Schools of Old: education in the region from 1790-1960
Although the exact dates and locations of some early schools in the area are speculative, it is likely that some small schools were opened in the region in the 1700s.
By 1790, a school was located both in Stone Arabia and at Seebers Lane in the Village of Canajoharie. Neither of these schools would have offered a High School education. Prior to 1824, when the Canajoharie Academy opened, children would have traveled to cities like Albany, Utica, or Troy as young teenagers if they wished for more than the elementary education provided in the numerous one and two room schools scattered across the area.
By 1790, a school was located both in Stone Arabia and at Seebers Lane in the Village of Canajoharie. Neither of these schools would have offered a High School education. Prior to 1824, when the Canajoharie Academy opened, children would have traveled to cities like Albany, Utica, or Troy as young teenagers if they wished for more than the elementary education provided in the numerous one and two room schools scattered across the area.
By the middle 1800s a variety of options were available for education beyond what the small rural schools provided. Special schools for the handicapped were also available. The second school for the Deaf in New York was opened in rural Canajoharie in the hamlet of Buel. That school employed Levi Backus, a recent graduate of the Hartford Academy for the Deaf, as a teacher. Later Backus became a newspaper publisher locally, where he printed the first sign language alphabets in this country.
In addition to the Canajoharie Academy, both Ames and Palatine Bridge also had Academies by the turn of the Century. Although much is made of the basic nature of the educational system in the 1800s, with emphasis placed on the "3 Rs",these schools also taught art, music, |
and vocational occupations, as well as physical education. In Canajoharie, Rufus Grider, an artist with work in the New York State Museum, as well as many other collections, taught art to local students, while in Palatine Bridge, a student of William Merritt Chase taught the art classes for several years.
For those not living in the larger villages of Canajoharie, Ames or Palatine Bridge, smaller one or two room schools served the rural districts. These schools typically provided students with an eighth grade education. By 1905, Palatine had 10 of these schools and Canajoharie had 14. Several of them can still be seen today. The tradition of the one room school also continues in the Amish Community, with two schools located in rural Palatine Bridge.
Most of the rural school houses were maintained by local families: usually three members from the district would make up a board to pay bills and run the school. Most of these schools had one teacher and no administration, and school budgets were no more than a few hundred dollars. Most of these schools closed in the 1940s and 50s when the schools were centralized. This centralization led directly to the construction of the East Hill School in the 1950s. This building augmented the existing West Hill School, built in the 1890s, and the Erie Boulevard High School, built in the 1920s. This exhibit was made possible in part by a Parent and Child Library Services grant from the New York State Library, New York State Education Department. |