33:
177:
system. Dame schools were portrayed as travesties of schools, incapable of teaching children anything useful. Some historians have suggested that this is not a complete picture arguing that part of what appealed to families about Dame schools and led to them being criticised by the authorities was that they were run by the working classes for themselves whilst other educational options were guided by middle class officials through the state, charity or the church who wanted to ensure that education did not challenge the strict social structure of
112:. During this time period, reading and writing were taught separately, and it was more common for both girls and boys to learn to read, and for just boys to learn to write. Even so, during the eighteenth century a rising movement discouraged working-class children from learning to write, so in some cases dame school pupils may not have been taught writing at all. The ability to read the Bible, however, was viewed as a religious obligation, so learning to read was always encouraged. Some school dames would teach their pupils the
141:
312:. According to Puritan beliefs, Satan would try to keep people from understanding the Scriptures, therefore it was considered necessary that all children be taught how to read. Dame schools fulfilled this requirement when parents were unable to educate their young children in their own home. For a small fee, women, often housewives or widows, offered to take in children to whom they would teach a little writing, reading, basic prayers and religious beliefs. These women received
220:, under the teacher Mrs. Anne Birkett. It was there that he met his wife, Mary Hutchinson. Of his dame school experience, he said, “The old Dame school did not affect to make theologians, or logicians, but, she taught to read, and she practised the memory, often no doubt by rote; but still the faculty was improved. Something perhaps she explained, and left the rest to the parents, to masters, and to the master of the parish.”
336:. In addition to primary education, girls in dame schools might also learn sewing, embroidery, and other "graces". Most girls received their only formal education from dame schools because of sex-segregated education in common or public schools during the colonial period. If their parents could afford it, after attending a dame school for a rudimentary education in reading, colonial boys moved on to
85:
demand existed and their own qualifications were accepted. Dame schools did not form a network; instead, they were independently run by women in their own local areas. Many of these teachers were either impoverished middle class widows or older unmarried women, or young, unmarried women who needed additional income. A few dame schools were taught by men.
104:, Durham was recorded as receiving four shillings a year per pupil. In the mid-17th century, that sum would be roughly four days wages for a skilled tradesman, and a loaf of bread cost approximately nine shillings. This suggests that dame school teachers received very little for their efforts, and would have to teach many students to make a living wage.
89:
116:, or would invite the local clergyman to teach children the catechism during class time. Typically, rudimentary arithmetic would also be provided, offering pupils the opportunity to learn the calculation of household accounts. Girls in particular would be taught how to knit at school, providing them with an important vocational skill.
188:
surveyed schools across
Britain, including many dame schools. The commission reported that 2,213,694 children of the poorer classes were in elementary day schools. Of that number, 573,536 were attending private schools, including dame schools. The commission painted a woeful portrait of dame schools,
107:
Dame school pupils were the children of tradesmen and labouring parents, and in many cases, a dame school education was the only form of education these children ever received. The teacher would offer class for several hours per the day. In class, she would teach her pupils reading and writing, often
164:
The 19th century was also marked by educational social reform movements, which greatly impacted dame schools. Near the middle of the century, private philanthropists established free schools targeted to educate lower-class children. However, many parents were unhappy to send their children to these
84:
The origins of dame schools are unknown. They seem to have naturally evolved from a demand for accessible early childhood education and cheap, convenient childcare. In many instances, dame schools were taught in the teacher’s own home. School dames laboured with small groups of children wherever a
123:
said of the school dame’s efforts, “There are few country villages where some or other do not get a livelihood by teaching school, so there are now not many but can write and read, unless it have been their own or their parent’s fault.” However, it is difficult to estimate an exact number of dame
176:
However, as the century progressed, dame schools came to be viewed in an increasingly negative light, perhaps because social reformers and politicians alike were so focused on reforming the educational system away from small, localized institutions into a national, standardized, and compulsory
160:
movement also arose in the 19th century, and operated similarly to the dame schools: children would attend Sunday School every Sunday to receive basic literacy instruction and religious lessons. Despite this, in many ways dame schools continued to function in their traditional way: offering
343:
In the 18th and 19th centuries, some dame schools offered boys and girls from wealthy families a "polite education". The women running these elite dame schools taught "reading, writing, English, French, arithmetic, music and dancing". Schools for upper-class girls were usually called
54:
At dame schools, children could be expected to learn reading and arithmetic, and were sometimes also educated in writing. Girls were often instructed in handiwork such as knitting and sewing. Dame schools lasted from the sixteenth century to about the mid-nineteenth century, when
303:
society and their own economic needs, some colonial women in 17th century rural New
England opened small, private schools in their homes to teach reading and catechism to young children. An education in reading and religion was required for children by the
200:
c. 75), a product of the
Newcastle Commission, set the framework for schooling of all children between the ages of 5 and 12 in England and Wales. Subsequently, most dame schools closed since there were now new educational facilities available for children.
