Small beginnings

     A large number of the pioneers of Iowa had an elementary school education, and some had attended higher schools such as academies and colleges. They wanted their children to have the same and better educational opportunities, and schools were provided for, even before Iowa became a Territory.

    Berryman Jennings taught a school at Nashville (also known as Ahwipetuck) in Lee County in 1830. There was not organized government then in the Iowa country. No taxes, therefore, could be levied. Parents who wanted their children taught had to provide schools for them privately. The building in which Jennings taught was a log cabin. About the same time I. K. Robinson taught a school located on the site of Keokuk. When Iowa became a Territory in 1838, there were between 30 and 40 schools where children learned to read, 'rite and "reckon." and perhaps some geography and American history.

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All children to go to school

     The members of the Legislative Assembly passed a law in 1839 providing for the schooling of all the citizens in the Territory between the ages of four and 21. The law was easily made. It was much harder to form school districts, build schoolhouses and hire teachers. To collect information about public school in other states, a school commission was appointed for the Territory. With the information before them collected by this commission, the members of the Legislative assembly could make better school laws. The constitution of 1846 contained a provision for schools which should be in session for not less than three months each year. By 1857 there were 3,300 school districts, but in several hundred of these no school was held. Some country school then had frame or brick one-room buildings, and several towns had larger building constructed of sawed lumber and bricks.

Little one went to school in summer, big ones in winter

     Nearly all the schools in Iowa before 1857 were ungraded. Each school year was divided into a summer term and a winter term. The summer term was usually taught by women, the winter term usually by men. The younger children went to school in the summertime, and the older children and sometimes young men and women attended in the wintertime. Few schools had libraries, but most had....

    

Congregational church in Denmark, Lee County Denmark Academy was opened in this building in 1845

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.... a copy of Webster's Dictionary. Even regular text books were scarce. Sometimes children would bring Bibles and almanacs, which they expected the teachers to use in teaching them to read.

Few high schools

     West of the Alleghanies there were no high schools before 1845. Iowa had only three public schools in 1856 which could be classified as high schools. these schools were located in Tipton, Dubuque and Burlington. But since there was a strong demand for high school education, the churches founded a number of private high schools called by various names such as academies, seminaries, institutions, lyceums and colleges. Of these schools, Denmark Academy at Denmark, Lee County; and Howe's Academy in Henry County had long and notable records. Springdale Seminary was first a Quaker school. Later it became a public high school and one of the best in the State for several decades.

Need of money

     One of the chief obstacles in educational progress in early Iowa was the lack of money. Besides the land there was little property that could be taxed, and the land tax didn't yield much. Happily for the settlers west of the Alleghanies, Congress had been aware of that since the first settlements had been made in the west; and to help them, gave every sixteenth section in each township of public lands to the common schools. The land could be sold and the money thus obtained put out at interest. Only the interest was used for the schools. Some of the Iowa school lands were sold before 1857. But since land was cheap, the interest form the money thus obtained, together with the amount that came from the taxes, was not enough to pay the school costs. Parents who sent their children to the common schools, therefore, sometimes had to pay rates" (tuition).

Study and play

     There were neither as many books nor as many subjects taught in the early schools as now. But in spite of this, the children of that time learned to read, write an do problems in arithmetic well. And many of the early teachers were among the prominent men and women of the Territory and the State. Probably the children in the early schools in Iowa had as good a time at their study and play as children have now. Some of their games were the same as those played now -- pom-pom-pull-away for�

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				Springdale Seminary in the eighteen seventies

 ....instance. A very exciting game then common, but apparently not played now, was called "bull pen." The day of football, baseball and basketball had not quite arrived.

A State University

     Several higher schools founded before 1857 by the Churches were later ranked among the leading colleges of the State. In 1847 provision for a State University was made by the General Assembly, but it was not opened for instruction until 1855. During the territorial period there were no County superintendents, not any permanent Territorial superintendent. But since 1846 Iowa has had a State superintendent of public instruction; and county superintendents since 1858.

Better schools

     The year 1856 is very important in the history of Iowa schools, because a commission of three was then appointed to make recommendations for better schools. One of the commissioners, though not an Iowa, was Horace Mann, sometimes called the father of the American public school. The report of the commission was published the same year.

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     The commissioners recommended:

     1. Public schools for all the children of the State to be supported by taxing the property of the State.

     2. Better trained teachers

     These and other recommendations of the commission were used by the General Assembly in passing new and improved school laws

Questions and Exercises: What subjects were taught in the pioneer schools? Who were to be educated according to the laws of 1839? What was the summer term? Winter term? Where are the Alleganies? Where were the first high schools in Iowa? What did the Churches do for secondary education? How were the public schools financed? Why are the dates 1847, 1855 and 1856 important in Iowa school history?

First buildings of the State University of Iowa The building farthest to the right is the first State Capital, now the administration building of the university