Reading, Riting and Rithmatic

[Harry]

This is a photo of the old high school in Fall River. I assume it was the one in use before B.M.C. Durfee HS and the one that Lizzie attended but never graduated from. Note the predominance of male students. Not my kind of school.

Wonder if Lizzie is in that crowd of students.

[Susan]

Cool pic, Harry. Do you know what year its from? I think I see Lizzie peeking out that middle upstairs window.

[Harry]

You're probably right Susan. She'd be up there sulking about something.

Was that the only high school in Fall River? And if so, did the "Hill" students all go there? Or were they all shipped off to private schools?

We know that Lizzie maintained a relationship with at least two school mates (Adelaide Whipp and Lucy Macomber) as she mentions them in her will.

Neither of them sound like they came from the Hill. Lucy went on to become a teacher and Adelaide a print setter.

As for the year I have no idea. The new school, the B.M.C. Durfee high school, opened in 1887.

[augusta]

Emma's schooling is written about in Rebello, page 7:
"No records have been found to document Emma's education. It is believed she was educated in the local public schools. However, it is not known whether Emma graduated from high school.

"Att. Knowlton, at the inquest, asked Emma, 'Have you ever lived away from home?' Emma replied, 'I was away at school about a year and a half.'"..... "This could have been a reference to Emma's education at a female seminary."

[augusta]

Rebello has this to say about Lizzie's education on page 8 of his book:

"Lizzie attended grade school at the Morgan Street School which is now the Nathaniel B. Borden School. She attended high school in Fall River, but left in her junior year ..."

"Note: The Fall River Historical Society maintains a collection of pins from the Fall River High School where Lizzie attended. High school rings became a tradition at the Bradford Matthew Chaloner Durfee High School after it opened in 1887."

From pages 9 & 10:

Mrs Charles Holmes says: "... She entered high school about 15 or 16 years old. It was then held in a wooden building on the corner of June and Locust Streets, which was removed when the present mammoth structure (Bradford Matthew Chaloner Durfee High School was dedicated on June 15, 1887) was presented to the city."

[augusta]

"The Maple Street School, 1889. The teachers are posed on the porch roof for the photographer. One of the first decent schoolhouses in town, the Maple Street School was built in 1855.

"Prior to 1850, Fall River's school system left much to be desired. Discipline and attendance were poor. Many of the schoolhouses were unfit even for livestock, and there was a tendency to hire teachers at the lowest possible wage, without consideration for their competency. It is little wonder that one early schoolmaster despaired that the children would rather work in the mills than attend school."

- From "Fall River - A Pictorial History" by Judith A. Boss, c 1982.

[augusta]

"The first high school in Fall River was established in 1849 in George B. Stone's private school on Franklin Street and shortly afterwards moved into the schoolhouse on June Street. Admission was strictly by examination. From the beginning, girls in Fall River were accepted as students, although that was not the practice in other cities."

- From Fall River, A Pictorial History, by Judith A. Boss, c 1982

If Lizzie started high school when she was "15 or 16" as Mrs. Holmes says, she would have started attending in 1876 or 1877.

[Kat]

Thanks you guys!

The women teacher's seemed to be paid almost 1/2 what the male teachers were paid.
In 1832, at least. There would be a contract for like 3 months and the man's was for $14 a month and a lady's was about $7.50. Whichever sex taught that year, each contract included a room and wood for heat.
Of course, it's possible that the man had a higher degree of education, being that he might have more advantages to gain that.

[Susan]

Thanks for all the research! Made me wonder about the school system when Andrew was going to school if the schools weren't even fit for livestock! Did Andrew go to college, does anyone know? Not important, just my usual wondering about things.

[FairhavenGuy]

Andrew most likely did not go to college and perhaps not even what we would consider to be high school. Few men went to college unless they were planning become a doctor, lawyer or minister. Beyond those three professions there was little need of ordinary schooling beyond the age of 16 years.

Until the system was abolished by Massachusetts in 1883, we were under the horribly inefficient district school system. Communities were divided into districts with each district responsible for hiring a teacher and building a schoolhouse. There was great inequality between districts even within the same city or town. Kat's note about pay is correct although, this too, varied. Wealthier districts might pay as much as $30 or $35 dollars a month to a male teacher while another might pay $15 to $20. Women received considerably less. More women taught summer sessions and more men taught winter sessions, because in most pursuits--farming, fishing, etc.--men were to busy to teach in the summer and had more free time in the winter.

Generally speaking, schools had one or two classrooms. Children from four to sixteen were all in the same classroom. The schoolhouses themselves were usually in horrible repair, freezing in the winter, broiling in the summer and it really a wonder anybody learned to read or write.

We have an 1828 schoolhouse in Fairhaven, which is open to the public a couple of afternoons a week in the summer. My wife and I have both portrayed 19th century teachers there.

[augusta]

That inequality of salaries is horrible. Wasn't there a rule in some places that the female teacher had to be single, because if she were married her husband should be supporting her and she shouldn't be taking a job from someone who needed it more? I can't remember reading of any married men teachers, tho. Did y'all know that General George Custer taught school for a brief time? People didn't have to go to college back then to teach school, did they? Andrew Borden in college ... I just can't picture him shelling out the bucks for it.

[FairhavenGuy]

In order to be a teacher in Massachusetts during the district school days, one only had to be over 16 years old and be a graduate of the district school. Young teachers never taught within their own districts, because they would not have been able to discipline the older students who had, until recently, been their classmates. Female teachers were generally young and unmarried. They often boarded with a family within the district.

[augusta]

Interesting, Fairhaven Guy. It's so hard to fathom a 16 year old who just got done with their own schooling going out into the world to teach. I wonder how well the students learned and how easy or difficult it was for the teacher. Good rule about the teacher teaching in a different area.

[FairhavenGuy]

During the early part of the 1800s, classes were not "taught" the way they are today. Much of the day was made up of students coming to the front of the room and reciting aloud things they had been silently memorizing while at their seats. Recitations were often Bible passages, poems, or passages from whatever books the students could bring from home. There generally weren't any standard texts. Traveling salesmen might sell a parent some school books. Many district schools had no blackboards, no maps, no books of their own. Some had no outhouses! (In one district, it's said that the district committee voted not to build a privy because there were enough trees and bushes near the schoolhouse.)

The teachers' main tasks were maintaining order, using a paddle or switch for discipline as required, and listening to recitations. Still it was a hard job, with as many as fifty or more children of all ages in one room. Often older girls in the school would help care for some of the very youngest students.