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2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Thoroughly engaging, November 4, 2006
Written by former elementary school teacher Sue Thomas, A Second Home: Missouri's Early Schools is a fascinating history of Missouri's early schools and their role in taming the frontier, from the first one-room schoolhouses to charity schools for poor and Indian children, "dame schools", denominational schools, subscription schools, and more up until the 1850s and the rise of state-sponsored public education. Chapters address not only the basic facts about the construction and organization of Missouri's first schools, but also daily life for the educators and the students, including the difficulties of balancing schooling with the seasonal pioneer necessities of clearing fields, harvesting crops and providing shelter. A handful of black-and-white photographs and illustrations embellish this well-researched and thoroughly engaging tour of yesteryear.
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2.0 out of 5 stars
Whets the appetite for more information, June 28, 2008
"A Second Home: Missouri's Early Schools," by Sue Thomas, University of Missouri Press, Columbia, 2006. This 142 p. paperback is another in the Missouri Heritage Reader series, a collection on historical topics intended for new adult readers. This one looks at early education in Missouri in ten chapters.
The book begins with an introduction to the settlement of what became Missouri. The region is usually known as Upper Louisiana, Spanish Illinois, or the Illinois Country. It was originally settled by the French at St. Genevieve in about 1750 (near lead mines), and at St. Louis in 1764 (fur trading). St. Louis was settled in the belief that France would give up only its territory East of the Mississippi after their defeat by the British in the French and Indian War. The founders did not anticipate that the Louisiana Territory would be ceded to Spain in 1762. However, Spain administered the territory from New Orleans and had little presence in Upper Louisiana. The territory joined the US with the Louisiana Purchase in 1803. Missouri became a state in 1821.
In the early days, education practices varied widely. Well educated French settlers owned books and typically hired tutors to teach their children. Pioneers who could read taught their children to read from the books available-often a Bible. Teachers were hired on the frontier when available-usually during the winter months. Churches taught reading and writing in their Sunday Schools. Some established parochial schools as early as 1818. The first private tuition school in St. Louis was opened in 1774.
The concept of free public education seems to have been present in Missouri from the earliest days, but conflicted with the traditional idea that parents are responsible for educating their children. Hence, "free" schools were termed pauper schools-intended for the poor. St. Genevieve Academy, chartered in 1807, had a provision to provide free education for Indians and the poor.
The second wave of immigrants in Missouri came down the Ohio River from Kentucky and Virginia. Daniel Boone is typical of this group. Southern land owners favored the formation of private academies and seminaries. Boarding schools for young ladies were reported in Missouri as early as 1820.
The first state constitution (1821) provided for one school or more for each 36-sq. mi. Congressional township "where the poor shall be taught gratis," but implementation was slow. The General Assembly created a "board of commissioners for literary matters," considered a first state board of education in 1835. Henry S. Geyer of St. Louis, a member of the state legislature, is considered the father of Missouri's public education system. His School Act of 1839 and a series of enactments through 1853, provided for the basic school system including township school districts and the University of Missouri.
One room rural schools teaching eight grades seem to have evolved in Missouri by about 1840. They relied on the Lancaster system under which older students taught younger students. The book continues with a discussion of the facilities of the rural schools. Textbooks became available in the 1850s. (The invention of the steam powered rotary printing press in 1833 probably made textbooks affordable.) The first high school in St. Louis was founded in 1853.
The problem of qualified teachers was addressed in the 1850s. By that time a teacher certification system was in place. Three levels of certificates were granted. Testing and certification was by the counties. Normal schools to train teachers were recommended to the legislature in 1858. Lincoln Institute was established in 1866. Kirksville (1867); Warrenburg (1871); Cape Girardeau (1873); Maryville (1905); and Springfield (1905).
The book does a reasonable job of whetting the appetite for more information. It summarizes quite well published information on education in Missouri. A three-page list of additional reading references is included. However, some gaps are apparent. There is little discussion of the development of public high schools throughout the state (which seems to have happened in the 1920s). There is no mention of the Morrill Act of 1862, which provided federal land grants for the establishment of technical and agricultural universities. In an act dated Feb 24, 1870, the state accepted its federal land grant to establish the Missouri School of Mines and Metallurgy at Rolla and the school of agriculture at the University of Missouri at Columbia. The University of Missouri had been founded by the Geyer Act in 1839, but received little support from the legislature. There is little mention of the many private colleges such as Central Wesleyan College in Warrenton, MO, or of the ladies academy that escaped destruction when Danville was burned in the Civil War. There is no mention of Missouri's two private military academies. Eckler school, founded in Montgomery County in 1870, is mentioned.
Students of education and state history will find this a useful introduction to the subject. Index.
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