The Speaker. From Scott's Lessons in Elocution, 1814 The Flower Girl. 1818 The Catamountain. From The Improved Reader, 1827 1832 A Picture. From Emerson's The Second-class Reader, 1833 Sir Nicholas Gimcrack. From The Intelligent Reader, 1834 A Retired Sailor instructing his sister's grand-children.' Lovell's The Young Speaker, 1844 Page 288 291 294 295 296 297 From An Expressive Attitude. From Lovell's The Young Speaker 300 Copperplate Engraving on the Title-page of Sarjeant's ArithOwned by the American Antiquarian metic, 1788. Society An Illustrated Problem. From Thompson's The American 306 Tutor's Guide, 1808 310 Part of a Page. From Barnard's A Treatise on Arithmetic, Treatise 1830 315 An Illustration. From Lesson First of Emerson's The North American Arithmetic, Part First, 1838 Two Examples in Subtraction. From Emerson's The North Jedidiah Morse. From The New England Magazine The First American Geography Country Store. From Willard's Geography for Beginners, 1826. Owned by the Essex Institute Cataract of Niagara. From Worcester's Elements of Geog- Natural Bridge of Virginia. From Worcester's Elements of Whale Fishing. From Worcester's Elements of Geography, 1829 Frontispiece to Peter Parley's Geography, 1830 A Chinese. From Peter Parley's Geography Norwegian. From Peter Parley's Geography. White Bear. From Olney's A Practical System of Modern Page 352 353 354 355 356 357 raphy, 1831 Progress of Improvement. From The Malte-Brun School 358 Battle of Lexington. From Mitchell's A System of Modern Pronouns. From "Murray's Grammar adapted to the Interjections. From Enoch Pond's Murray's Grammar. 361 361 The Assault. From The Little Grammarian, 1829. Owned 367 by Mr. George A. Plimpton . 368 Gramma Page 369 Prepositions. From The Little Grammarian, 1829. Owned by the Worcester Antiquarian Society The Comparison of Adjectives. From The Little Grammarian. Owned by the Worcester Antiquarian Society. 369 Verbs. From The Little Grammarian. Owned by the Worcester Antiquarian Society Girl learning her lesson. From Frost's Easy Exercises in 370 370 371 Capt. John Smith defending himself from the Indians. Punishment of a man from Billerica. From Taylor's A From Frost's A History of the 374 375 Conflagration of Moscow." 376 From Butler's Sketches of ley's Compend. of History, 1825 Demosthenes declaiming upon the Sea-shore. From Whelp Frontispiece to Godding's First Lessons in Geology, 1846 379 Taking a thief to prison. From Goodrich's The Young 377 378 American, 1842. 380 Old-time Schools and School Books I I BEGINNINGS N 1642, twelve years after the settlement of Boston, the General Court of Massachusetts, "taking into consideration the great neglect of many parents and guardians in training up their children in learning and labor which may be profitable to the commonwealth," ordered that the selectmen in every town should have power to take account of all parents and masters as to their children's education and employment. Each town was to be divided by its selectmen into sections a section to each selectman; and for the families in his apportionment the selectman was responsible. He must see that all the children learned to read, and that they were taught to understand the principles of religion and the capital laws of the country, and, finally, he must make sure that they were put to some useful work. The education required could be provided by the individual parents in their homes, or it could be provided in any manner they chose to devise col |