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Back To School

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Written by Shannon Cournoyer

Tuesday, 29 July 2008

In the early years of our country, children were usually educated at home.

The wealthy would bring in tutors and less affluent parents would teach children themselves. Boys were taught many subjects as befitting their future roles in life - to work the land or be apprenticed to learn a skill - but girls were taught just the basics then taught skills which prepared them for their roles as wife and mother.

The Massachusetts Law of 1642 required that parents and masters of apprentices ensure that the children under their care learn to read and write. This was to ensure that people could read the Bible and understand laws. The Massachusetts Law of 1647 required towns of 50 families to hire a schoolmaster. This was the beginning of what became the American educational system.

The expected amount of education grew into secondary schools such as the academy, a private school that girls could also attend. Then, in the mid-1800s, the common school was born. While parents were often called upon to support earlier schools, these schools were funded by property taxes but otherwise free. The public high school was soon born and, by 1918, all states had laws about compulsory school attendance.

Here in Tennessee, education followed the national examples and, in the early years, children were taught at home. In 1793, a seminary opened. This was a private school that taught Latin, Greek, English and other subjects. Then, just over a decade later, the Hampden Sidney Academy opened and taught similar subjects to boys but also added practical subjects such as surveying and bookkeeping. Other academies followed and then in 1823 a school for girls opened.

Public schools opened in Knox County in the mid-1800s but for limited amounts of time due to funding. After the Civil War, public schools for African-American and white children were created. The city built a new school, the Peabody School, in the 1870s and other public schools also operated, some in rented buildings.

The area continued to add schools and even school systems such as when North Knoxville and West Knoxville became part of the city in 1897. That year, the Heiskell and Maynard schools were built for African-American children, giving them for the first time facilities comparable to those of the white children. Knoxville's school enrollment at the time was 4, 809 students.

The new Knoxville High School opened in 1910, a three-story building of marble and brick. High school went through the eleventh grade. In 1913, compulsory education became law here and two years later, fun at school began as playgrounds were installed at some of the schools.

Then, in 1924, the junior high school came to Knoxville and, during that same decade, the twelfth year of school was added. While kindergartens operated off and on during Knoxville's history, they permanently became part of the state education system in the early 1970s. This leaves the school system much as we know it today, grades one through twelve, with the popular addition of the middle school.