History of American Education

EDU 230:

Schools and Communities

European Influences on American Educational History

Medieval Period

• Dawn of the “University”– Bologna, Italy – Law– Paris, France – Theology– Salerno, Italy – Medicine

• University = Group of Faculty

• 10th Century = Scholasticism – Faith and Reason– Tied closely to the Church

Ljubinka Jocic

Medieval Period

• Contribution to Western Education– Preserving and Institutionalizing Knowledge– Teaching Corporations, courses of study, and

degree.

Jan Amos Comenius

• Reformist

• Realist

• Pictures to Text

• Wrote first Childrens Picturebook

• Stood up for Women– It was believed women were incapable of

learning

• Devised seven schools, one for each stage of life

Vannessa Downey

Freidrich Wilhelm Froebel

• Founded Kindergarten (1837)

• permissive school atmosphere, emphasis on nature, and the object lesson

• Closely tied to religion– "spiritual mechanism" was the foundation of

early learning

• Children would be nurtured and protected from outside influences

Alison Dewey

Freidrich Wilhelm Froebel

• Kindergarten– featured games, play, songs, stories, and

crafts to stimulate imagination and develop physical and motor skills

– Many of his ideas can still be observed in kindergarten today: learning through play, group games, goal oriented activities, and outdoor time

Johann Herbart

• Education is the methods by which a society gets from one generation to the next. – This includes knowledge, culture, and values.

Individually the student develops physically, mentally, emotionally, morally, and socially.

Nick Jankoviak

Herbert Spencer

• Herbert Spencer (1820-1903)– was known as one of the leading Social

Darwinists of the 19th century. – helped gain acceptance of the theory of evolution – The principle of evolution believed in the process

whereby all things change from the simplest of forms to the most complex

– Spencer was an agnostic who believed that the only way to gain knowledge was through a scientific approach.

Julie Ann Keb

Colonial Period of American Education (ca. 1600-1776)

Puritans

• Christian Revolt– Church of England was beyond reform– Protestant beliefs – fled to America– Bible was God's true law, and that it provided

a plan for living.s• Reading of the Bible was necessary to living a

pious life. The education of the next generation was important to further "purify" the church and perfect social living.

Kay Kizer

Hornbook

• The lessons consisted of different combinations of the following things: the alphabet, vowel and consonant combinations, the Lord's Prayer, a form of a cross, and a praise of the Trinity

Tammy L. Austin

Dame School

• Daycare

The New England Primer

• The New England Primer was a textbook used by students in New England and in other English settlements in North America.

• It was first printed in Boston in 1690 by Benjamin Harris who had published a similar volume in London. It was used by students into the 19th century.

The New England Primer

• In the 1700's schools in the colonies were strongly influenced by religion. It was the intent of the colonists that all children should learn to read

• 1642 Puritan Massachusetts passed a law stating this.

• They believed that an inability to read was Satan's attempt to keep people from the Scriptures.

Mary O'Neill

The New England Primer

• Here are some examples of alphabet rhymes that teach moral values as well as reading.– A In Adam's Fall

We sinned all.B Thy Life to MendThis Book Attend.C The Cat doth playAnd after slay.D A Dog will biteA Thief at night.E An Eagle's flightIs Out of sight.F The Idle FoolIs Whipt at School.

APPRENTICESHIP

• An early form of education in the American colonies was apprenticeship.

• Apprenticeship was a system of on-the-job training which was based on ancient and medieval practices

• After young boys aged 6-8 completed their education at the "Dame school," they were able to read. The curriculum allowed only limited math and writing skills. At about age 9, they were given little choice in their destiny.

Kay Kizer

APPRENTICESHIP

• Options– Attendance at a Latin School, which had

college prep courses, would further their reading skills.

– boys could be trained at home in the occupation of their father

– The third option, apprenticeship, occasionally required monthly payments to the craftsman who served as employer

APPRENTICESHIP

• In the course of about 7 years, the boy was to have learned all of the duties, including matters of faith, and be able to begin his own business.

APPRENTICESHIP

• By 1647, they expanded the definitions to include girls as well, though they were given the privilege only because they were poor

• Each parent and craftsman "struck a deal" that dictated the life of the child.

APPRENTICESHIP

• Primary education in the 1600's focused on physical skills.

• Apprenticeship gave opportunity to spur on economic growth in a two-fold process. – The craftsman received much-needed help

in his work, and children were prepared to continue the skills of business in the succeeding generation.

