reflection paper#19

A Dame school was basically an early elementary school in English speaking countries. They were made up broadly for the first century of colonial development. They were usually taught by females and the schook was held at the teachers house. Dame schools varied in purpose. Some functioned as day care centers, administered by uneducated women, while others provided the students with a good start in the basics of learning reading, writing, and arithmetic. Dame schools in Colonial England had no desk, blackboards nor maps. Perhaps the only school supply they possessed was the Hornbook. Parents had to pay for their children’s education. Only the wealthy children were able to attend school. The Dame School was what a person might today refer to as an informal day care center. Parents left their children with a female neighbor(a "dame," as such ladies was then called) who taught the children simple material such as things being taught in day care centers today. The children were taught letters (abs’s), numbers and prayers while the dame did what she usually did at home. Judging from my point of view, sending a child to Dame school was like leaving him/her with a babysitter only back in the colonial time there was no such thing as a babysitter. To them, a babysitter was considered to be a teacher even to the little infants who were incapable of learning anything. Dame schools as appose to high schools were much like day care centers. High schools today consist of primarily older students who are steps away from becoming adults. One massive difference is that most public high schools do not require an annual tuition because the country pays for it, as it is part of the country’s education program. Unlike the Dame schools, high schools today offer a wide variety of school supplies such as text books, globes, and white boards with dry erasers. I believe the development in the colonial Time from dame schools to high schools changed for the better. Even though they are two different types of schools, Dame schools were elementary and high schools consisted of older students, I think the improvement was very important and has a huge impact on the way education is today in most public schools.