Have you heard a television commentator during an election refer to some state or county as a “bellweather?” The term refers to being a leader or accurate indicator of a trend. It is also used in weather forecasting. However the term has been corrupted over time and very few people, including those who use it know the real origin of the term. The roots (pun intended) comes from agriculture.
Originally farmers would place a bell around the neck of castrated male sheep (which is known as a “wether”). Preferably the wether was older, larger and wiser than the other sheep in the flock. And unlike a ram, he would not be off looking for a girlfriend. This belled wether would be the leader of the flock. The flock could hear the bell and would follow him. The farmer could hear the bell and know the flock was safe.
Figure 1. A Belled Wether
Massachusetts was a “belled wether” state in regards to education. This week we continue our visit to Massachusetts by looking at some of the “Firsts” that the Commonwealth can claim.
The Chronology
1635 – Boston Latin School established. This is the oldest public school in America. It was founded April 23, 1635 by the Town of Boston. Admission was determined by examination; students were responsible for reading a few verses from the Bible to show proficiency. The students studied Latin and Greek and the “elementary subjects.”
1642 – Massachusetts Bay Colony Law. Parents were required to educate their children or to make provisions for educating their children. If the children were not being educated properly, the town leaders would apprentice the child. What was the Master (the person to whom the child was apprenticed to) expected to do?
An apprenticeship was a legal contract between the apprentice and master craftsman. As part of the contract, an apprentice agreed to keep trade secrets, obtain his master’s permission before leaving the premises, and abstain from vices such as frequenting taverns and the theater. Most importantly, the apprentice agreed to work for the master without pay for the term of the contract.
Masters provided basic education (reading, writing, and arithmetic), training in the craft, room and board, and sometimes a set of tools or clothes on completion of the apprenticeship.
Virginia passed a similar law in 1646.
Figure 2. A Master inspecting the work of his apprentice.
1644 – First Tax-Payer Funded Public School – On January 1, 1644, by unanimous vote, the citizens of Dedham authorized the first taxpayer-funded public school. This established the precedent that citizens, though taxes, should support schools. The first teacher, Rev. Ralph Wheelock, received 20 pounds annually to instruct students.
1647 – Old Deluder Satan Act. Towns with 50 families had to have a teacher to teach reading and writing. Towns with 100 families had to establish a grammar school so students would be prepared to attend Harvard College.
The religious basis for the act was clear. The act stated its intention was to thwart “ye old deluder, Satan” in his goal “to keepe men from the knowledge of ye Scriptures.” The Puritans believed everyone should be able to read the Bible, and thus avoid Satan’s temptation.
This law is credited for laying the groundwork for public education in the United States. One of the primer books used to teach the children to read could put the fear of God in the child. See Figure 3.
Figure 3. A page from the New England Primer.
1821 – The First Public High School was established. This school was the English High School in Boston and was an alternative to Boston Latin. The school was established to prepare boys for success in business and industry as opposed to preparing students to attend Harvard. Girls were first admitted in the 1970s.
1827 – Massachusetts established public high schools statewide. The Massachusetts legislature passed a law, An Act to Provide for Instruction of Youth, requiring all towns with 500 or more families to set up free, public high schools. The law leads to the creation of public schools across the country as other states follow Massachusetts’ lead.
1837 – Massachusetts was the first state to establish a State Board of Education. The Board was established to promote non-religious common schools.
1837 Horace Mann becomes Secretary of Education in Massachusetts. Horace Mann is widely known as the father of the American public school. He led the campaign for free, universal publicly funded schools. He lived in Dedham where he was elected to the state house of representatives and then later to the Massachusetts Senate where he served as President of the Senate. He was concerned about the decline in education in the state and readily accepted the appointment to be secretary of education.
As secretary he published an annual report. Perhaps his most famous annual report was the 7th which focused on education in Europe. This report featured the work of Pestalozzi, a Swiss educational reformer who established an agricultural school for poor city children. In this school students learned by doing and were treated humanely. Pestalozzi’s views about education influenced education in America, especially as it relates to vocational education. Pestalozzi will be featured in a future Friday Footnote.
1839 – First Normal School in America is established. The first state-supported school to prepare teachers in America was started in Lexington. This indicates that training teachers is important.
1852 – Compulsory School Attendance Law. Massachusetts passed the nation’s first compulsory education law. It required children between 8 and 14 to attend school for at least six weeks.
1855 – Segregated schools are banned in Massachusetts. Passed after a decade-long effort by black parents and their white allies, the “Bill for school desegregation by the Board of Aldermen and the Committee of Public Instruction” was enacted. The bill stated that “in determining the qualifications of scholars to be admitted into any public school, or any district school in this Commonwealth, no distinction shall be made on account of race, color, or religious opinions of the applicant or scholar.”
1868 – First Vocational School Opens. The nation’s first vocational school, the Worcester Polytechnic Institute, opened in Worcester, Massachusetts. The goals were to create a school that combined academics with hands-on learning in science and engineering to prepare young men for careers in the many growing industries. I wonder if they called the curriculum STEM?
1894 – Harvard Introduces Electives in College. Prior to this, the curriculum to be followed and the courses taken by students were rigidly dictated. It was not long before other educational institutions were implementing elective classes.
1908 – Rufus Stimson implements what we now call SAE (Supervised Agricultural Experience) programs at Smith’s Agricultural School. See the Friday Footnote “The Birthplace of Supervise Agricultural Experience Programs” for details.
1909 – Vocational Guidance movement is started. As part of the fast-growing vocational school movement, reformers and philanthropists such as Frank Parsons and Pauline Agassiz Shaw established the Vocation Bureau of Boston and the Breadwinner’s Institute in an effort to provide financial aid and counseling for children who want to go to vocational schools. Parsons is considered the founder of the vocational guidance movement.
Early 1900s – Females are encouraged to take agricultural courses in Massachusetts Schools and be involved in club work.
In 1916 Maud Amsden was the state champion in the Massachusetts boy’s and girl’s potato club. See Figure 4 for the newspaper account of Maud’s project.
Ruth Wood of the Essex County Agricultural School was an expert dairy judger. In addition to placing 2nd at the 1916 National Dairy Show held in Springfield (competing with students from the surrounding eastern states), she also won the stock judging contest at the Topsfield Fair. See Figure 5.
Figure 4. From The Recorder, Greenfield, Massachusetts, February 3, 1917.
Figure 5. Left: The Boston Globe, October 15, 1916,
Right: The Springfield Daily Republican, October 15, 1916.
Concluding Remarks
Much of what we do in the educational arena can trace its roots to Massachusetts. They were indeed the “belled wether” of the education world in the early centuries of America.