MASSACHUSETTS EDUCATION LAWS OF 1642 AND 1647

• The first brick on the road to compulsory education in America was laid by the Massachusetts Act of 1642

• Education in itself was not first and foremost in the minds of our founding fathers. – They were interested in escaping religious

oppression– Education became a necessity

Amy L. Matzat

Law of 1642

• Had nothing to do with schools– parents and masters of those children who

had been apprenticed to them were responsible for their basic education and literacy

– if all citizens could understand the written language on some basic level, all citizens would be able to understand and therefore, abide by the governing laws of the land.

Law of 1647

• Formal schooling as we know it became more desirable– Education became more of a social

responsibility as teachers were formally hired for the sole purpose of teaching the nation's young people

LATIN GRAMMAR SCHOOLS

• Born of fear leaders would someday not exist– put their first major stress on secondary

and higher learning

• Harvard College– ease their fears of not having an educated

ministry– Required passing of entrance exam – Latin

and Greek literacyTonjia Miller

LATIN GRAMMAR SCHOOLS

• First was established in Boston in 1635– originally designed for only sons of certain

social classes who were destined for leadership positions in church, state or courts.

– Girls were not considered for these schools because all of the world leaders and important "persons" were males from the upper class brackets.

LATIN GRAMMAR SCHOOLS

• The schools taught reading, writing, and arithmetic. – The purpose of these Grammar Schools

was to prepare the boys for the entrance test for Harvard College

– Thus emphasis was given to reading and speaking Greek and Latin

– First notion of “College Prep”

Harvard College

• Early Years (1636-)– the College offered a classic academic

course based on the English university model

– consistent with the prevailing Puritan philosophy of the first colonists

Harvard College

• (1708) John Leverett– the first president who was not also a

clergyman – marked a turning of the College toward

intellectual independence from Puritanism– 18th and 19th centuries, the curriculum

was broadened, particularly in the sciences

Harvard College

• (1869 to 1909) - Charles W. Eliot– Became modern university– Law and Medical schools were revitalized– graduate schools of Business, Dental

Medicine, and Arts and Sciences were established.

Harvard College

• (1909-33 ) President A. Lawrence Lowell– undergraduate course of study was redesigned to

ensure students a liberal education through concentration in a single field with distribution of course requirements among other disciplines.

– Today, 51 fields of concentration are offered to Harvard College students. The tutorial system, also introduced by Lowell and still a distinctive feature of a Harvard education, offers undergraduates informal specialized instruction in their fields.

Middle Colonies

• Schools sponsored by many different kinds of religious denominations rather than just the Puritan Church - as in New England.

• There was more interest in the middle colonies in practical education. William Penn and Benjamin Franklin stressed such education in Pennsylvania.

Southern Colonies

• (1840s) the Southern states did not have a tradition of public education to build on, as the North did– It was well after the Civil War before the

South legislated for state supported schools

Karen Cheek

Southern Colonies

• Southerners believed that education was a private matter and not a concern for the state– important training a child receives is in the

home where he/she is inducted into the values of the society he/she is about to enter. If the family fails in this endeavor, then how can the schools be more successful?

Southern Colonies

• priority should be placed upon creating a college-bred elite– system helped to perpetuate the sharply defined

social-class structure which existed in the South. – There were planters (plantation owners) and there

were slaves; no middle-class existed in the South to bridge the gap between upper and lower classes

– there was no demand for services beyond that provided for those who could afford to pay.

Southern Colonies

• Anglican religion of the South did not put quite as much emphasis on religious indoctrination through schooling as did Puritan New England

• Knowledge is Power– and as events conspired to bring the Civil

War ever closer, the Southerner asked, "Who should be entrusted with this power?" Certainly not a slave.

Southern Colonies

• In the South, where the religious emphasis was Anglican (Church of England), the religious leaders supported the slave owners by providing oral (not written) religious training for the slaves.– One minister commented:– instead of reading the Bible, literate slaves would soon be

reading documents filtering down from the North inciting rebellion, and pose a threat to the Southern family. Supporting slavery as an institution became the patriotic thing to do.

• Children, in both the North and South, were taught from an early age that mankind was divided naturally by race– The white man had been assigned the task of "civilizing and

enlightening the world".

Early National Period of American Education

(ca. 1776-1840)

Benjamin Franklin

• In October 1727, Franklin and a number of his acquaintances organized a discussion group known as the Junto. – This group examined and debated current

scientific and political ideas and later became known as The American Philosophical Society.

– Believing in the importance of self-education, he founded the first public library in America in 1731 and chartered it in 1742 as the Philadelphia Library.

Christina Meiss

Benjamin Franklin• Franklin, believed that science could solve the problems of

human life and that knowledge came from the senses, observation, and experimentation. – He believed that knowledge should be applied to human affairs,

the economy, and society. – He valued formal education and schooling and he established a

plan for an English-language grammar school in Philadelphia in 1749.

– The proposal was important because it exposed the stimulus for a new education to accompany the new republic.

