麻省学校法

任大弟兄

译自维基百科Massachusetts School Laws词条 （译者： 狮心拿顺）


麻省学校法是麻省湾区殖民地在一六四二，一六四七和一六四八年通过的三条法令。迄今最为著名的是一六四七年法令，也以《防范老骗子撒旦法》（得名于其第一句句子）著称，还有一六四二年的《大学校法》。这些法令通常被认为是美利坚合众国史上，第一次向政府指导的公共教育迈进。这三条法令通过后不久，新英格兰殖民地都制定了类似的法律。大多数中大西洋殖民地紧随其后，而有些南方殖民地，一百年后才开始创建公立学校。


一六四七法令之前的教育规定

殖民地有一系列规范公共教育的法律条款，学校法是其中的一部分。一六四二年的首个麻省教育法打破了盎格鲁撒克逊传统，将教牧人员的教育监管权转交给了殖民地的民选官，授权其定准儿童教育要达成“阅读并理解信仰的真要和当地法规”。它叫家长为其子女、师傅为其学徒的读写能力担负责任，强调教育而非教学。然而，人们在一定程度上疏忽了贯彻执行。可能为了应对这个问题，麻省大法院制定了一六四七年法令，敦促殖民地村镇创办、运作学校，并为其出资。


法令的规定与条款

一六四七年法令特别定规愚昧是一种撒旦般的弊病，国内的青年人必须受教而来克服它。它命令每个五十户以上的村镇必须雇用一个教师，每个百户以上的村镇必须建立“语法学校”。不依从条令的会被课罚五英镑。设立语法学校是为了预备学生进入哈佛大学学习，叫年轻人能担任教牧职分。

法令的根基反映了当时加尔文主义清教徒的思潮，尤其受到约翰.考顿牧师的影响，他是波士顿第一教会的教师和麻省湾区最有号召力的领袖之一。清教徒想要造就能读会写的一代人，以确保法令所说，“老骗子撒旦”不能用无知，来“阻止人获得圣经知识”。他们的信条强调个人对圣经的认识——对现世生活和永恒拯救来说，是必须的。法令同时也赞同释经必须为正当权柄，即，清教徒领袖，所支持——的原则，才能避免“貌似圣人的欺诈，错误的注解”。

这条法令帮助地方社区确保了教育得以代代相传。清教徒也想要避免产生贫困且目不识丁的一代，为叫它笃定不会发生，他们保证了每个公民得到足够的教育，来通晓法律、阅读圣经。十七世纪的生活乃是建立于信仰和来自圣经的法律。

进一步在一六四八年，又通过了一个教育法规，阐述且扩展了一六四二年法令的建校要求。它规定孩童或学徒在父母或师傅的照管下，要学习阅读，公共法律，要理和“某些诚实合法的呼召，工作或职业”。民选官要作为民众的监督，施行检查，如有必要，课罚父母，或改换少年的监护人，不叫其教育被忽视。

法令的实际贯彻明显不相称。到一六五零年代末，所有八个百户村和三分之一的五十户村达到了各自的标准，有了语法学校，雇上了老师。然而，其余的村镇和众多新村不顾这两条命令，被课以罚款。一六六零年的麻省民事法典重申了学校法，但依旧贯彻不力，为了强制执行，一六六八年通过了新条例。


一六四二年麻省学校法文本

因孩童受到良好教育特别有益有利于国家，且鉴于许多父母和师傅太过纵容，轻忽了他们的这种职责。因此每个村镇的民选官要在其辖区四境，警醒观察其兄弟邻里，首先要他们没有一人，在其家中容让野蛮行径，不努力亲自或藉他人教导孩童或学徒，叫他们纯全地阅读英文和法律知识：若有玩忽职守，就要课以二十先令罚款。所有家庭的家长也要（至少）每周一次对孩童和佣人进行信仰的基础和要理问答，且，若有人达不到这个要求，他们至少要叫儿女或学徒不靠书本，学习一些简要的纯正要理，当他们的父母、师傅或民选官检验他们从中学了些什么，就之向他们提问，他们就能如实回答。此外，所有父母和师傅，一定要养育儿女、带领学徒从事诚实合法的呼召，工作或职业，无论是种地或其他有益于自己也有益于国家的行当——既便他们不愿也不能训练他们达成更好的职业。若有民选官劝慰家长后，仍发现他们对上述义务玩忽职守，儿女和佣人因而粗鲁、顽逆且任性，这位民选官就要在两位治安官，或，在邻县法院的帮助下，将其儿女或学徒交给其他家长看管几年（男孩直到廿一岁，女孩直到十八岁满），以便更严格教养，教训其顺服政府的这些法规，因合理手段和之前的教导不能叫他们投身其中。