124:
schools in
England during a given time period: while school masters and mistresses were licensed, the informal nature of the dame school makes documentation of them scarce. For instance, of 836 villages surveyed in
863:
Greene, Jack and
Rosemary Brana-Shute, and Randy J. Sparks, eds. Money, Trade and Power: The Evolution of Colonial South Carolina's Plantation Society. Columbia, SC: University of South Carolina Press (2001),
51:
These schools were taught by a “school dame,” a local woman who would care for and teach ABCs for a small fee. Dame schools were localized, and could typically be found at the town or parish level.
156:
As more and more parents worked in factories, dame schools offered a form of cheap day care. Some offered only child care, while others also offered education: one cannot generalise. The
59:
was introduced in
Britain. Dame schools were the precursors to present-day nursery and primary schools. Although sometimes ridiculed, there were many famous alumni, including
1076:
181:
society. Dame schools were more informal, run in the kinds of homes their pupils were already familiar with and gave parents more control over their children's schooling.
818:
Harper, Elizabeth P. "Dame
Schools". In Encyclopedia of Educational Reform and Dissent, Thomas Hunt, Thomas Lasley and C D. Raisch, 259–260. SAGE Publications (2010).
32:
360:
The first known school in
Australia was founded in Sydney in December 1789 by Isabella Rossen. The second known school in Australia was founded by Mary Johnson in
873:
Clinton, Catherine. "Dorothea Dix." In The Reader's companion to
American history By, Eric Foner and John Arthur, 289. New York: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 1991.
388:
827:
Ryan, K. R., & Cooper, J. M. C. (2010). Colonial origins. In L. Mafrici (Ed.), Those who can teach (12th ed.). Boston, MA: Wadsworth
Cengage Learning.
845:
Moss, Hilary J. Schooling citizens: the struggle for African American education in antebellum America. Chicago: University of Chicago Press (2009), 133.
398:
854:
Zhboray, Ronald. A fictive people: antebellum economic development and the American reading public. New York: Oxford University Press (1993), 92.
296:, where basic literacy was expected of all classes, than in the southern colonies, where there were fewer educated women willing to be teachers.
282:
165:
middle-class schools, and opted instead to pay to send their children to the local dame school. In many areas of East London, especially in
320:
in coin, home industries, alcohol, baked goods and other valuables. Teaching materials generally included, and often did not exceed, a
393:
383:
897:
337:
990:
Grigg, G.R. " ‘Nurseries of ignorance’? Private adventure and dame schools for the working classes in nineteenth‐century Wales,"
889:
Questions of English: Ethics, Aesthetics, Rhetoric, and the Formation of the Subject in England, Australia, and the United States
305:
373:
921:
378:
328:
and Bible. Both girls and boys were provided education through the dame school system. Dame schools generally focused on the
292:
The education provided by these schools ranged from basic to exceptional. The basic type of dame school was more common in
887:
193:
47:
were small, privately run schools for children age two to five. They emerged in Great Britain and its colonies during the
806:
Tolley, Kimberley. Transformations in schooling: historical and comparative perspectives. New York: Macmillan (2007), 91.
