The "Old Deluder Satan Act": An Innovation in Colonial Education

Greetings:

As Thanksgiving approaches, I want to bring up a historical innovation within American history that we are not often thankful of: free public education.  Nowadays, there is much talk and action by our government to keep our students healthy and competitive with the rest of the world.   These are all noble ventures, that are essential and crucial for the running of our country.  However, we often forget the point of free public education, which was spearheaded by the Puritans in the 17th century.

The Puritans came to the colonies to be a witness to England and exercise their right to religious liberty.  Obviously, they were not perfect and ended up submitting a harsh system upon the NE colony of Massachusetts, not extending religious freedom to those who followed a different religious drum beat.  This is how they are perceived today.  However, they saw their purpose in the Colonies as one that should always honor God.  The family in Puritan times was a reflection of God within the Commonwealth.  Hence, education was a very important part of Puritan society.

However, the Puritans saw the society growing loose, with parents neglecting the education of their children.  Something had to be done to secure this essential linchpin within colonial society.  It was in this urgency that the "Old Deluder Satan Act of 1647" was passed.  Without this essential piece of legislation, the American educational system (flawed as it is) would have never grown to what it is today.  The following is the text of this important American historical document:

"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 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."


Let us all be thankful for this important innovation in American education by the Puritans in 1647.