First day of school in 1902: crowding and chaos

Think school crowding is bad now? “Almost half a million children registered on Manhattan Island,” reported the September 9, 1902 edition of The New York Times. ”Many applicants turned away.”

But the schools superintendent promised that all kids six and over would be enrolled.

“If this is done, it will be the first time in the modern history of New York’s schools that there will have been no ‘waiting list,’” stated the Times.

[Children on the roof of a public school on Clinton Street, 1906, from the Museum of the City of New York]

“This will probably necessitate the arranging of sufficient part-time classes to accommodate about 60,000 children.”

[A crossing guard does his job with a group of school kids on Seventh Avenue and 116th Street, 1899, from the New York Public Library digital collection] 

Another big issue of the day: parents trying to pass off younger kids as school-age. Complained the Times:

“A considerable number of mothers declared unhesitatingly that children not a day over four years old were more than six. Many mothers of foreign birth and with little realization of the purpose of public schools attempt every year to compel the schools to act as a sort of day nursery for them.”

Tags: Clinton Street public school, first day of school NYC, immigrants in NYC public schools, New York City public schools history, NYC public schools, public schools in 1900, schoolchildren in New York City