Education in Alta California

By

Abigail Fox

Vanessa Koons

Settlements of Alta California resembled many other locations in the borderlands of the Spanish Colonial world.  The education of the settlers and natives of Alta California was similar to that seen in other areas of the Spanish world.  Education was used in the borderlands for two purposes.  First the missions were established to educate the neophytes in Catholic doctrine in order to make them faithful to the Spanish Crown. On the other hand, secular education in the presidios and pueblos gained momentum only when the population began to rise in the frontier.  Before that point, people did not have the time to indulge in formal education; life was consumed with learning the many elements of running house and field.  While what people learned was similar throughout the colonial world, individual circumstances caused differences to arise.  The dichotomy between education in the missions and in the presidios and the pueblos illuminates two different models that sought to inform the people of Alta California.

Jesuits were the first settlers and explores sent from the Crown of Spain.  The Jesuits came to Mexico to establish missions in the region of Baja California. After the expulsion of the Jesuits, the Franciscans were sent to Mexico both to re-establish the missions and set up new missions in Alta California.

The Franciscans lived a different life than the Jesuits.  Their life was based on “religious vows of poverty, chastity, and obedience” (Davis 2003:1).  The goals of the Franciscans were to educate the Indians and make them “loyal Spanish subjects” (Meier 2003:2).   The mission of the Crown of Spain was to create loyal “Indian” Spanish subjects.  The Franciscans wanted to convert the Indians for the salvation of the Indians.  In order to educate the Indians, the Franciscans earned college degrees at an apostolic college in Mexico City called the College of San Fernando.  There the Franciscans learned ways to instruct the Indians in the Spanish language, Catholic theology and skills of making various crafts.  Not only did the Franciscans learn ways to assimilate the Indians into Spanish culture, but they also learned some Indian languages that were anticipated in certain areas (Davis 2003:1).

After the Franciscans obtained a degree, they began their operation northward towards Alta California.  Once missions were established in the north, a daily routine was created that began and ended each day with the ring of the mission bells.  Each morning and evening the Franciscans would conduct prayer.  During the day, the Franciscans taught and instructed the Indians in different fields of labor specialization. The mission complex was encircled by “classrooms, stables, liveries, grain mills, warehouses and workshops carrying out the different functions of the time” (Olvera 2003: 2).  The Indians were taught how to be blacksmiths, brick makers, farmers, and cooks.  The Indians were instructed in new culinary methods using different foods and utensils.  The food prepared at the missions tended to be a mixture of both Indian and Spanish cuisine.   

When inducted into the mission way of life in Alta California, the Indians were unable to leave the site.  The Indians were forced to stay at the missions until their education and assimilation into Spanish culture—such as the understanding of Catholicism, the Spanish language, and the mastering of craft skills—was completed (Kidport 2004:1).  In an inventory list from Mission Santa Clara from around 1808 and 1809, 24 cartillas de primera letras (primers) and 24 catones (critical books) were found.  These items were learning materials used by Franciscans to teach the Indians taken into the mission system (Fanta and Skowronek 2004 (a)).  These materials would have taught the “ABCs” of the Spanish language.  The items found in Mission Santa Clara’s inventory give evidence that the Franciscans were teaching the Indians how to read and write, not just catechism. 

Not only are the basic functions of Spanish life being taught, but also means of entertainment. They also served as schools of craft and specialization, not to be confused with the religious instruction also taught by the Franciscans.  There are many records of the Franciscans teaching the Indians how to play instruments, sing and compose music (Holmes 1997: 24).  Father Duran, a Franciscan at Mission San Jose, instructed the Indians in learning to play instruments and compose music. Father Duran created a new system of writing and reading music so that reading music would be easier for the Ohlone to learn.  He was in charge of putting together a thirty-member orchestra.  His orchestra was known throughout the missions of Alta California (Holmes 1997: 24). 

Father Junipero Serra, another well-known educator, focused on the missions as portraying a center for education and salvation.  Father Serra earned a teaching degree from San Fernando College in Mexico City.  Serra’s legacy can be seen in the seven missions he established in Alta California: “San Antonio (1771), San Gabriel (1771), San Luis Obisbo (1772), San Francisco (1776), San Juan Capistrano (1776), Santa Clara (1777), and San Buenaventura (1784)”  (Meier 2003:1).  Because of his accomplishments, he was known as the “Presidente” of the missionary work done in Alta California (Meier 2003:1). 