1066:
189:
stating that they failed to provide children with an education that would be serviceable to them later in life.
249:
252:
attends a dame school taught by Mr. Wopsle’s great-aunt, which is described as being nearly entirely useless.
613:
Froid, Amy. “Learning to Invest: Women’s Education in Arithmetic and Accounting in Early Modern England,”
1071:
1045:
309:
153:
140:
185:
56:
48:
1035:
1011:
Wyman, Andrea. "The Earliest Early Childhood Teachers: Women Teachers of America's Dame Schools."
836:
Forman-Brunell, Miriam. Girlhood in America: An Encyclopedia. Santa Barbara: ABC-CLIO (2001), 575.
119:
Dame schools seem to have been widely spread across England by the eighteenth century. The rector
244:
213:
64:
961:
Ferszt, Elizabeth. "Transatlantic Dame School: The Early Poems of Anne Bradstreet as Pedagogy."
1040:
917:
893:
349:
255:
1025:
1030:
528:
229:
217:
197:
120:
345:
235:
68:
60:
1050:
289:
and sometimes French, dancing, singing and embroidery for upper class young ladies.
1060:
265:
239:
178:
170:
157:
954:
490:
286:
166:
129:
532:
364:
in 1791. Both women were convicts supervised by clergyman Rev. Richard Johnson.
329:
293:
145:
995:
361:
223:
101:
602:
Empire of Letters: Letter Manuals and Transatlantic Correspondence, 1680–1820
173:, more children were educated at dame schools than at philanthropic schools.
784:, e.d. Adolphus William Ward, (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1905).
125:
113:
17:
934:
The First School Teachers and Schools in Colonial New South Wales 1789-1810
340:
where a male teacher taught advanced arithmetic, writing, Latin and Greek.
204:
As late as 1850, around 30 percent of all children attended Dame schools.
321:
285:, "dame schools were small private schools taught by women. They taught
109:
97:
886:
Peel, Robin; Patterson, Annette Hinman; Gerlach, Jeanne Marcum (2000).
325:
300:
88:
972:
562:
507:
Education in Tudor and Stuart England: Documents of Modern History
139:
87:
132:, there were dame schools in approximately one village in forty.
674:
The Newcastle Report: The State of Popular Education in England
268:: wrote a poem based on his experience at a dame school in his
1002:
Leinster‐Mackay, Donald P. "Dame schools: A need for review."
628:
Of Education with Respect to Grammar Schools and Universities,
238:: attended a school established by a mistress on Rome Lane in
474:
Popular education and socialization in the nineteenth century
144:
A late 19th century dame school class with five students in
589:
The Teaching of English from the Sixteenth Century to 1870
689:, (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1963), 121–137.
644:
Leinster-Mackay, D.P. “Dame schools: A need for review,”
434:, (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1930), 114–127.
730:
Poetical Works of Goldsmith, Collins, and Wharton, XIII
604:, (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2005), 88–93.
232:: learnt his letters from Mrs Delap at her dame school.
1026:
A Dame's School, photo Peter Henry Emerson (1856–1936)
548:, (London: Frank Cass and Company Limited, 1968), 158.
456:, (East Sussex: Wayland Publishers Ltd, 1979), 5, 8–9.
578:, 1st Ed. (Boston: Charles T. Branford Company), 167.
662:. Great Britain: Shire Publications. pp. 15–16.
797:( Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2001), p. 9
591:, (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1987), 5.
557:“Currency Converter: 1270–2017,” online database,
421:, (London: University of London Press, 1961), 2–4.
161:rudimentary education to pupils for a small fee.
936:(Australian National Museum of Education, 2012)..
