90 History of Hingham. 



inconsistent with the full development of universal education. 

 In these later days, when girls and boys are entitled to equal 

 privileges and are held up to equal requirements in education, it 

 seems humiliating to think that the girls were held in such low 

 esteem by our ancestors, although Hingham was not peculiar in 

 this respect. It is a pleasure to know that they began, in this 

 second period of our school history, to receive some measure of 

 justice, however inadequate and tardy it seems to have been. 



When it is stated that "■ female schools "' were first established 

 by the new regulations of 1794, it must not be understood that 

 girls were first educated at public expense at that time. It was 

 then that distinct and special education of girls was first pro- 

 vided for. There is satisfactory evidence that girls received in- 

 struction at the public expense in the masters' schools with the 

 boys, but not at so early an age as the boys. 



To understand our school system, its growth and development, 

 we must know exactly what was aimed at. It should be kept in 

 mind always that, from the earliest settlement, the object of the 

 school was to fit boys for college, and to give those who could not 

 go to college instruction in the rudiments only ; and all that it 

 was proposed to teach the girls was to enable them to read and 

 write. Early instruction in the art of reading was generally 

 begun by the girls at home or in the numerous private schools 

 taught by elderly women and known as the " dame schools." 

 When they were sufficiently advanced, they were sent to the 

 master, by whom they were taught to write, something of gram- 

 mar, but rarely anything in geography or arithmetic. The girls' 

 schools were first established, not so much to give additional 

 advantages in these branches as to give instruction in needlework 

 and knitting, which useful branches of learning were outside of 

 the qualifications of the master to teach. The order of instruction 

 and discipline in one of these schools has been described by one 

 of its scholars: "The children were seated on benches around 

 three sides of the room, the teacher occupying a position near the 

 other side. The order of exercises was reading, then sewing, 

 with an allotted task to complete before the close of the school, 

 which was ended with an exercise in spelling." 



The close of this period, in 1828, found our schools badly 

 arranged, uncomfortably crowded in many cases, and not satis- 

 fying the demands of an intelligent and generous community. 

 We can hardly realize how even the first elements of knowledge 

 could have been forced into the minds of the children, — for they 

 certainly did learn much, — when we consider that large numbers 

 were crowded into small rooms, and a la.'ge proportion of the 

 girls were deprived of the advantages of the schools for many 

 months in the year. It is not strange that public-spirited men 

 wero found in this town who had the courage to grapple with 

 the problem and insist upon a radical change in a system so full 

 of evils. 



