Education:
General Works
The
history of public and private elementary, secondary, and collegiate
education in Connecticut is, on the whole, a happy one, though
a close inspection of the condition of schools throughout the
state's history will not support that generalization unless set
in a national context. Things get bad in Connecticut from time
to time, and are never as good as they should be for delivering
quality education but, compared with almost every other state
in the United States--probably in the world--we're stars. There
are many general histories of education in America, and a study
of one of them should form the first step in an investigation
of education in Connecticut.
A
number of works treat the history of public education in Connecticut
m a general way. One of the best is Charles L. Ames' essay "History
of Education in Connecticut, 1818-1925," in Vol. V of Osborn’s
History of Connecticut in Monographic Form. It is only
about fifty pages and stops in 1925. Ames taught for many years
in rural one-room schoolhouses and then for a third of a century
in Hartford. At the time he wrote this essay, he was a member
of the State Board of Education. Another old standard work, now
superseded, is Bernard C. Steiner, The History of Education
in Connecticut (Washington: U.S. Bureau of Education, 1893).
Samuel Hart wrote a chapter, "The Common Schools of Connecticut,"
for William L. Davis, ed., The New England States (Boston: D.
H. Hurd, 1897), II:695709. Hart was a knowledgeable writer, and
his account is sound, though very dull. A very good piece was
published by the State Board of Education as School Bulletin
no. 4, "Development of State Support and Control of Education
in Connecticut" (Hartford, 1926), by Helen Gertrude Walker,
based on her 1925 Yale dissertation. George Stewart’s A History
of Religious Education in Connecticut to the Middle of the Nineteenth
Century (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1924) is based
on his Yale dissertation (1921). It is divided into three sections:
1633-1712, 1712-1798, and 1798-1861. Stewart does not consider
schools the sole agencies of education, and he devotes more space
to church and family than to schools. He also provides considerable
discussion of child-rearing practices in the colonial period.
About 400 pages, with full scholarly apparatus.
Students
wishing to go beyond these narrative accounts can read the "Annual
Reports" of the Secretary of the Board of Commissioners of
the Common Schools in Connecticut beginning in 1838, and after
1918 of the Commissioner of the State Board of Education. Since
1890 the State Board has published numerous pamphlets called "Connecticut
School Documents," which contain a wealth of essential material.
Searchers will find there everything from catalogs of the normal
schools to primers and copies of old state teachers certification
examinations. There is a complete set at the State Library under
D. Ed. 83s. The State Board also puts out The Connecticut Common
School Journal, founded by Henry Barnard in 1838 and published
after 1912 as Connecticut Schools. It is full of articles on teacher
preparation, health and safety, and other nuts and bolts matters
pertinent to classroom teaching.
Speaking
of Barnard:
MacMullen,
Edith Nye. In the Cause of True Education: Henry Barnard and
Nineteenth-Cenutry School Reform. New Haven, Yale University
Press, 1991. MacMullen is a professional historian associated
with Yale. This is a somewhat hostile interpretation of Barnard.
"MacMullen expertly mines her sources to extract a compelling
biography that also serves as a window into nineteenth-century
school reform. Because of her contribution, we may no longer revere
Henry Barnard, but we will not so easily forget him. L.D. Byas-Smith
in the Journal of the Early Republic. 11 (Fall 1991) 3:438-39.
|
