Blog #7

 

The value of education was very different between New England, Middle and Southern colonies.  Today education of the young is very valued and promoted, in fact without an education many today would have a hard time finding a reputable occupation.  However in past times education was not always specifically required or promoted with the same value it has today.  The South, for instance, had an economy that was focused, not on education and schooling, but more so on agricultural occupations involving cash crops.  Education in the south was only encouraged and practiced by way of parents choosing to home school their children.  However, the view of education in New England was very different.  New England put a very high value on education of the young, so much that it had the highest literacy rates out of the colonies.  One of the reasons New England put such a value on education centered on religious reasons.  It was important that the children in New England learn to understand and read scriptures from the Bible and other great books.  Children from wealthy families were able to easily afford the needed education, while others had private tutors.  Lastly, when looking at education in the middle colonies it is plain to see they very much resided in the middle between the South and New England colonies as far as education was concerned.  Because the middle colonies were settled by Quakers and the Dutch, they followed different cultural practices.  Going to school was not poorly or highly promoted.  It was very much up to the choice of the parents as to whether they saw value in schooling their children and would send their children to school. If children were sent to school they were most often taught in writing classes so that they would be able to work as apprentices or entrepreneurs in their futures to come.