As the number of established missions in California increased, libraries were created for a source of entertainment and educational material.  In the beginning, the Jesuit priests were among the only literate people on the explorations. The Franciscan explorer had “few books in [from] the mission [which] were the fathers' only means of expanding their knowledge and of entertainment. Often times, Franciscans would trade books with one another and soon their libraries would grow” (Mathes 2003:1).  Reading material was a necessity because it helped save the men from boredom.  With the increase of population and a permanent settlement in place, “each missionary established a library at his respective mission” (Mathes 2003:1).  There is one particular library, which has been popularly noted.  The library is called the Nuestra Senora de Loreto Library.  The library was massively stocked with books.  It had four sections: the working section, the study section, the reference section, and the entertainment section (Mathes 2003:1).  The library is representative of the Spanish Crown’s objectives as well as those of the Franciscans in particular.  The system of conversion and education was successful on the part of the Franciscans.  The need for reading material was present and is symbolic of the growth and continuation of libraries.      

 Just as life permanently established itself at the missions, people outside of the missions came to settle Alta California.  The goal of the Spanish Crown was to create a mission which would help to convert neophytes into loyal citizens of Spain and then they could enter the towns and ranchos as religiously, culturally, and politically converted citizens of New Spain.

While the missions were charged with the education of the neophytes, there was a need to educate the people who settled in the pueblos, ranchos, and presidios.   The availability of education in Alta California was dependent on a two different factors: a family’s financial position and a family’s proximity to presidios and pueblos that had schools in New Spain.  In eighteenth and nineteenth century New Spain, sons of wealthy families commonly were educated by private tutors and at private institutions in Mexico City and Europe.  Aristocrats of both cariole and peninsular blood sought to provide their sons and daughters with the appropriate schooling so that they may be refined.  Sons of wealthy families had the opportunity to be classically trained in the urban centers of New Spain and Europe (Stein 2000:26).  Expedition leader Juan Bautista de Anza was from an aristocratic military family who lived in northern Mexico (Bowman and Heizer 1967:32).  Tradition tells that he was “educated in College San Ildefonso in Mexico City and completed his studies in the military academy” (Bowman and Heizer 1967:32).  

The prestigious Colegio de Vizcaìno provided “for the education of the [female] children of Spaniards” (Fisher and Fisher 1966:171).  The girls were taught subjects that would allow them to “become excellent wives to respectable men in their own rank” (Fisher and Fisher 1966:172).  At the end of her schooling, a young women would have learned how to read, write, sew, iron, cook, and work with basic numbers (Fisher and Fisher 1966:171-172).

The majority of settlers living in the presidios, pueblos, and ranchos of Alta California could not afford to send their children to expensive boarding schools in the cities.  Because there was a complete overall lack of municipal education in early towns and presidios of the frontier, there was an initial educational vacuum (Bean 1973:72).  Early education was largely informal and was provided by older family members such as parents and godparents (Williams 2000 4[1:3]:10).  Children learned the complex skills necessary to survive on the frontier through active participation in everyday activities (Williams 2000 4[1:3]:10).  Education began when a child was just able to walk and he learned how to sit in a saddle (Williams 2000 4[1:3]:10).  Before a child was four, he would be expected to perform chores that would help to inform him of the responsibilities of adult life: watching the animals, caring for younger siblings, driving birds from the fields, and fetching water (Williams 2000 4[1:3]:10).  Girls were expected to begin learning how to manage household expenses.  It was customary that men in Alta California gave all of their “earnings directly to their mothers and wives” (Williams 2000 4[1:2]:1).  It could be expected that girls would have learned a “practical understanding of mathematics and some basic book keeping skills” (Williams 2000 4[1:2]:1).

Children received a small amount of religious instruction from the priests who lived in and around their community.  Despite some formal religious education, children received the majority of moral lessons through stories told by their parents (Williams 2000 4[1:3]:11).  The culture of Alta California was transmitted by oral tradition because the population was largely illiterate (Williams 2000 4[1:3]:11).

Wealthy segments of the population had more opportunities to educate their children.  Elite colonists hired literate soldiers or civilians to teach their children how to read and write (Williams 2000 4[1:3]10).  There was a formal and informal emphasis on teaching proper manners that conveyed “civility;” wealthy parents would supplement their children’s education with books of exercises called tomes which underscored important social concepts (Williams 2000 4[1:3]11).[1]

The dichotomy between the educated and the illiterate began early in California.  In the late eighteenth century, California governors began to recognize the need to establish public grammar schools in presidios and pueblos.  The government tried to establish formal primary schools in the presidios in 1780’s (Williams 2000 4[1:3]:11).  The first classes in one-room schoolhouses rarely had more than 30 pupils (Williams 2000 4[1:3]:11).  All grades of students were taught both religious and secular lessons and hopefully gained a basic knowledge of reading, writing and arithmetic (Williams 2000 4[1:3]:11). 

