Founded of necessity due to damage caused largely by the American Civil War, the Peabody Education Fund was established by George Peabody in 1867 for the purpose of promoting "intellectual, moral, and industrial education in the most destitute portion of the Southern States." The gift of foundation consisted of securities to the value of $2,100,000, of which $1,100,000 were in Mississippi State bonds, afterward repudiated. In 1869 an additional $1,000,000 was given by Mr. Peabody, with $384,000 of Florida funds, also repudiated later. The main purpose of the fund was to aid elementary education by strengthening existing schools. Because it was restricted from founding new schools, it did not benefit freedmen in the South, as there were no established schools for blacks.
"The fund introduced a new type of benefaction in that it was left without restriction in the hands of the trustees to administer. Power to close the trust after thirty years was provided on condition that two-thirds of the fund be distributed to educational institutions in the Southern states."
The rules of the Peabody Education Fund were strict, allowing for the distribution of about $80,000 per year over a period of thirty years. By the time of the termination of the fund in 1898, about $2,500,000 had been distributed. In 1875 the trustees of the Peabody Education Fund founded the Peabody Normal School of the South which promptly became the Peabody Normal College (1875-1911). It was maintained in connection with the University of Nashville and supported by annual donations from the Peabody Education Fund. In 1910 the Peabody College for Teachers was organized. Placed adjacent to Vanderbilt University, the college opened its doors on June 14, 1914 for summer school. In September 1915, four new buildings had been completed at a cost of $750,000. About 1915, the Peabody Education Fund ceased to exist.
The Southern Education Foundation, a not-for-profit foundation, was created in 1937 from the Peabody Education Fund and three intended to support education for blacks: the John F Slater Fund, the Negro Rural School Fund, and the Virginia Randolph Fund.
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Famous quotes containing the words peabody, education and/or fund:
“We shall make mistakes, but they must never be mistakes which result from faintness of heart or abandonment of moral principles. I remember that my old school master Dr. Peabody said in days that seemed to us then to be secure and untroubled, he said things in life will not always run smoothly, sometimes we will be rising toward the heights and all will seem to reverse itself and start downward. The great thing to remember is that the trend of civilization itself is forever upward.”
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“If you complain of neglect of education in sons, what shall I say with regard to daughters, who every day experience the want of it? With regard to the education of my own children, I find myself soon out of my depth, destitute and deficient in every part of education. I most sincerely wish ... that our new Constitution may be distinguished for encouraging learning and virtue. If we mean to have heroes, statesmen, and philosophers, we should have learned women.”
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“School success is not predicted by a child’s fund of facts or a precocious ability to read as much as by emotional and social measures; being self-assured and interested: knowing what kind of behavior is expected and how to rein in the impulse to misbehave; being able to wait, to follow directions, and to turn to teachers for help; and expressing needs while getting along with other children.”
—Daniel Goleman (20th century)