Attempting to create a successful education system in Colonial America was exceedingly difficult. The main reason being that the colonists were more concerned with finding a way to stay alive than educating their children in the way that we do today. In fact, the reason that so many of them were literate in the first place was because of religion. The colonists, especially the individuals in the Northern colony, wanted everybody to be able to read so they could understand the Bible. This is basically the reason why an education system was considered to be a very important addition to the colonies.
However, as stated above, the will to live was much more important to them, which is why it took until the 19th century for schools to spread across the United States. Yet, the children at this time had the chance to learn a different type of education. From their parents they learned about cultivation, agriculture, and the willingness to work. In fact, it was believed that since there was an abundance of land, if a man was willing to work hard to make a living, and with a little luck, he would succeed. It was common to think that if a man was impoverished, or poor, it was because he was lazy. There were so many rich resources available to every working man, that learning how to use it was necessary. This was ultimately what education was in the very beginning, it was learning how to work the land successfully.
With this in mind, children learned everything their parents knew about cultivation. In fact, children in the New World contributed a great amount of time tending to the family crops. During this time the children would learn relevant skills and bodies of knowledge that could range from farming to hunting to food preservation. All of these were done on their own, and all by hand. This was ultimately what education was in the very beginning, it was learning how to work the land and live off of it successfully.
It’s interesting to think that the education system that we know today branched from an education that taught its pupils how to live off the land. In fact, the cultivation education was one of the very first forms in the New World. From there the industrial revolution took place and changed the system again. Yes, the education system was very different then than it is now, but it worked for the colonists. The environment around them was used for their everyday lives.
Your Blog post reminded me of a passage from “Letters from an American Farmer” by Crevecoeur. He wrote: “The American ought therefore to love this country much better than that wherein either he or his forefathers were born. Here the rewards of his industry follow with equal steps the progress of his labour; his labour is founded on the basis of nature, SELF-INTEREST: can it want a stronger allurement?”
What you wrote about the first settlers education made me think back to Crevecoeur’s idea of hard labor being rewarded, not only in good revenue, but with education as well. Generations of families had to be taught under the toil of farming or other laborious jobs, but having a passion for rising to the top pushed education further up the scale. Thus, Crevecoeur’s idea of “Self-interest” eventually brought forth what is now considered the normal ritual of education today.
I found this post really intriguing. I never would have thought to write about the education system but it definitely made me think as to why people were being educated. You made a good point about how people became literate for mostly religious reasons and also for land success. I also thought it was interesting when you explained “laziness” and since there were so many resources available everybody should have been successful. I was fascinated when I thought about how education started and if it wasn’t for this who knows what the education system would be like now.