youngest children in Dame schools in their homes.

What was the worst punishment in colonial America?

One of the many gruesome punishment methods used was Flaying. While this isn't exclusive to Colonial America, it was surely a dark and terrifying punishment. Being flayed alive is one of the most painful methods of execution ever devised. Flaying is simply the process of cutting the skin off of an animal.

What were the horrible punishments in the Middle Ages?

Corporal punishment went a step further. These forms of punishment caused temporary pain and discomfort, such as beatings and whippings. There were also punishments that led to permanent mutilation, such as branding, chopping off limbs, or mutilating someone's tongue, nose, eyes or ears.

What was the most common punishment in colonial times?

People were punished for blasphemy, stealing, adultery, and even idleness. Some of the punishments included branding (often done in the case of adultery), dunking, or ear cropping. People were also placed in pillories, and whipping posts were used as well.

Did colonial schools have recess?

In colonial times, kids sometimes had fun at school. They played with clay marbles, soldiers, dolls jump rope and more. Back in colonial times the didn't have gym, art or music. They did not have recess like we do, but they got to play outside in a field.

What was school like in 1776?

Actual schools were found mainly in cities and large towns. For most other people, education meant a tutor teaching a small group of people in someone's home or a common building. And the school year was more like a school season: usually about 13 weeks, says USC historian Carole Shammas.

What were colonial schools in a woman's home?

dame school, small private school for young children run by women; such schools were the precursors of nursery, or infant, schools in England and colonial America. They existed in England possibly before the 16th century in both towns and rural areas and survived into the 19th century.