一六四七年麻省大学校法文本

老骗子撒旦的一个主要阴谋就是阻止人认识圣经，先前叫他们不认识圣经语言，他也在末后叫他们不能使用语言，竭力叫圣经原文的真意被貌似圣徒的骗子所掩盖，被其错误注解所败坏，且为了在教会和国家里，叫学问不与我们的先父一同埋葬在墓中，主帮补我们的奋力而为。因此本法庭命令如下：

在行政区内的每个村镇，因主的恩惠增长到五十户以上，就要即刻指定一位教孩童阅读书写的人，孩子的父母或家长要支付其工资，或由居民一道补助来支付，可以由村镇里的哲士来定妥，只要送孩子来学习的不被逼着支付过于在其他村镇受教育的学费。

其次，我们进一步要求，凡是增长到一百户的村镇，都要设立语法学校，让教师来教导年轻人预备进入大学学习。且若有村镇轻忽这个义务一年以上，都要被课罚每年五英镑，直到有这样的学校来履行这个法令。

任大弟兄

Massachusetts School Laws

The Massachusetts School Laws were three legislative acts of 1642, 1647 and 1648 enacted in the Massachusetts Bay Colony. The most famous by far is the law of 1647, also known as the Old Deluder Satan Law (after the law's first sentence) and The General School Law of 1642. These laws are commonly regarded as the historical first step toward compulsory government-directed public education in the United States of America. Shortly after the three laws passed, similar laws were enacted in the other New England colonies.[1] Most mid-Atlantic colonies followed suit, though in some Southern colonies it was a further century before publicly funded schools were established there.[2]
Education provision prior to the 1647 Act

The law was one of a series of legislative acts directed at public education in the colony. The first Massachusetts School Law of 1642 broke with English tradition by transferring educational supervision from the clergy to the selectmen of the colony, empowering them to assess the education of children "to read & understand the principles of religion and the capital laws of this country." It held parents and masters responsible for their children's and apprentices' ability to read and write, stressing education rather than schooling. However, its implementation appears to have been somewhat neglected. Probably in response to this, the 1647 law was enacted by the Massachusetts General Court to impel the towns of the colony to found, operate and fund schools.[1]

Framing and provisions of the Acts

The 1647 legislation specifically framed ignorance as a Satanic ill to be circumvented through the education of the country's young people. It required every town having more than 50 families to hire a teacher, and every town of more than 100 families to establish a "grammar school". Failure to comply with the mandate would result in a fine of ￡5. The grammar school clause was intended to prepare students to attend Harvard College, whose mission was to prepare young men for the ministry.

The rationale for the law reflected the Calvinist Puritan ethos of the time and in particular the influence of the Reverend John Cotton, who was a teacher in the First Church of Boston and one of the Massachusetts Bay Colony's most influential leaders. The Puritans sought to create a literate population to ensure that, as the law put it, "ye ould deluder, Satan" could not use illiteracy to "keepe men from the knowledge of ye Scriptures." [3] Their religious beliefs emphasized the view that personal knowledge of the Scriptures was an essential requirement for temporal living and eternal salvation.[1] The statute also endorsed the principle that the interpretation of the Scriptures should be done under the aegis of proper authority, namely the Puritan leaders, in order to avoid "false glosses of saint seeming deceivers".[4]

A further piece of educational legislation was passed in 1648, addressing and extending the schooling requirements set out in the 1642 law. It stipulated that children and apprentices, under the authority of parents or masters, were to be taught reading, the public laws, the catechism and "some honest lawful calling, labour or employment." Selectmen were to act as supervisors of the population, conducting examinations and if necessary fining parents or placing the young with other masters if their education was neglected.[1]

