DARTMOUTH'S CONTRIBUTION TO TEACHING
IN the early days of New England schools, Harvard College furnished the educated teachers, and in some places, as in Braintree, they succeeded each other for a period of over 125 years. Harvard graduates flourished over the schools of this city, as witness the years when John Adams, after-wards President Adams, sat in Worcester's "great chair" and wielded the rod. Harvard occupied the whole field for generations, but when the little College among the New Hamp-shire hills began to turn out its pro- duct, a new element was added to the educational forces. It soon became a power which had to be reckoned with and it retains that place today.
The first Dartmouth schoolmaster to make his mark as a teacher was Caleb Bingham of the class of 1782. There is and will be no last man. Dartmouth will naturally always contribute effectively to this laudable work. Bingham was the first Dartmouth teacher of lasting reputation, though seven previous graduates practically made this their life-work. Two years after graduation he went to Boston and became principal of a private girls' school. His work attracted such attention that when the Boston reading schools were established, in 1790, he was made the first principal, and remained in the work for many years. He was an eminent schoolbook author, the great rival of Noah Webster. Both published a series of reading books and both published spellers. Bingham's readers sold by the hundreds of thousands. He was the author of the first English grammar ever used in the Boston schools. He was honest, upright, straightforward. As an instance of this is the following story: The treasury of Boston was not overflowing and it became customary to pay the schoolmasters with warrants that were not cashed for many months after. Mr. Bingham finally became tired of this, and one morning there appeared in one of the Boston papers an advertisement offering his town warrant for sale. This was considered an insult, and he was immediately haled before the town meeting and ordered to apologize. His apology ran something like this: "I have done my duty by the town of Boston. I have a family to support. I need the money. If you will agree to pay me regularly as I deserve, I will agree never to advertise another warrant." He received his money regularly after this, though one does not see much apology in his reply.
Incidentally, I might mention another schoolbook author, Benjamin Greenleaf of the class of 1813, the author of the old Greenleaf arithmetics with which most of us had to wrestle.
Omitting all college positions, Dartmouth teachers have been found at the heads of normal schools, high schools, academies, private schools. grammar schools, as superintendents at the head of school systems, and one graduate, John Eaton, was United States Commissioner of Education for fifteen years. These men have proved themselves men of action, of educational force, grit, working power. Today, two normal schools in this state and one in Connecticut are presided over by Dartmouth men. The high schools at Roxbury, Chelsea, Everett, Gloucester, Lawrence, Lynn, Fitchburg, Wakefield, Arlington and a host of other places are controlled by Dartmouth men.
The great Tome Institute at Port Deposit has a Dartmouth man as its new principal. Dartmouth men are superintendents of schools belonging to one-half million people in this state, and if you will pardon the allusion, a Dartmouth man controls the schools of two-fifths of the state of Rhode Island.
A Dartmouth man is assistant superintendent in Boston, another in New York, another in Washington. The state superintendent of New Hampshire and the superintendents of all the principal cities in the state are Dartmouth men.
I mention these simply to show you the extent of Dartmouth influence in education, especially in New England .
I have mentioned the class of 1782. There were four graduates, twenty-five per cent of them gained distinction as an educator. I have not had time to search the records fully and see how this comparison has been maintained since, but I can give you a few statistics bearing on this point. Of the living graduates I have begun with the class of 1842 and taken ten-year classes. The record follows:
Class Living Teacher Pr.Ct. 1842 5 1 .20 1852 12 3 .25 1862 34 5 .15 1872 73 10 .13 1882 57 9 .16 1892 62 14 .22 1902 134 27 .20
These do not represent all the teaching power of these classes; many men taught for a few years and went into business or the professions, but except for the class of 1902 these per cents represent the College's permanent contribution to education. Of my own class, 1878, 73 living, there are 13 teachers, 18 per cent.
Do recent graduates enter teaching? Yes. Class of 1905, 141 living, 29 teaching, 20 per cent. Class of 1906, 162 living, 32 teaching, 20 per cent.
From all this it seems safe to say that one-fifth of the graduates from the College enter upon teaching, and at least 15 per cent remain in the work and attain strong positions. Travel where you may and you will find the hall-mark of the Dartmouth man stamped on the schools and school systems of the country. Altogether by rough computation I find 843 graduates have taught during the larger part of their lives.
The present undergraduate does not see Hanover as it was in the old winter days. The College from Thanksgiving to March was depopulated, the men spreading like locusts over the country, to enrich not to devastate.
Cape Cod in winter was educated by the Dartmouth students. As boy in the grammar schools I was flogged by one Dartmouth man and sent from high school to College by another. As a freshman teaching on the Cape I had on one side of me Black of '75, since Governor of New York, Holt of '76 on the other; and you could not throw a stone at a schoolhouse the length and breath of that sandspit without hitting a Dartmouth man.
As a boy I went to Worcester '69, late physician at the Insane Asylum at Danvers; to Hardy '70, Judge of the Superior Court in this state; to Clay, principal of the Roxbury High School; to Blaisdell, physician and schoolbook author. I know how well they can teach and how strong were their good right arms.
Whittier in his "Snowbound" pays triforte to a Dartmouth man, Joshua Coffin, class of 1817, who was all his life a teacher. A large part of New England was similarly taught, and this list could be made much larger.
Dartmouth men have not been wanderers; they have spent a generation or more in a place. Witness John D. Philbrick at Boston; Carlos Slafter at Dedham; J. O. Sanborn at Hingham; Walter Parker in Boston; Brother Edgerly at Fitchburg. Such men leave an impression on a place which lasts. It is practically ineffaceable. Beyond the confines of our own country the work of one Dartmouth man will stand out preeminent in the enlightenment of China. I refer to Doctor Charles D. Tenney of the class of 1878, to whom the present educational reform movement in China is largely due.
This is a sketchy talk simply to show how wide a field the Dartmouth man has covered in teaching. I often wish some graduate had the inclination and time to work out a connected account of the influence the old College has exerted in this direction. It is a good, field, a great field, and I can only hope some younger graduate may become interested and carry this theme to completion.
Abstract of a talk before the Worcester Dartmouth Club, December, 1906Walter H, Small, Superintendent of Schools at Providence, R. I.
