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Sherman Williams was born in 1846. Little is known about him until, at age 36, he became the Principal of the First Union Free School. He received a salary of $1,600 a year for this job. At that time there were a series of little school buildings, not one of them worth very much. The challenges of his administration were: obtaining school buildings and space for increasing enrollments; repairs of buildings and classrooms to maintain an adequate level of education, and employing adequately trained teachers. At that time in Glens Falls the following was true: there were 1636 children eligible for school; 1003 children enrolled in school (40% of those eligible), and 406 children attending regularly (25% of those eligible). Children between 8 - 14 were expected to attend school for 14 weeks a year, 8 of them consecutively. Classes averaged between 45 - 50 pupils, but many went way over that. Corporal punishment was used to maintain discipline. Most teachers were only high school graduates and were not certified. He had to deal with drunkards and loafer on the Seminary Hill School property on Church Street. He regarded the teaching of history as essential, emphasizing it in the curriculum, and looking for it when hiring teachers. We are "lacking the most essential thing of all...a healthy public sentiment in favor of public education." When he began, there were 459 pupils and 5 teachers in 3 buildings, averaging about 67 students per teacher. If he hired 1 more teacher, the average would drop to 56 and if he hired 2 more, it would drop to 50 per teacher. In 1883 enrollment jumped to 822 in a school built for 628 pupils so it was decided to eliminate non-resident children...Feeder Canal pupils. The problem was that during the winter the Canal pupils would enter and classes would jump by 40 - 50 pupils each week. During his first year as principal, he made 493 classroom visits and the board members made 165. They recognized 2 main problems: maintaining good deportment, and student idleness. In July of 1883 he reported 4829 cases of tardiness for the year and only 9 pupils neither absent or tardy. By the end of his second year, the tardy numbers dropped to 1083 with 64 perfect attendances. In a quote from an annual report of 1883: "I cannot shut my eyes to the rude manners, the dwarfed intellects, the blunted moral perceptions that I see every day, due to the lack of opportunities. Look at the 60 saloons of this place. What class of citizen do you care to perpetuate? Is it good economy to raise such citizens? The condition is abnormal...in any place the size, the wealth and energy of Glens Falls. By 1884, a new school was built on Glen Street to house 500 students and it became the prototype for future new schools in Glens Falls. At the same time, he began summer training programs for teachers. While he led the district, the first Regents Diploma was awarded and the first student entered college. There was also the first class to graduate 10 students. He became the first Superintendent of the Union Free School District. Teachers in the public schools averaged $400 a year while Glens Falls Academy teachers earned $1,000. Williams recommended that all teachers have a Normal School education and that all salaries be raised. He developed confidence in a public school education. He firmly believed that everyone had the right to a high school education at the public's expense.
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Monument of Sherman Williams |