The era of the Collegiate Institute was one of rapid change. Less than twenty years before the school opened, there had been no Brockport. The village came into being with the advent of the Erie Canal in the 1820s. Canal building stimulated settlement, agriculture and industry. A growing country needed more educational opportunities, and academies like the Collegiate Institute provided them.

Pioneers in women's education like Mary Mortimer pictured at left, taught at Brockport. Miss Mortimer was the first head of the "Female Department," and taught philosophy, starting here in December 1841. Mary Lusk, pictured below, taught music in the 1850s.

The options varied over the years, but generally speaking there were three choices: the "Collegiate Department," the "English Department," or the "Teachers Department." The Collegiate Department was a two year course of study that for men consisted entirely of "classical" studies. i.e. readings and composition in Greek and Latin. For women there was some Greek and Latin, but also some modern languages and sciences. The English Department was much more "modern" in focus,stressing science, philosophy and modern languages. The Teachers Department was conducted annually without tuition charge, as a four month course, after which students were pledged to teach, "for a reasonable time," in the public schools.

Male students made up the majority of the student body at the Collegiate Institute, and their curriculum was divided into "Classical" and "English" courses of study. The distinction appeared to be that English was terminal while Classical was meant as preparation for college.

Younger students studied Orthography, Pronunciation, Reading, Elocution, Geography, Natural History, and Grammar. The advanced students studied History, Botany, Astronomy, Geology and Mineralogy, Arithmetic, Algebra and Geometry, Trigonometry, Natural, Moral and Intellectual Philosophy, Composition and Rhetoric, Physiology, Government and Political Economy, Logic and Evidences of Christianity, French, Latin and Greek. Practical courses like Surveying also appeared.

The only professional preparation appeared at the Teachers Department, where the content was centered on "the art of teaching and managing a school."

An example of the Collegiate Course of Study comes from 1864. The Female Classical Course consisted of:

The Gentleman’s Classical Course was different in content, and the 1864 curriculum appears below.

In 1864 both the male and female students completed the English Course. The curriculum appears below.