THE EARLY FREE SCHOOLS OF AMERICA. 66^ 



was another room which would contain one hundred and fifty scholars, 

 with other apartments for the teachers and the meetings of the trus- 

 tees. 



The other school was built in Henry Street, on ground donated by 

 Colonel Henry Rutgers in 1806 ; this building was not completed, 

 however, until 1811, and was then known as School No. 2. In appear- 

 ance it was the same as the one in Chatham Street, but was not quite 

 so large, having accommodations in both floors for about four hundred 

 and fifty pupils. About four hundred children were admitted into the 

 two schools ; the annual expense of each was, as near as could be esti- 

 mated, three dollars per head. 



It was the intention of the founders of these schools — among whom 

 the names of De Witt Clinton, Ferdinand de Peyster, John Murray, and 

 Leonard Bleecker stand prominent as ofiicers — to avoid the teachings 

 of any religious society ; but there were among the people many who 

 thought that sufficient care was not being bestowed upon religious in- 

 struction : to please these malcontents the literary studies of the pupils 

 were suspended one afternoon in every week, and an association of 

 fifty ladies of " distinguished consideration in society " met on this 

 day and examined the children in their respective catechisms. The 

 parents and guardians designated the denomination in the tenets of 

 which they wished their children educated. 



Every authority acquainted with these schools expressed satisfac- 

 tion at the literary improvement of the children. The system em- 

 ployed was that of Mr. Joseph Lancaster, of London, and consisted of 

 class-teaching in reading, wi-iting, and arithmetic. The employment 

 of the scholars, as made up from the printed reports, may be curious 

 reading to many in this era of multitudinous studies. 



Children were first taught to form letters in sand ; then advanced 

 to monosyllabic reading on boards ; from reading on boards to Mur- 

 ray's first book ; from Murray's first book to writing on slates ; from 

 writing on slates to writing on paper — to reading in the Bible — to ad- 

 dition and subtraction — to multiplication and division — to the com- 

 pounds of the first rules — to reduction — to the rule of three. 



To read, write, and know arithmetic in its first branches correctly, 

 was the extent of the educational advantages which the founders of 

 the free-school system deemed necessary for the accomplishment of 

 their purposes. When proficient in these studies the scholars were 

 apprenticed to some useful trade or given a profession, if the inclina- 

 tion and genius of the graduate seemed sufficient to warrant the in- 

 increased outlay. 



This system was better than any that had preceded it. Under its 

 influence the blind obedience that had marked the lower orders of 

 Egypt, the Asiatic and Roman proletariats, and the villeins of the 

 feudal period, passed away. Education, which in the past had been 

 solely aristocratic and theological in its character, became democratic 



