Jacksonian Miscellanies, #4: Feb. 4, 1997

Copyright by the editor, Hal Morris, Secaucus, NJ 1997. Permission is granted to copy, but not for sale, nor in multiple copies, except by permission.

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The Common Schools of Massachusetts, 1826

The following is from James G. Carter, Essays on Popular Education, (Boston, 1826), quoted in Education in the United States, A Documentary History, vol 3, p1286ff.

Note that the following refers to New England (particularly Massachusetts), which was unusual for its provision of any free schools at all, and generally thought to have the best school system in the country.


The "Worst Class" of Teachers, in Alleghany County, NY (1843).

From New York State, Dept. of Public Instruction, Annual Report of the Superintendent of Common Schools, ... 1843 (Albany, 1843) quoted in p1294, Education in the United States, A Documentary History, vol 3.


Battling for Souls in a New England College

The last piece is drawn from the description, in The Cornerstone, by Jacob Abbott, of a spontaneous religious revival that occured at Amherst college. Pages 313ff are a mix of mundane day to day routine, together with Abbott's view interpretation of college life as a dramatic struggle for the souls of the students against "haters of religion".

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