– The school would teach English, rather than Latin, and devise a curriculum that illustrated scientific and practical skills.

– He wanted the school equipped with laboratories and workshops that contained books, maps, globes, etc., so that students would be aware of the relationships between learning and the environment around them.

Benjamin Franklin

• The English grammar school did not flourish. – The headmaster did not want to implement the innovations

required for the school's success. – Franklin's educational proposals illustrated the emergent

trends of the revolutionary and early national period and also anticipated the course of America's future in education.

– The scientific and utilitarian subjects and methods broke sharply with the classical tradition.

– This showed the English language would become the language of educated persons involved in building a new nation.

– His proposals pointed the way to a more comprehensive educational institution that would offer students a varied curriculum suited to the needs of an emerging and developing nation.

Thomas Jefferson

• General Assembly of Virginia. – While in the Assembly, he introduced a bill that would have

created a free system of tax-supported elementary education for all except slaves.

– This bill was defeated along with another bill he enacted that would have created a public library and updated the curriculum of the College of William and Mary.

– Among the revisions were these topics: ethics, law, history, natural science, and ancient languages.

– He wanted to give the school a more modern and bold approach to education that had not been known until then.

Brad Lightcap

Thomas Jefferson

• After his presidency, the last years of his life were spent creating the University of Virginia at Charlottesville. – This school was to be a visionary new school that

was to introduce America's youth to the new ideas about government and equality.

– He realized that different students have different academic needs and allowed for these differences by electives in his curriculum.

– Jefferson helped push education ahead and allowed for a strong foundation for future universities and colleges.

Noah Webster

• Noah Webster was America's greatest lexicographer, with mastery of twenty languages

• In 1782 Webster identified the need for American schools to have textbooks on the American language and experience as opposed to the British texts which they currently used.

Linda Ebersole Weidner

Noah Webster

• Developed a speller, known as the "Blue-backed Speller" because of its blue binding, became widely used in American schools for a long time.– He wrote two other volumes, a grammar book

and a reader, were less popular, – Webster is still remembered in education today

for the speller, which was officially named "The American Spelling Book".

– His other contribution to American culture at large was his publication of the first uniquely American dictionary, adopted by Congress in 1831 as the national standard

Benjamin Rush

• Reformer

• He wanted American education to be in line with American needs, and work along with the principles of democracy.

• Rush wrote the essay entitled "Thoughts Upon the Mode of Education Proper in a Republic.". This essay consisted of 20 main points

Emily Wassenhove

THE LAND ORDINANCE OF 1785 AND NORTHWEST ORDINANCE OF 1787

• In an effort to consolidate schools and make education mandatory, Congress enacted the Land Ordinance of 1785.– set aside what was known as Section Sixteen in

every township in the new Western Territory for the maintenance of public schools.

– It also allotted section number 29 for the purpose of religion and no more than two townships for a University.

– The separation of church and state was visible by now with the two entities being in different areas.

– Public schools were organized to corral the best minds for training for public leadership.

Kevin VanZant

Northwest Ordinance of 1787

• provided land in the Great Lakes and Ohio Valley regions for settlement.

• Of particular interest is Article 3 of the ordinance, which reads in part: – Religion, morality, and knowledge being

necessary to good government and the happiness of mankind, schools and the means of education shall forever be encouraged.

• education is necessary to become a good citizen and to have a strong government

Northwest Ordinance of 1787

• Schools began teaching more that just religion, reading, and spelling.– Sciences were part of the new curriculum.

Thus, the federal government was able to create a public school system furnished to all children, especially in the new and ever growing West.

THE LANCASTERIAN SYSTEM OF TEACHING

• there was, indeed, a time when education was not a priority at all in the minds of the general public; such was the case during the Early National Period– The situation was especially grim in

England where industrialism was literally swallowing the country's youth

Amy Matzat

THE LANCASTERIAN SYSTEM OF TEACHING

• During this time children had a minimum amount of schooling, if any at all. – The church had tried to get involved in nurturing

the intellect of the youth, however, they were losing their authority in society

– Education took a backseat to children leaving the home in order to pursue employment which would hopefully elevate their stations in life.

– Boys became apprentices to tradesmen and the like and girls entered into domestic service positions.

THE LANCASTERIAN SYSTEM OF TEACHING

• Joseph Lancaster – brought into existence a system of

education during this time in which children could be educated very cheaply,

– however, the quality of this education was questionable at best.

– It was the job of one teacher (who may or may not have been qualified himself for such an undertaking) to teach large numbers of students in one large hall.