795:Women's work?: American schoolteachers, 1650–1920
704:The lost elementary schools of Victorian England,
702:(Yale University Press, 1976) p.15; P. Gardner,
719:, (Boston: Ticknor, Reed, and Fields, 1851), 33.
615:Early Modern Women: An Interdisciplinary Journal
308:. This law was later strengthened by the famous
973:"The History of Education in England – History"
955:http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/00071005.1974.9973404
491:http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/00071005.1974.9973404
1046:Dame School – Staffordshire Figures 1780–1840
476:, (London: Methuen & Co Ltd, 1977), 29–30.
8:
758:, (London: Everyman’s Library, 1907), 39–48.
509:, (New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1976), 114.
154:industrialization of the nineteenth century.
996:http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/00467600500065126
780:Crabbe, George. “Letter XXIV: Schools,” in
1031:The Dame School by Frederick George Cotman
916:, Melbourne, Chronicle Australasia, p.77.
152:Dame schools were largely affected by the
814:
812:
399:History of education in the United States
262:based on his experience at a dame school.
419:A History of English Education from 1760
334:Reading, Riting, Rithmetic, and Religion
31:
525:British Journal of Educational Studies,
410:
389:History of childhood care and education
1077:Women's education in the United States
1004:British Journal of Educational Studies
951:British Journal of Educational Studies
700:Religion and respectability, 1780–1850
646:British Journal of Educational Studies
487:British Journal of Educational Studies
100:in fees. For instance, Dame Seamer of
96:School dames often only charged a few
881:
879:
687:History of Education in Great Britain
640:
638:
636:
574:Sheppard, Robert and Newton, Edward,
468:
466:
464:
462:
448:
446:
444:
442:
440:
7:
519:
517:
515:
501:
499:
299:Motivated by the religious needs of
546:The English Grammar Schools to 1660
352:" etc. rather than "dame schools".
226:: attended a dame school in London.
565: : accessed 3 December 2020).
454:A Short History of English Schools
394:Education in the Thirteen Colonies
384:Education in early modern Scotland
80:17th and 18th century dame schools
25:
1036:A Dame's School by Thomas Webster
949:Higginson, J. H. "Dame schools."
793:Joel Perlmann, and Robert Margo,
732:(Edinburgh: Nichol, 1863), 45–49.
523:Higginson, J. H. “Dame schools,”
1041:The Dame's School by Thomas Faed
932:Burkhardt, Geoffrey Alfred, ed.
745:, (London: Palmer, 1928), 21–23.
485:J.H. Higginson, "Dame schools."
306:Massachusetts School Law of 1642
648:, 24, No. 1 (June 2010), 33–48.
563:https://nationalarchives.gov.uk
374:History of education in England
717:Memories of William Wordsworth
617:, 10, no. 1 (Fall 2015): 3–26.
527:22, Issue 2, (1974): 166–181,
379:Public school (United Kingdom)
1:
533:10.1080/00071005.1974.9973404
208:Notable dame school attendees
194:Elementary Education Act 1870
432:English Education, 1789–1902
216:: attended a dame school in
977:www.educationengland.org.uk
1093:
769:The Schoolmistress, A Poem
672:The Newcastle Commission,
260:The Schoolmistress, A Poem
67:for certain, and possibly
715:Wordsworth, Christopher.
136:19th century dame schools
912:Ross, John (ed.) (1993)
660:The Victorian Schoolroom
743:Life of Charles Dickens
706:(Routledge, 1984) p.16.
430:Adamson, John William.
248:, Dickens’ protagonist
36:Thomas George Webster,
953:22.2 (1974): 166-181.
914:Chronicle of Australia
489:22.2 (1974): 166-181.
149:
93:
92:Examples of hornbooks.
41:
1051:nps.gov school visits
994:(2005) 34:3, 243-262
965:43.3 (2014): 305-317.
559:The National Archives
452:Martin, Christopher.
330:four R's of education
310:Old Deluder Satan Act
143:
91:
35:
992:History of Education
892:. Psychology Press.
