Education in the Thirteen Colonies

The first Catholic school for both boys and girls was established by Father Theodore Schneider in 1743 in the town of Goshenhoppen, PA (present day Bally) and is still in operation.

Literacy rates were significantly lower in the South than the north; this remained true until the late nineteenth century.

They generally emphasized Latin grammar, rhetoric, and advanced arithmetic with the goal of preparing boys to enter college.

It was less common in the southern colonies, where there were fewer educated women available as teachers, and where towns and villages were few and farms were so distant that the children could not easily walk there every day.

According to Puritan beliefs, Satan would try to keep people from understanding the Scriptures, therefore it was considered necessary that all children be taught how to read.

[6] Dame schools fulfilled this requirement when parents were unable to educate their young children in their own home.

For a small fee, women, often housewives or widows, offered to take in children to whom they would teach a little writing, reading, basic prayers and religious beliefs.

These women received "tuition" in coin, home industries, alcohol, baked goods and other valuables.

[7] In addition to primary education, girls in dame schools might also learn sewing, embroidery, and other "graces".

[10] In the 18th and 19th centuries, some dame schools offered boys and girls from wealthy families a "polite education".

The women running these elite dame schools taught "reading, writing, English, French, arithmetic, music and dancing".

Secondary schools were rare in the colonial era outside major towns such as Boston, New York City, Philadelphia, and Charleston.

Both boys and girls were apprenticed for varying terms (up to fifteen years in the case of young orphans).

In the 18th century, science (especially astronomy and physics) and modern history and politics assumed a larger (but still modest) place in the college curriculum.