Early Education in the Colonies


Early education varied greatly in the colonies. There were no early public schools, and families sometimes educated their own children. Others didn't consider education important in their farming communities.

The schools that were established were private ones, and many were church related. The Quakers started a school in Pennsylvania as early as 1689, and they taught both Quaker and non-Quaker students. Churches usually felt people needed to be literate in order to read and understand the Bible.

Dame Schools also taught young children in some colonies. The children would go to a woman's home, where she would teach them to read and write for a fee. Often the teacher would use a hornbook, a piece of wood with a page of writing on each side. When a child could read, understand, and write everything on the hornbook, they were finished with the Dame School. After Dame School, boys might go on to enroll in another school, but the girls would stay home to learn homemaking skills.

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