The History of Education Part 37

188. Dillaway: Founding of the Free School at Roxburie.

189. Baird: Rules and Regulations for Hopkins Grammar School.

190. Statutes: The Ma.s.sachusetts Law of 1642.

191. Statutes: The Ma.s.sachusetts Law of 1647.

192. Court Records: Presentment of Topsfield for Violating the Law of 1642.

193. Statutes: The Connecticut Law of 1650.

194. Statutes: Plymouth Colony Legislation.

195. Flatbush: Contract with a Dutch Schoolmaster.

196. New Amsterdam: Rules for a Schoolmaster in.

197. Statutes: The Pennsylvania. Law of 1683.

198. Minutes of Council: The First School in Philadelphia.

199. Murray: Early Quaker Injunctions regarding Schools.

200. Statutes: Apprentices.h.i.+p Laws in the Southern Colonies.

(a) Virginia Statutes.

(b) North Carolina Court Records.

201. Stiles: A New England Indenture of Apprentices.h.i.+p.

202. The New England Primer: Description and Digest.

QUESTIONS ON THE READINGS

1. What does the selection on The Puritan Att.i.tude (183) reveal as to the extent and depth of the Reformation in England?

2. Characterize the feelings and emotions and desires of the Puritans, as expressed in the extract (184) from Governor Bradford's narrative.

3. Characterize the spirit behind the founding of Harvard College, as expressed in the extract from New England's First Fruits (185).

4. What was the nature and purpose of the Harvard College instruction as shown by the selection 186 a-d?

5. Point out the similarity between the exemptions granted to Harvard College by the Legislature of the colony (187 a) and those granted to mediaeval universities (103-105). Compare the privileges granted Brown (187 b) and those contained in 104.

6. Compare the founding of the Free School at Roxbury (188) with the founding of an English Grammar School (141-43).

7. What does the distribution of scholars at Roxbury (188) show as to the character of the school?

8. State the essentials of the Ma.s.sachusetts Law of 1642 (190).

9. Compare the Ma.s.sachusetts Law of 1642 and the English Poor-Law of 1601 (190 with 174) as to fundamental principles involved in each.

10. What does the court citation of Topsfield (192) show?

11. What new principle is added (191) by the Law of 1647, and what does this new law indicate as to needs in the colony for cla.s.sical learning?

12. Show how the Connecticut Law of 1650 (193) was based on the Ma.s.sachusetts Law (190) of 1642.

13. What does the Plymouth Colony appeal for Harvard College (194 b) indicate as to community of ideas in early New England?

14. What type of school was it intended to endow from the Cape Cod fisheries (194 c)?

15. What is the difference between the Plymouth requirement as to grammar schools (194 d) and the Ma.s.sachusetts requirement (191)?

16. Compare the rules for the New Haven Grammar School (189) with those for Colet's London School (138 a-c).

17. Characterize the early Dutch schools as shown by the rules for the schoolmaster (196) and the Flatbush contract (195).

18. Just what type of education did the Quakers mean to provide for, as shown in the extract from their Rules of Discipline (199)?

19. What kind of a school was the first one established in Philadelphia (198)?

20. Compare the proposed Pennsylvania Law of 1683 (197) and the Ma.s.sachusetts Law of 1642 (190).

21. What conception of education is revealed by the Virginia apprentices.h.i.+p laws (200 a, 1-3) and the North Carolina court records (200 b, 1-3)?

22. Characterize the New England Indenture of Apprentices.h.i.+p given in 201.

SUPPLEMENTARY REFERENCES

Boone, R. G. _Education in the United States_.

Brown, S. W. _The Secularization of American Education_.

Cheyney, Edw. P. _European Background of American Education_.

Dexter, E.G. _A History of Education in the United States_.

* Eggleston, Edw. _The Transit of Civilization_.

Fisk, C. R. "The English Parish and Education at the Beginning of American Civilization"; in _School Review_, vol. 23, pp. 433-49.

(September, 1915.) * Ford, P. L. _The New England Primer_.

* Heatwole, C. J. _A History of Education in Virginia_.

Jackson, G. L. _The Development of School Support in Colonial Ma.s.sachusetts_.

* Kilpatrick, Wm. H. _The Dutch Schools of New Netherlands and Colonial New York_.

