Massachusetts Education Law of 1647

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The Massachusetts Education Law of 1647, also known as the "Old Deluder Satan Law" or "The General School Act of 1647", is commonly looked to as the historical first step toward compulsory public education in the United States of America. This law, enacted in the Massachusetts Bay Colony, required every town having more than 50 families to hire a teacher, and every town of more than 100 families to establish a "grammar school". Shortly thereafter, all the other New England colonies, except Rhode Island, followed suit.

The grammar school clause was intended to prepare students to attend Harvard College, whose mission was to prepare young men for the ministry. As a practical matter this law did not require towns to have schools, as very few towns in the Massachusetts of 1647 had at least one hundred families, nor did it require young people to attend school.

The legislation specifically framed ignorance as a Satanic ill to be circumvented through the strategic education of the country's young people. It is interesting to note that while the act represented a push toward the public financing of an educational system, it carried more than a hint of religious pretense seeking the assured existence of a pious citizenry through explicit Christian teaching.

[edit] Text of the legislation

It being one cheife piect of ye ould deluder, Satan, to keepe men from the knowledge of ye Scriptures, as in formr times by keeping ym in an unknowne tongue, so in these lattr times by pswading from ye use of tongues, yt so at least ye true sense & meaning of ye originall might be clouded by false glosses of saint seeming deceivers, yt learning may not be buried in ye grave of or fathrs in ye church & comonwealth, the Lord assisting or endeavors,---

It is therefore ordred yt evry towneship in this jurisdiction, aftr ye Lord hath increased ym to ye number of 50 householdrs, shall then forthwth appoint one wthin their towne to teach all such children as shall resort to him to write & reade, whose wages whall be paid eithr by ye parents or mastrs of such children, or by ye inhabitants in genrall, by way of supply, as ye maior pt of those yt ordr ye prudentials of ye towne shall appoint; pvided, those yt send their children be not oppressed by paying much more ytn they can have tm taught for in othr townes; & it is furthr ordered, yt where any towne shall increase to ye numbr of 100 families or househouldrs, they shall set up a gramer schoole, ye mr thereof being able to instruct youth so farr as they may be fited for ye university, pvided, yt if any towne neglect ye pformance hereof above one yeare, yt every such towne shall pay 5 l to ye next schoole till they shall pforme this order.^{[citation needed]}