767:Shenstone, William.
658:May, Trevor (1994).
186:Newcastle Commission
57:compulsory education
49:early modern period.
1015:50.2 (1995): 29-32.
1006:24.1 (1976): 33-48.
728:Gilfillan, George.
626:Brokesby, Francis.
600:Bannet, Eve Tavor.
1067:History of schools
756:Great Expectations
754:Dickens, Charles.
576:The Story of Bread
245:Great Expectations
214:William Wordsworth
150:
94:
65:William Wordsworth
42:
472:McCann, Phillip.
350:finishing schools
346:female seminaries
256:William Shenstone
198:33 & 34 Vict.
16:(Redirected from
1084:
987:
985:
983:
971:Gillard, Derek.
937:
930:
924:
910:
904:
903:
883:
874:
871:
865:
861:
855:
852:
846:
843:
837:
834:
828:
825:
819:
816:
807:
804:
798:
791:
785:
778:
772:
765:
759:
752:
746:
739:
733:
726:
720:
713:
707:
696:
690:
683:
677:
670:
664:
663:
655:
649:
642:
631:
624:
618:
611:
605:
598:
592:
585:
579:
572:
566:
555:
549:
544:Watson, Foster.
542:
536:
521:
510:
503:
494:
483:
477:
470:
457:
450:
435:
428:
422:
415:
283:Colonial America
230:Oliver Goldsmith
218:Penrith, Cumbria
121:Francis Brokesby
21:
1092:
1091:
1087:
1086:
1085:
1083:
1082:
1081:
1057:
1056:
1022:
981:
979:
970:
963:Women's Studies
946:
944:Further reading
941:
940:
931:
927:
911:
907:
900:
885:
884:
877:
872:
868:
862:
858:
853:
849:
844:
840:
835:
831:
826:
822:
817:
810:
805:
801:
792:
788:
782:Poems, Volume 1
779:
775:
766:
762:
753:
749:
741:Forster, John.
740:
736:
727:
723:
714:
710:
698:T. W. Laqueur,
697:
693:
684:
680:
671:
667:
657:
656:
652:
643:
634:
625:
621:
612:
608:
599:
595:
586:
582:
573:
569:
556:
552:
543:
539:
522:
513:
505:Cressy, David.
504:
497:
484:
480:
471:
460:
451:
438:
429:
425:
416:
412:
407:
370:
358:
338:grammar schools
279:
270:Poems: Volume 1
242:. In his novel
236:Charles Dickens
210:
138:
82:
77:
69:Charles Dickens
38:A Dame's School
28:
23:
22:
15:
12:
11:
5:
1090:
1088:
1080:
1079:
1074:
1069:
1059:
1058:
1055:
1054:
1048:
1043:
1038:
1033:
1028:
1021:
1020:External links
1018:
1017:
1016:
1013:Young Children
1008:
1007:
999:
998:
988:
967:
966:
958:
957:
945:
942:
939:
938:
925:
905:
898:
875:
866:
856:
847:
838:
829:
820:
808:
799:
786:
773:
760:
747:
734:
721:
708:
691:
678:
665:
650:
632:
619:
606:
593:
587:Michael, Ian.
580:
567:
550:
537:
511:
495:
478:
458:
436:
423:
417:Barnard, H.C.
