Graduate School of Human-Environment Studies, Kyushu University
Abstract
Since the colonial days in America, there had been some kinds of free schools which were called \u22charity school\u22 or \u22free school\u22. These schools gave religious knowledge, rudimentary literacy and vocational skills to the poor children, in many cases, exclusively to the children of their own denomination. But, in the late eighteenth century, a new kind of free school emerged or was transplanted from England. This \u22new\u22 school sometimes called \u22sunday school\u22 was motivated differently from the \u22old\u22 one. The purpose of this school, it is said that, was to respond to a growing number of the poor children in streets who were left non-educated and non-instructed religiously, and to give all of them indispensable knowledge for republican citizen. This study focuses on arguments concerning free school at that very time and tries to illustrate the framework, in which contemporary people debated on the supply of education to the poor. For this purpose, this study uses articles about free school on a magazine published in Philadelphia, one of the most successful magazines at that time, the American Museum. These articles give us partial answers to the questions: What motivated the people to establish free school in this time? How did contemporary people understand the relationship between the poor and education? Reading these articles, there emerge three different types of view. The authors of the first type regarded education to the poor as the best charity. Using the premise of charity that the rich would be happy if they give alms to the poor and charity is an obligation of the rich to God, they tried to persuade the rich to do this goodness. The second type recommended the free school by using the republican rhetoric, the most popular and influential ideology at that time. The authors of this type tried to control the poor by educating them who would be dangerous for society but were potential voter of republic. The last type, which was possibly minor but so meaningful, opposed the establishment of free school for fear that the supply of education or knowledge to the poor should turn upside down the social order based on the state created by God. However, in spite of these differences in emphasis, Christian charity rooted in medieval times, republican rhetoric, and the fear of social mobility, these were crossed intricately and influenced each other. In conclusion, it was within this complicated framework made by these different views, that the arguments were developed. What does education in free school mean to the poor and change the lives of them? This was the central question about free school in the late eighteenth century America
