Page:The Granite Monthly Volume 1.djvu/347

 EDUCATION IN HOPKINTON.

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��those directions. The present location of the first eight school districts in their numerical order, supports this view. Number 1 is " Lower Village;" Number 2, '-Emerson's Hill;" Number 3, '-Hat- field;" Number 4, " Sugar Hill;" Num- ber 5, "South Road;" Number 6, "Jew- ett Road;" Number 7, "Main Road;" Number 8, " Beech Hill." Thus from the centre we pass first to the west, then through the south to the east. On March 20, 1799, it was voted " to lay out schools according to scholars between three and twenty-one years of age." This is sub- stantially the arrangement obtaining at present, by which also we have increas- ed our school districts to the number of twenty-one.

On March 4, 1801, it was voted to have Prudential Committees in school districts. Schools at this period were also super- vised by some competent person or per- sons, as the minister or other learned cit- izens, singly or associated. In the year 1827, the State Legislature made a law requiring a Superintending School Com- mittee in every town. This act is said to have embodied all the valuable points implied in the previous State laws or cus- toms, and it required not less than three or more than five committee men in each case.

THE FIRST COUNTRY SCHOOL HOUSE.

The first country school house in Hop- kinton was, generically speaking, a fram- ed building,, but of very humble appear- ance. It was frequently unpainted, and the unprotected clapboards soon revealed the influence of the elements. Inside, the walls were closed with plain wain- scotting which rapidly grew dingy with time. The seats were arranged on an in- clined plane, while the procumbent por- tions were set with hinges enabling them to be let up with a clatter and down again with a bang. The teacher's desk was not only stationary, but sometimes a complete enclosure,in which the instructor could ensconce himself, and be approach- ed only in one direction, as in an an- cient church pulpit. The huge fire-place was an important item in the sum of out- fits, especially in winter, when it devour- ed large quantities of fuel, trie dying em-

��bers of which sometimes favored the roasting of a potato by some hungry scholar during noon-time. In summer, the otherwise empty volume of space was frequently filled with green boughs, giv- ing the place a more tasty and inviting aspect.

THE ANCIENT SCHOOL TEACHER.

As now, in former times the school teacher in a great measure represented the popular idea of social culture. Dig- nity and learning were considered insep- arable personal qualities ; in the teacher they largely culminated in an excess of firmness and sternness. Too little con- sideration of the gentler elements and principles implied in childish disciplinary needs was entertained by the head of all knowledge in the country district. In- struction was mostly the ultimatum of reputed or even officious authority. Scholars were expected to hear and read, and, hearing and reading, obey and learn. The rod was by no means withheld in the enforcement of this idea. So boys and girls were taught to read, spell, write, cipher, and perchance gained a smatter - ing of grammar and geography. The common educational instruction and dis- cipline of these times has been bur- lesqued by some one in* the following manner:

Old John Brown kept the village day-school,

And a happy old John was he ; He spared not the rod, but he kept the old rule,

As he beat in the A, B, C; Every letter through the little boy's noddle was driven,

As fast as fast could be, While A after B followed C through the noddle,

Like nails in the A, B, C.

John G. Saxe, the humorous poet of Vermont, gives a unique description of the character and experiences of " Ye Pedagogue" of ye aucient time. We quote in part :

Righte learned is ye Pedagogue, Fulle apt to reade and spelle ;

And eke to teache ye parts of speeche, And strap ye urchins welle.

Righte lordlie is ye Pedagogue,

As any turban'd Turke, For welle to rule ye District Schoole,

It is no idle worke.

With such an impersonated ideal at the head of the common school, it is little wonderthat rebellion often festered there, and that open rupture sometimes deposed

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