The status of public education in Chariton, 1873

Public school teachers --- and public education itself --- faced what seemed to me extreme challenges during the academic year that ended recently, so I was interested in the following assessment of the 1872-1873 school year in Chariton, as published in The Patriot of May 28, 1873, some 150 years ago.

There were approximately 300 students enrolled in the district that year, drawn from territory bounded by city limits. All were housed in the 1867 building shown above, located on the current site of Columbus School. This building burned during October of 1877.

The staff was made up of six teachers directed by Prof. Richard Gibbons Gilson (1827-1900), the principal. All of the teachers that year were women --- 1st Primary, 2nd Primary, 1st Intermediate, 2nd Intermediate, Grammar School and High School.

There were no laws to compel parents to educate their children at the time so classes at the primary and intermediate levels were the largest; grammar school classes much smaller; and the high school program generally included fewer than a dozen. 

Here's the report, published under the headline, "Our Public Schools."

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The schools of this city closed on Thursday last for a vacation until Sept. 1st. From  what we can learn, the schools for the year just past have been conducted in a manner satisfactory to our people. Prof. Gilson, the principal, is sincerely devoted to his noble profession, and was assisted by a corps of teachers whose faithfulness will have its reward in the end, even though at times there is a seeming want of appreciation of unremitting effort which is discouraging.

If parents would give more attention to our schools it would inspire and encourage both teachers and pupils. It is truthfully said that the free schools of our land are doing more good toward establishing a correct standard of national morals than any other instrumentality, the church not excepted.

Parents visits to our schools the past year have been like angels --- few and far between. We hope next term to report a more general interest on the part of parents. When the  children of the present generation shall enter upon the arena of active life, and shall gratefully acknowledge the influence of the public school system in shaping their destiny, then a loftier sentiment will be crystalized in favor of public education, which  will never be obliterated.