The practical implementation of the educational laws appears to have been distinctly inconsistent. By the end of the 1650s, all eight of the 100-family towns and a third of the 50-family towns had met the respective requirements for grammar schools and the hiring of teachers. However, the remainder of the towns and many new towns ignored both mandates and instead paid the fine. The Massachusetts Civil Code of 1660 reiterated the school laws, but still met with a lack of implementation; to enforce it, a fresh act was passed in 1668.[1]

Text of the Massachusetts School Law of 1642

Forasmuch as the good education of children is of singular behoof and benefit to any Common-wealth; and whereas many parents & masters are too indulgent and negligent of their duty in that kind. It is therfore ordered that the Select men of every town, in the severall precincts and quarters where they dwell, shall have a vigilant eye over their brethren & neighbours, to see, first that none of them shall suffer so much barbarism in any of their families as not to indeavour to teach by themselves or others, their children & apprentices so much learning as may enable them perfectly to read the English tongue, & knowledge of the Capital Lawes: upon penaltie of twentie shillings for each neglect therin. Also that all masters of families do once a week (at the least) catechize their children and servants in the grounds & principles of Religion, & if any be unable to do so much: that then at the least they procure such children or apprentices to learn some short orthodox catechism without book, that they may be able to answer unto the questions that shall be propounded to them out of such catechism by their parents or masters or any of the Select men when they shall call them to a tryall of what they have learned of this kind. And further that all parents and masters do breed & bring up their children & apprentices in some honest lawful calling, labour or employment, either in husbandry, or some other trade profitable for themselves, and the Common-wealth if they will not or cannot train them up in learning to fit them for higher employments. And if any of the Select men after admonition by them given to such masters of families shall find them still negligent of their duty in the particulars aforementioned, wherby children and servants become rude, stubborn & unruly; the said Select men with the help of two Magistrates, or the next County court for that Shire, shall take such children or apprentices from them & place them with some masters for years (boyes till they come to twenty one, and girls eighteen years of age compleat) which will more strictly look unto, and force them to submit unto government according to the rules of this order, if by fair means and former instructions they will not be drawn into it.


Text of the Massachusetts General School Law of 1647

It being one chief project of that old deluder, Satan, to keep men from the knowledge of the Scriptures, as in former times by keeping them in an unknown tongue, so in these latter times by persuading from the use of tongues, that so that at least the true sense and meaning of the original might be clouded and corrupted with love and false glosses of saint-seeming deceivers; and to the end that learning may not be buried in the grave of our forefathers, in church and commonwealth, the Lord assisting our endeavors. It is therefore ordered that every township in this jurisdiction, after the Lord hath increased them to fifty households shall forthwith appoint one within their town to teach all such children as shall resort to him to write and read, whose wages shall be paid either by the parents or masters of such children, or by the inhabitants in general, by way of supply, as the major part of those that order the prudentials of the town shall appoint; provided those that send their children be not oppressed by paying much more than they can have them taught for in other towns. And it is further ordered, that when any town shall increase to the number of one hundred families or householders, they shall set up a grammar school, the master thereof being able to instruct youth so far as they may be fitted for the university, provided that if any town neglect the performance hereof above one year that every such town shall pay 5 pounds to the next school till they shall perform this order.


References

^ a b c d e Eric R. Eberling, Massachusetts Education Laws of 1642, 1647, and 1648", in "Historical Dictionary of American Education, ed. Richard J. Altenbaugh. Greenwood Press, 1999. ISBN 0-313-28590-X
^ Patrick W. Shannon, Broken Promises: Reading Instruction in Twentieth-Century America, p. 3. Praeger/Greenwood, 1989. ISBN 0-89789-161-9
^ Andrew J. Milson (ed.), Readings In American Educational Thought: From Puritanism to Progressivism, p. 1. IAP, 2004. ISBN 1-59311-253-X
^ Thomas C. Hunt, "Bible Reading", in Historical Dictionary of American Education, ed. Richard J. Altenbaugh. Greenwood Press, 1999. ISBN 0-313-28590-X

面瓜

看了书，才上了魔鬼的道。

不认字的，只会暴虐，但不会阴毒。