409:
408:
406:
403:
402:
401:
396:
391:
386:
381:
376:
369:
366:
357:
354:
278:
275:
274:
273:
263:
253:
233:
227:
221:
209:
206:
137:
134:
81:
78:
76:
73:
61:Samuel Johnson
27:Type of school
26:
24:
14:
13:
10:
9:
6:
4:
3:
2:
1089:
1078:
1075:
1073:
1070:
1068:
1065:
1064:
1062:
1052:
1049:
1047:
1044:
1042:
1039:
1037:
1034:
1032:
1029:
1027:
1024:
1023:
1019:
1014:
1010:
1009:
1005:
1001:
1000:
997:
993:
989:
978:
974:
969:
968:
964:
960:
959:
956:
952:
948:
947:
943:
935:
929:
926:
923:
919:
915:
909:
906:
901:
899:9780415191197
895:
891:
890:
882:
880:
876:
870:
867:
860:
857:
851:
848:
842:
839:
833:
830:
824:
821:
815:
813:
809:
803:
800:
796:
790:
787:
783:
777:
774:
770:
764:
761:
757:
751:
748:
744:
738:
735:
731:
725:
722:
718:
712:
709:
705:
701:
695:
692:
688:
685:Curtis, S.J.
682:
679:
675:
669:
666:
661:
654:
651:
647:
641:
639:
637:
633:
629:
623:
620:
616:
610:
607:
603:
597:
594:
590:
584:
581:
577:
571:
568:
564:
560:
554:
551:
547:
541:
538:
534:
530:
526:
520:
518:
516:
512:
508:
502:
500:
496:
492:
488:
482:
479:
475:
469:
467:
465:
463:
459:
455:
449:
447:
445:
443:
441:
437:
433:
427:
424:
420:
414:
411:
404:
400:
397:
395:
392:
390:
387:
385:
382:
380:
377:
375:
372:
371:
367:
365:
363:
355:
353:
351:
347:
341:
339:
335:
331:
327:
323:
319:
315:
311:
307:
302:
297:
295:
290:
288:
284:
277:North America
276:
271:
267:
266:George Crabbe
264:
261:
257:
254:
251:
247:
246:
241:
240:Chatham, Kent
237:
234:
231:
228:
225:
222:
219:
215:
212:
211:
207:
205:
202:
199:
195:
190:
187:
184:In 1861, the
182:
180:
174:
172:
171:Bethnal Green
168:
162:
159:
158:Sunday School
155:
147:
142:
135:
133:
131:
127:
122:
117:
115:
111:
105:
103:
99:
90:
86:
79:
74:
72:
70:
66:
62:
58:
52:
50:
46:
39:
34:
30:
19:
1072:School types
1012:
1003:
991:
980:. Retrieved
976:
962:
950:
933:
928:
913:
908:
888:
869:
859:
850:
841:
832:
823:
802:
794:
789:
781:
776:
768:
763:
755:
750:
742:
737:
729:
724:
716:
711:
703:
699:
694:
686:
681:
673:
668:
659:
653:
645:
627:
622:
614:
609:
601:
596:
588:
583:
575:
570:
558:
553:
545:
540:
524:
506:
486:
481:
473:
453:
431:
426:
418:
413:
359:
342:
333:
317:
313:
298:
291:
287:the three Rs
280:
269:
259:
243:
203:
191:
183:
175:
167:Spitalfields
163:
151:
130:Tudor period
118:
106:
95:
83:
53:
45:Dame schools
44:
43:
40:, in England
37:
29:
18:Dame schools
630:(1701), 44.
294:New England
146:East Anglia
128:during the
1061:Categories
922:1872031838
405:References
362:Parramatta
324:, primer,
224:John Keats
148:, England.
102:Darlington
493:at p.166.
356:Australia
179:Victorian
126:Yorkshire
114:Catechism
98:shillings
982:11 March
368:See also
322:hornbook
258:: wrote
110:hornbook
1053:US site
771:. 1742.
676:, 1861.
326:Psalter
316:tuition
301:Puritan
108:from a
75:Britain
920:
896:
984:2017
918:ISBN
894:ISBN
864:305.
348:", "
192:The
169:and
63:and
561:; (
529:doi
281:In
250:Pip
1063::
975:.
878:^
811:^
635:^
514:^
498:^
461:^
439:^
332:—
71:.
986:.
902:.
535:.
531::
344:"
318:"
314:"
272:.
196:(
20:)
Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License. Additional terms may apply.
