The development of pioneer area schools is presented in Teachers And Schools On The Tampa Bay Frontier, the fourth of a series on life on the Tampa Bay frontier by Dr. Canter Brown, Jr.
From the first school at Manatee in the mid-1840s by a Presbyterian couple to the founding by O.S.B. monks in 1889 of a school that later became St. Leo College, Brown concisely chronicles our frontier schools.Florida, as its sister states of the Old South, had a strong anti-intellectual streak and thus neglected public education, a legacy too often still with us.
The non-support of public education by the affluent elite, who could afford private tutors and schools, combined with parents who needed their children to work on the farm or tend cattle, created an apathetic environment for public schools.
There were some gifted teachers who guided their students to excellence, too often were recruited martinets who brought order to their classrooms by flogging boys and girls into "docility and mediocrity."
Ironically, it was Reconstruction under the leadership of the Republicans, i.e., Carpetbaggers, white Loyalists, and African Americans, who in 1869 implemented legislation which began Florida's first universal public school system.
Yet, progress was limited as inadequate financing prevailed. For example, Polk County, one of the richest counties, had only 100 students in its public system in 1873. Amid some dissension, Tampa did not erect its first school structure until 1878.
Farther south, a school was established at Joshua Creek in 1870 and Charlotte Harbor in 1873; both of which were operated in church buildings.
African Americans benefited from national policies with a school in Tampa in 1867 and a building in 1870; likewise, a colored school was begun at Manatee in 1873. In 1872 a school for colored children was founded at Brooksville, which has the distinction of being the oldest continuously operating public school in Hernando County.
Initially, white teachers staffed the colored schools, but as black students were trained they took hold.
Brown v. Board of Education in 1954 declared unconstitutional racial segregation in the public schools, but in now Pinellas County there was a school of mixed races, of which "nobody paid any attention to the fact that some of the children were black and some white."
With the end of Reconstruction, conservative whites regained political power and public education was de-emphasized. Combined with the indifference of the public-at-large, schools languished.
Teachers continues Dr. Brown's tradition of scholarship, of which all interested in the genesis of our educational system will find enlightening.
The 5 1/4" X 8 1/2" 80-page illustrated paperback can be ordered for $6.54 from the Tampa Bay History Center, P. O. Box 948, Tampa, FL 33601-0948, telephone 813/228-0097.
This review was published in The Herald-Advocate (Wauchula, Fla.) of October 9, 1997.
Thursday, January 11, 2001