Jan 26 - School Attendance in 1870 Rutland

1870 Federal Census
Rutland, Vermont

After further examination of the 1870 Federal Census for Rutland, Vermont, I’ve discovered that school attendance was not as common and universal as I had thought.  While there were a handful of 4- and 5-year-olds in school, and 18% of 8-year-olds, the great majority of children did not start school until age 10.  By age 10, 81% of children had attended some school within the past year.  At age 15, 71% were still in school, even if they also worked as apprentices or servants.  By age 16, only 41% had attended any school within the past year.  Some of them lived and worked at home, many were servants and apprentices living with their employers. 

These figures show that what school meant in the lives of children and families was different from what it means today.  Attending school meant sitting quietly, being obedient, listening, and doing tedious written work.  Clearly, parents did not expect their younger children to be able to do this or to benefit from that experience.  Children spent a lot of time playing together and doing chores at home.

A lot of the school teachers listed in this census were 19-year-old young women who had attended school themselves in the past year.  This allowed them to stay in the school environment and begin to earn a living, but it usually meant that they were only qualified to teach at an elementary level.  Probably many teenagers left school because they did not think that school offered much more for them to learn.

Two portions of the population of Rutland stood out in illiteracy and low school attendance: Irish & Canadian immigrants.  A high proportion of adults in these groups could not read or write, and they were less likely to send their children to school or keep them in school beyond the elementary level.  Both of these groups may have had extra disadvantages in not knowing English.  And the parents may have believed that literacy and education were not necessary to a decent life for their children.

Between the ages of 9 and 15, there were 4 Negro children in school, and 3 who were not.  For the most part, these were not immigrant children, so they should be compared to other native Vermont children.  Although their school attendance rate is not proportional to the white population, with such a small sample it is difficult to determine how significant a difference this is. 

I need to do a little more research into the pre-Civil War history of black Vermonters to understand their background better.