1842 | Education
Education
New York's first Board of Education is established following political and religious controversies over the role of the Public School Society, the private organization that has managed the public schools up to now with state funding (see Hughes, 1841). The Maclay Bill bars all religious instruction from public schools (in accordance with the establishment clause in the First Amendment) and provides no money for parochial schools (see 1843). The new Board will gradually eliminate the Bible from school curricula in response to complaints that the King James Version is anti-Catholic and therefore "sectarian"; the city's new bishop John Hughes will build a system of parochial schools while still continuing to insist that such schools receive public financial support, but he will have no success, nor will any of his successors.
Notre Dame University is founded at South Bend, Indiana, by French-born Catholic missionary Edward (Frederick) Sorin, 28, who arrived at New York from Le Havre in September of last year as a steerage passenger aboard the packet Iowa, reached Vincennes with some fellow priests a month later, and now takes over three log cabins beside a frozen lake. He will bring over some Sisters of Holy Cross from France next year, obtain a charter from the General Assembly of Indiana in mid-January 1844, and serve as Notre Dame's first president until 1865.
Rugby School headmaster Thomas Arnold dies at Rugby, Warwickshire, June 12 on the eve of his 47th birthday, having in 14 years elevated Rugby's academic status and developed a system that other schools will follow.