Carlos Slafter was a Dedham educator from 1847 till 1892. He began his teaching career in Dedham as an instructor at the Second Middle School, later renamed the Dexter School where, during winter breaks from his Dartmouth studies, he taught four consecutive winter terms. After a brief stint as master of Framingham Academy and High School, he was hired as master of newly established Dedham High School in 1852 where he was principal for the next 40 years. During Slafter’s four decade career in, School Committee adopted many of the Common School era reforms, such as graded schools, public high schools, and predominantly female teachers. And starting in the late 1870’s, partially in response to the influx of immigrants working in local mills, Dedham school leaders, began to adopt some of the so-called “New Education” practices. These included the hiring of school superintendents to further centralize system administration, hire and train teachers, select school texts, design new courses, and adopt educational innovations such as Kindergarten.
In addition to his educational duties, Slafter was ordained in 1865 as a deacon at Trinity Church in Boston which provided him with appropriate credentials for service as chaplain of the Dedham-situated Norfolk County Jail and House of Correction. Slafter also wrote multiple historical works, including a history of Dedham High School and after retirement he produced a voluminous compendium of short biographies of all Dedham teachers from the founding of the first public school in 1644 till 1904, from which the passage below is excerpted. He died on 18 July 1900 in Dedham at the age of 83.
In the present town of Dedham, which, as I have intimated, occupies only a small fraction of the area of the original town, there are seven schools with a total enrollment of 1592 pupils on the last day of December, 1904. The Ames School named in honor of Fisher Ames at the dedication of the new schoolhouse in 1859 is the local successor of the school established in 1644. The Avery School, named in 1867 by the School Committee in honor of Dr. William Avery who gave 50 pounds for the benefit of a “Latin School in Dedham.” The Dexter School, also named in 1867 and, in honor of Samuel Dexter, who was a leading citizen of Dedham from 1762 to 1775. The Endicott School was so named out of respect for the Hon. John Endicott, a leading citizen of Dedham from 1787 till 1857, and for several years her representative in the legislature. The Quincy School took its name from the Hon. Josiah Quincy of Boston, who liberally promoted the settlement of the locality known as Germantown. The Oakdale School bears the local name of its neighborhood. In 1850 the place was chiefly an oak forest, known as “Whiting’s woods.” The Riverdale School was named by the town from the neighborhood estate of Mr. Nickerson when money was appropriated for its first schoolhouse.
The enrollment includes the three Kindergartens which are hardly to be considered as part of the graded school course, because the training in them is not required as a preparation for entering the primary class, or the first grade of the grammar school. The Kindergarten when in session occupy the time of six teachers and enroll ninety–five children from three and a half to five years of age with an average attendance of seventy-five. The inspection of these schools reveals their utility as gateways to the noble edifice of public school instruction. They are most effective as civilizers, places where children, too young to study and coming from all sorts of families, may become accustomed to behave with propriety, may gain much practical use of their hands and eyes, and may learn to exercise their taste and their conscience.
For the primary and grammar schools, including everything between the Kindergarten and the High, a nine years course of training and study is in full operation at the Ames, Avery, and Oakdale. The Quincy has a four year course from which children pass on to the Avery. From the Dexter the pupils enter sixth grade at the Ames. And from the Riverdale eight grades at the same school.
As the work of the elementary schools is now arranged, the pupil can enter High School with a good knowledge of Music and Drawing, a good beginning in Algebra and Latin, some acquaintance with good literature, and with his love of nature and habits of observing her work duly cultivated. The importance of these qualifications it is needless to discuss. But while the studies are thus broadened by exercises to improve the taste and open the eye to the beauties of the universe, the fundamental studies are taught as fully as pupils of that age are capable of instruction. So that, if any are obliged to shorten their school course, they will have gained much useful learning as their years made it possible to acquire. Indeed they will be better educated then they would have been by devoting all their school days to the acquisition of the three utilitarian r’s with grammar and geography added.
The High School enrollment is one hundred ninety-nine; one hundred and sixty from Dedham, nineteen from Westwood, five from Medfield, and one from Dover. The school is instructed by eight regular teachers, music and drawing are in charge of two special teachers. Four courses of study have been arranged, each of four years.
The College Course is shaped to meet the requirements of Yale and Harvard Universities; and students who complete it are expected to be able to enter those institutions by examination; at other New England colleges they will be received on certification.
The Institute Course meets the demands of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the Cambridge Scientific School, and prepares the student to pass examination for those schools or any other institutions of like character.
The General Course prepares for the Normal Schools of any state, for the requirement of cultivated homes and the responsible duties of good citizenship.
A Commercial Course including penmanship, correspondence, bookkeeping, typewriting, stenography and other specialties related to mercantile affairs will prepare students to do more effective work in such an institution.
The adequacy of these courses in the hands of capable teachers and on behalf of well-prepared and diligent students has been abundantly proved year after year. The system is complete, carefully adjusted to the wants of the community and in perfect harmony with the most advanced ideas of public education.
Having indulged in this general review of the Dedham schools, it would be a pleasant duty to speak particularly the fifty-four teachers who are carrying forward this work of training youthful Dedham for the near and remote future. But the more I inspect their excellent performance, the more difficult it is to speak of individuals. So far as I could observe, they were all faithful, intelligent, enthusiastic; working with a common purpose and clearly discerning the end to be attained, namely, a thorough preparation of their pupils for their next step in learning and living.., and no young person in the present generation ought to be found deficient in his qualifications for good citizenship. On the whole, it is evident that the town, which was the first to establish and support a public free school by direct taxation has not faltered in its voluntary efforts to place a good education within the reach of all her sons and daughters.
