Reflection # 19

Dame schools in Colonial times were schools for women. The teacher of a Dame school was also a woman and the schools would take place in the teachers house. The schools were called Dame schools because during colonial times the women were called dames. So if you translated the word dame then the schools would be called women schools Dame Schools were like primary or head start schools. Women that wished to be educated at least the basics such as learning their alphabets, and how to read would most likely attend a dame school. Dame schools were usually opened to women who were not allowed an eduction in a Latin Grammar Schools. Dame schools were important facilities for education they were the main schools for women and they were used extensively for the first century of colonial development.

In Dame schools the women used a sort of textbook called a hornbook. Hornbooks were paddle handle boards that had imprinted on them the letters of the alphabets in both capital letters and lower case letters. The hornbooks also contained the Lord's prayer or scripture. I was also decorated by the wealthy with jewels and leather.

Education in each colony was instructed and enforced differently. In the New England Colonies the Puritans made sure that everyone had a satisfactory education. The Puritans in the New England Colonies constructed their societies education basically upon the Bible. It was important for all Puritans to know how to read so that they could read the Bible. There belief was that illiteracy was from Satan and this curse would stop them from reading biblical scriptures.
In New England Colonies the little boys and girls attended Dame Schools to learn their basics of how to read and write. At least two-thirds of man and one third of women knew how to sign their signature.

About half of the middle colony knew how to sign their names. School in the middle colonies
were not so much enforced as it was in the New England colonies. It was really up to the families if the children would go to school or not. In the Southern Colonies, they believed mostly in moral values. They thought that the child should be trained first in his or her home. They thought if the families couldn't teach their children, then how can strangers teach them anything.