The situation in pueblo schools was similar to those in the presidios.  In 1794 the first pueblo school was established in San Jose de Guadalupe (Harrison 1937: 122 and James and McMurry 1933:27).  Teacher Manuel Vargas held the first classes in the municipal granary (Harrison 1937:122).  When Vargas was sent to establish schools in San Diego in 1795—later transferred to Santa Barbara in 1798—he was “succeeded by Ramon Laso de la Vega” (Harrison 1937:122 and James and McMurry 1933:27).  He taught 37 pupils how to read, write, and calculate debts (James and McMurry 1933:27).  The teacher complained about his $6.20 salary a month and Governor Borica ordered him to be paid all “revenue from tobacco, a government monopoly, which the Pueblo used, as well as a house for himself and his family” (James and McMurry 1933:27).

In late eighteenth century and early nineteenth century Alta California, children between the years of 7 and 10 were mandated to attend school; in San Jose, children were taught alongside “illiterate non-commissioned officer who might be in the town guard” (James and McMurry 1933:27).  Teachers were minimally qualified to instruct their students and were often paid poorly.   In 1797 the teacher at the Presidio of San Francisco, Corporal Manuel Boronda, was a retired soldier and carpenter (Harrison 1937: 122).  In that same year, Jose Rodriguez, “also a soldier-carpenter, taught the children at Monterey” (Harrison 1937: 122).  Despite the lack of funding and organization, Governor Sola commented that there were schools in the four presidios and two pueblos by 1817 (Harrison 1937: 122).  Though there were schools at major outposts in Alta California, officials found it difficult to compel parents to send their children to school (James and McMurry 1933:33).  In fact, by the Mexican Period (1822) a teacher at a pueblo near Mission San Antonia wrote to Governor Figueroa noting that his elementary school had no students” (Hutchinson 1969:324).  The teacher found that the parents were “working their children too hard for their age” and kept them from attending school (Hutchinson 1969:324).  Children were needed to work in marginal regions of the Mexican world, hence school became a second priority in the frontier.  Many of the low ranking soldados and the pobladores would have been minimally educated.  Like others in the Spanish empire, people would have been as literate as they needed to be.

After the Mexican independence, the federal government attempted to provide more comprehensive and accessible education in Alta California.  The basic fabric of instruction began to evolve into a more complex system.  The teaching of reading, writing, and arithmetic was supplemented by “readers of increasing complexity;” these readers were informally called cartillas, catones, libros and cartas (Williams 2000 4[1:3]:11).  Only a few specific books were used in the curriculum (Jerònimo de Repalda’s Catechism and the Novena of the Most Holy Virgin) because there were few books in California that were not “almost exclusively of a religious character” (Hittell 1885:1 and Williams 2000 4[1:3]:11).  The experiences of Juan Bautista Alvarado, a student in the Presidio of Monterey in the 1820’s, illuminate the situation in secular schools.  Alvarado was from a relatively poor family and had few opportunities for learning beyond the presidio school (Hittell 1885:1).  He had the opportunity to learn little more than rudimentary reading and writing, but his “unusual thirst for learning” was recognized by the governor (Hittell 1885:1).  The governor opened his personal library to Alvarado, who then had access to books like Don Quixote (Hittell 1885:1).  With personal mentorship from the governor, Alvarado received a superior education.

Accounts given from other students at the Monterey Presidio portray a bleaker vision of schools in Mexican California.  Children attended class in a long and narrow schoolroom with few windows (Harrison 1937:124).  The classroom was chilly “even in the summer” because of the thick adobe walls (Harrison 1937:124).  The teacher sat behind a table “covered with a dingy black cloth” placed at one end of the classroom (Harrison 1937:124).  The school was so lacking in funds for supplies that sheets of paper were reused as cartridges in the presidio (Williams 2000 4[1:3]:11). 

Extreme disciplinary action was taken against delinquent students.  Children were commonly punished for spilling precious ink, truancy, laughing aloud, and being unable to recite memorized passages (Harrison 1937:124 and Williams 2000 4[1:3]:11).  Often an infraction as slight as an unintentional inkblot on the paper would elicit severe punishment (Harrison 1937:124).  Children would be slapped on the hand and face, hit with an iron poker, and gagged and whipped with a hempen scourge (Harrison 1937:124 and Williams 2000 4[1:3]:11).   While violent means were taken to punish, students were also positively encouraged to excel.  Teachers at Monterey would bribe the students with sweets, dried fruits, and nuts to memorize passages from the Bible or the Catechism (Williams 2000 4[1:3]:11).  Just as mission and town life in California evolved slowly, education took many years to become accessible to all children in the pueblos and presidios.  It took even longer for education to reach more rural areas. 

From the start of the mission period in California until Mexico’s independence, education was an important aspect in the acculturation and understanding between the newly introduced communities.  With the Jesuits, Franciscans, and eventually the initiation of other literate persons coming to the missions, presidios and rancheros an educated society developed.  Through secular and religious schooling, a culture was acquired a want and need of formal education.  California has a strong history of education in which the state is able to pride itself.  Through the changing of times and the increase in population, learning as always remained as a necessity for life.