Page:History of Southeast Missouri 1912 Volume 1.djvu/253

 HISTORY OP SOUTHEAST MISSOURI 193 It is uot now possible to fix the exact date of the tirst school taught m Southeast Mis- souri. There is some evidence that members of the Russell family conducted private schools iu Cape Girardeau county about the year 1800 ; however, this date is not definitely determined. In 1806 Benjamin Johnson opened a private school on Sandy Creek in Jefferson coimty. In 1808 a number of citi- zens of Ste. Genevieve established the Ste. Genevieve Academy, and employed as teacher Mann Butler, afterward a distinguished teach- er and writer of history. In 1815 Joseph Her- tich opened a school in Ste. Genevieve. Her- tich was the first to introduce the new prin- ciples of education and methods of teaching which had been worked out by Pestalozzi. Ac- cording to Houck, Hei'tich was a very able man and his school in Ste. Genevieve exer- cised a remarkable influence for several years. A number of his students achieved consid- erable reputation, three of them having be- come, afterwards, members of the United States senate.* There was a school conducted in Hercu- laneum in 1815 and one at Potosi in 1817. i number of persons conducted private schools in Jackson in the years 1817 to 1820. Flint, the minister who has been referred to often, was one of these. In 1820 Thomas P. Green, a Baptist minister, opened a school in Jackson which he conducted for a number of J ears. It was in 1818, as we have seen, that St. Mary's Academy was established near Perryville. We may be sure that all these early efforts at conducting schools were lim- ited in scope. Equipment was exceedingly meagre or altogether absent. The number of students was small, and the compensation of the teachers correspondingly small. Some of those who undertook to teach were very poorly qualified for the work. The subjects of in- Vol. 1—13 struction in most cases were simply the merest rudiments of education. The terms of school were short, and perhaps the greatest handicap of all was the lack of continuous instruction. Perhaps a settlement had school for a few months in one year and then would have no school for two or three years. Under these conditions it was impossible for any systematic education to be secured. There were excep- tions, of course, to this. Some of the men, notably Hertich and some of the ministers, were highly educated men and quite capable of conducting schools. This lack of proper means for education was one of the great drawbacks to the covmtry. Part of these conditions which were so un- favorable were inseparably connected with life in a new country ; they could not be removed. One of the great difSculties, however, was in the failure of many people to appreciate the necessity for education. The life of the fron- tier has little in it to inspire children with desire for learning; it also fails to disclose the necessity for an education. A living was 'ery easily made by manual labor, and there seemed to be little demand for educated men. Physical strength and skill and native shrewd- ness were sufficient to enable a man not alone to live, but to accumulate property. Some of tlie wealthy men in the time which we are considering were unable to read or write and others had the most meagre and limited educa- tion. It was possible for a boy, if taught in the ordinary things of life, to care for him- self and family and yet have no knowledge of books at all. Flint, who was from the East, and perhaps not altogether free from preju- dice in the matter, says that many of the people living in the more remote districts made no effort to teach their children; that boys at fourteen or fifteen had learned to use the axe and the rifle, to perform the simple
 * Houck, Vol. Ill, p. 68.