Education in The Thirteen Colonies - Primary and Secondary Education

Primary and Secondary Education

The New England Puritans valued education, both for the sake of religious study (which was facilitated by Bible reading) and for the sake of economic success. A 1647 Massachusetts mandated that every town of 50 or more families support an elementary school and every town of 100 or more families support a grammar school, where boys could learn Latin in preparation for college. In practice, some New England towns had difficulty keeping their schools open and staffed, but virtually all New England towns made an effort to provide a school for their children. Both boys and girls attended the elementary schools (though sometimes at different hours or different seasons), and there they learned to read, write, and cipher. In the mid-Atlantic region, private and sectarian schools filled the same niche as the New England common schools.

The South, a was overwhelmingly rural, had few schools of any sort until the Revolutionary era. Wealthy children studied with private tutors; middling children might learn to read from literate parents or older siblings; many poor and middling white children, as well as virtually all black children, went unschooled. Literacy rates were significantly lower in the South than the north; this remained true until the late nineteenth century.

Secondary schools were rare outside major towns, such as Boston, New York, Philadelphia, and Charleston. Where they existed, secondary schools generally emphasized Latin grammar, rhetoric, and advanced arithmetic, with the goal of preparing boys to enter college. Some secondary schools also taught practical subjects, such as accounting, navigation, surveying, and modern languages. Some families sent their children to live and work with other families (often relatives or close friends) as a capstone to their education.