THE LANCASTERIAN SYSTEM OF TEACHING

• Monitors were used as a method of "crowd control," hence the schools came also to be known as monitorial schools.– There was an intellectual totem pole that existed within the

system that facilitated this type of instruction.– More advanced students had the responsibility of assisting

in teaching those students below them and so on down the line until virtually everyone within the system had a hand in the teaching process.

– Lancaster's concept of teaching in this manner was theoretically very sound, however, competent teachers were hard to find during this time.

– Given the vast number of students that were involved, monitorial teaching did not come to be the success that Lancaster had hoped for.

EARLY AMERICAN COLLEGES

EARLY AMERICAN COLLEGES

• Colleges began to be established for two reasons. – First, most were founded by religious

denominations. – Second, colleges were the pride of the

community evoked by the revolution, the strange American pursuit of progress, and migration to the west.

Aaron Sandock

EARLY AMERICAN COLLEGES

• Colleges in the early national period were small. – college's graduates in 1827: – Harvard-47, Bowdoin-32, Dartmouth-38, and Yale-

79. – The ratio of college students to the general

population in 1810 was 1 to 1500. – The ratio in 1988 was 1 to 30. – New England's population in the nineteenth

century was one and one-half million. – Less than ten thousand students were attending

college.

EARLY AMERICAN COLLEGES

• Curriculum– Math, Moral Philosophy, Latin, and Greek were

labeled as the classical studies.– After the revolution, chemistry, physics, and

mineralology began to be introduced.– French and German began to replace Latin and

Greek. – The "Parallel Program" was perfected in 1828.

This permitted more modern language, science, political economy, and math.

EARLY AMERICAN COLLEGES

• Throughout this time period, religion was heavily emphasized. – During the colonial and early national eras

colleges seemed to be more like theological schools, rather than liberal arts colleges.

– The President of a college was always a clergyman.

– Professors and students were required to attend chapel daily.

EARLY AMERICAN COLLEGES

• Funding for colleges came from many sources. – Among them were tuition, church

donations of money and land, and legislative appropriations.

– Schools before and after the nineteenth century received money from state governments.

– The Morill Land Grant Act of 1862, stimulated the founding of public colleges.

THE DARTMOUTH COLLEGE

• Dartmouth College has its origins in More's (later Moor's) Indian Charity School– an educational enterprise established in the year

1754 at Lebanon, Connecticut– A royal charter was obtained and approved on

December 13, 1769, establishing a college "for the education and instruction of Youth of the Indian Tribes in this Land in reading, writing, and all parts of Learning which shall appear necessary and expedient for civilizing and Christianizing Children of Pagans as well as in all liberal arts and sciences and also of English Youth and any others.

Christopher DeLuca

THE DARTMOUTH COLLEGE

• The New Hampshire legislature believed that since the majority of the funds to run the college were from the public sector, the college should be a University and therefore a public institution. – The Supreme Court's decision to honor the original charter

is landmark because it illustrates that even though the money for an institution may be from public funds, it is not necessarily considered a public institution.

– The Supreme Court indicated that the controlling factor as to whether an institution is public or not lies with who controls it and not where the funds come from.

– The decision handed down by Chief Justice Marshall in February 1819 to preserve the original charter making it free of interference from the state, is one of the most important statements on the educational freedom of private institutions existing in American jurisprudence.

EDUCATION IN NEW HARMONY,INDIANA

• New Harmony, Indiana was established in 1825 as an experiment in cooperative living. – Robert Owen, who was a British socialist,

founded the community in order to provide a model town based on the principle of common ownership.

Vicky L. Grocke

EDUCATION IN NEW HARMONY,INDIANA

• All people were to be treated the same. – Each member was to be given an equal education,

this included boys as well as girls and adults as well as young children.

– Owen believed that education should begin in early childhood and New Harmony had one of the first infant schools in the United States.

– He also believed that eliminating social classes would be the answer to reforming society as a whole.

EDUCATION IN NEW HARMONY,INDIANA

• The primary groups of people involved in this experiment were the industrial and agricultural working classes– to improve the lives of the working classes

through education of the group. – William MaClure eliminated classical,

conventional education and chose practical schooling that aimed to reform social, economic, and political conditions for his community

EDUCATION IN NEW HARMONY,INDIANA

• MaClure's system of education generally followed the method developed by Johann Heinrich Pestalozzi. – The Pestalozzi method of natural education had two parts,

the specific method and the general method. – He felt that children must feel secure before they could

learn.– He was a realist and he believed that children should learn

through their senses, not through lecturing. – Thus, he would begin with "hands on" experience called

the"object lesson" and gradually expand to the general concepts.

• Although the experiment was short-lived, the movement aroused public interest in education as a means to elevate and equalize social conditions.

Wednesday

• Common School Period (ca. 1840 – 1880)

• Progressive (1880 – 1920)

• Modern (1920 – Present)