* Knight, E. W. _Public School Education in North Carolina_.

* Martin, Geo. H. _Evolution of the Ma.s.sachusetts Public School System_.

Seybolt, R. F. _Apprentices.h.i.+p and Apprentice Education in Colonial New York and New England_.

* Small, W. H. "The New England Grammar School"; in _School Review_, vol. 10, pp. 513-31. (September, 1902.) Small, W. H. _Early New England Schools_.

CHAPTER XVI

THE RISE OF SCIENTIFIC INQUIRY

NEW ATt.i.tUDES AFTER THE ELEVENTH CENTURY. From the beginning of the twelfth century onward, as we have already noted, there had been a slow but gradual change in the character of human thinking, and a slow but certain disintegration of the Mediaeval System, with its repressive att.i.tude toward all independent thinking. Many different influences and movements had contributed to this change--the Moslem learning and civilization in Spain, the recovery of the old legal and medical knowledge, the revival of city life, the beginnings anew of commerce and industry, the evolution of the universities, the rise of a small scholarly cla.s.s, the new consciousness of nationality, the evolution of the modern languages, the beginnings of a small but important vernacular literature, and the beginnings of travel and exploration following the Crusades--all of which had tended to transform the mediaeval man and change his ways of thinking. New objects of interest slowly came to the front, and new standards of judgment gradually were applied. In consequence the mediaeval man, with his feeling of personal insignificance and lack of self- confidence, came to be replaced by a small but increasing number of men who were conscious of their powers, possessed a new self-confidence, and realized new possibilities of intellectual accomplishment.

The Revival of Learning, first in Italy and then elsewhere in western Europe, was the natural consequence of this awakening of the modern spirit, and in the careful work done by the humanistic scholars of the Italian Renaissance in collecting, comparing, questioning, inferring, criticizing, and editing the texts, and in reconstructing the ancient life and history, we see the beginnings of the modern scientific spirit. It was this same critical, questioning spirit which, when applied later to geographical knowledge, led to the discovery of America and the circ.u.mnavigation of the globe; which, when applied to matters of Christian faith, brought on the Protestant Revolts; which, when applied to the problems of the universe, revealed the many wonderful fields of modern science; and which, when applied to government, led to a questioning of the divine right of kings and the rise of const.i.tutional government. The awakening of scientific inquiry and the scientific spirit, and the attempt of a few thinkers to apply the new method to education, to which we now turn, may be regarded as only another phase of the awakening of the modern inquisitive spirit which found expression earlier in the rise of the universities, the recovery and reconstruction of the ancient learning, the awakening of geographical discovery and exploration, and the questioning of the doctrines and practices of the Mediaeval Church.

INSUFFICIENCY OF ANCIENT SCIENCE. From the point of view of scientific inquiry, all ancient learning possessed certain marked fundamental defects. The Greeks had--their time and age in world-civilization considered--made many notable scientific observations and speculations, and had prepared the way for future advances. Thales (636?-546? B.C.), Xenophanes (628?-520? B.C.), Anaximenes (557-504 B.C.), Pythagoras (570- 500 B.C.), Herac.l.i.tus (c. 500 B.C.), Empedocles (460?-361? B.C.), and Aristotle (384-322 B.C.) had all made interesting speculations as to the nature of matter, [1] Aristotle finally settling the question by naming the world-elements as earth, water, air, fire, and ether. Hippocrates (460-367? B.C.), as we have seen (p. 197), had observed the sick and had recorded and organized his observations in such a manner [2] as to form the foundations upon which the science of medicine could be established.

The Greek physician, Galen (130-200 A.D.) added to these observations, and their combined work formed the basis upon which modern medical science has slowly been built up.

On the other hand, some of what each wrote was mere speculation and error, [3] and modern physicians were compelled to begin all over and along new lines before any real progress in medicine could be made. Aristotle had done a notable work in organizing and codifying Greek scientific knowledge, as the list of his many scientific treatises in use in Europe by 1300 (R. 87) will show, but his writings were the result of a mixture of keen observation and brilliant speculation, contained many inaccuracies, and in time, due to the reverence accorded him as an authority by the mediaeval scholars and the church authorities, proved serious obstacles to real scientific progress.