Popularity.

Private schools, also called venture, adventure, or evening schools, first appeared about 1660 in New Netherland and by the beginning of the eighteenth century were found in most cities and towns in America. Colonial private schools were organized by individual schoolteachers who thought they could make a living or at least supplement their incomes by teaching adults and older children in the evenings or at times convenient to the student. The terms were usually short, perhaps six or seven weeks, and the fees were low enough to attract a sufficient number of students to make the teacher's effort worthwhile. In the seventeenth century these schools helped to satisfy the educational needs of apprentices, whose contracts often contained an education clause allowing them to take courses during times when they were not working for their masters. Between 1698 and 1727 at least one hundred apprentice contracts in...