Early Quaker education in PennsylvaniaWoody, Thomas
History
Early Quaker education in Pennsylvania
Woody, Thomas
Education -- Pennsylvania -- History; Society of Friends -- Education -- History; Thesis (Ph. D.)
If one were to measure American Quaker schoolmasters as some American men
of science have been measured, by the amount of space they have gained
in literature, they would not stand out very strikingly. Of fifty-five
male teachers in and around Philadelphia, but twenty-one of them are
mentioned in five standard works on local history and genealogy. None
of the fifty-five teachers receive mention in all five of the works;
three of them are chronicled in four; seven are mentioned in three of
the five; ten are spoken of in two, twenty-one are given a place in one;
and thirty-four receive no notice. If rated according to such a scheme,
Pastorius, Benezet, and Charles Thompson would head the list, while quite
a number group themselves at the other end of it. The scheme, though it
has not been carried out fully, for example no attempt has been made to
measure the length of the notice, does seem to favor those who stood high
at the time of their service.[1036]
[Sidenote: Individual notice to be very brief]
In the brief notices following, concerning the male teachers, it is not
intended to write biographies. Some of them have already been written,
and to them the reader is directed, if he or she wishes a full account
of the man’s life. Others will not, cannot, ever be written for obvious
reasons. In the space allotted to them here, there is set down only what
has been found of interest concerning them as teachers.
[Sidenote: Anthony Benezet]
[Sidenote: Given charge of Girls School]
In 1742 Anthony Benezet came from Germantown where he had been engaged in
a school,[1037] to be employed by the Board of Overseers of Philadelphia.
He was employed at a salary of £50 to teach arithmetic, writing,
accounts, and French.[1038] He appears to have given very satisfactory
service and to have remained in the same position until 1754 when he was
placed in charge of the Girls School, under the Board’s direction.[1039]
Some students have been under the impression that the Girls School was
entirely independent and a private venture;[1040] but this could not have
been true, for the Board named the subjects he should teach and specified
that he receive at the school “no more than thirty scholars.”[1041] The
school was, however, the result of Benezet’s proposal.
[Sidenote: Attitude as a teacher]
[Sidenote: Aids children of French neutrals]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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