Transcript Evolution of American Education

The Evolution of
American
Education
European Settlers
Plymouth
(1620)
Jamestown
(1607)
Jamestown (1607)
• Settlers were “gentleman” and fortune
seekers
• Came to find riches – gold, spices, furs
• Didn’t know farming,
land was owned by the
company
Plymouth (1620)
• Pilgrims came seeking religious
freedom
• Some knowledge of farming
–No plows during
the first 12 years
Education in Colonial America
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Apprenticeships
Dame Schools
Latin Grammar Schools
Higher Education
Apprenticeships
• 1642 - Massachusetts Bay
Colony law
• If children were not
being educated properly,
the town leaders would
apprentice the child
• 1646 - Virginia passed similar law
Old Deluder Satan Act
• 1647 - Massachusetts
• Towns with 50 families
had to have a teacher
to teach reading and
writing
Old Deluder Satan Act
• Towns with 100
families
had to establish a
grammar school
(college prep)
Latin Grammar Schools
• For the elite
• Teachers were ministers
or transients
• Curriculum
– Latin, Greek
• Rote memorization
• Strict discipline
What is it?
What is it?
• A whipping post. These were
outside the school house and
students were tied to it to
receive whippings.
Dame Schools
• Reading and writing was often
taught in dame schools, especially
for females. Dame schools were
often conducted in kitchens.
Students learned only the
rudiments while the
homemaker worked.
Dame Schools
• Women were expected to stick
to their knitting and not meddle
in “such things as are
proper for men, whose
minds are stronger.”
Higher Education
• Colleges were established to train ministers
and government leaders
• Some proficiency in Latin and Greek was
needed for admission
• Curriculum emphasized classics and the
liberal arts
• No sciences or practical subjects were
taught
Our European Heritage
• Seven Liberal Arts
–Trivium
• Grammar
• Rhetoric
• Dialectic
More Liberal Arts
• Quadrivium
• Arithmetic
• Geometry
• Astronomy
• Music
Higher Education . . .
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•
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•
•
Harvard - 1638
William and Mary - 1693
Yale - 1701
Princeton - 1746 (Presbyterian)
Columbia - 1754 (Episcopal)
Higher Education. . .
• Brown - 1764 (Baptist)
• Rutgers - 1766 (Dutch
Reformed)
• Dartmouth - 1769
(Congregationalists)
Elementary Schools
• District School - one elementary
school in a school district, New
England origin, term is now
obsolete
• Common School - a school,
elementary or secondary, that was
available to all students
Elementary Schools….
• Public School - An early term to
differentiate between schools,
P.S. 84
• Primary School - really refers to
schools with grades 1, 2 and 3
Elementary Schools...
• Grammar School - A shortened
form of Latin Grammar School,
curriculum is limited
• Elementary School - What we
have today
Advanced Schooling
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•
Lyceum
Private Venture Schools
Academy
High Schools
Lyceum
• Generally, an adult education
association operated at the
community level
• Had meetings, offered regular
courses by lectures, procured
books, apparatus and collections
Lyceum
• Agriculture was often emphasized
in the early 1800s
• By the mid 1800s thousands of
Lyceums were in operation in the
United States
• There was even a lyceum
association
Private Venture Schools
• Practical matters were taught by
individuals in their own house
• Subjects included surveying, navigation,
accounting, mathematics, etc.
– Similar to the dance, karate, computer, etc.
schools of today.
The Academy
• Ben Franklin’s idea
- 1749
Franklin’s Academy
• Two Divisions
–English School
–Classical School
• Latin master had a title, English
master none
Franklin’s Academy
• Latin master paid twice as
much
• English master had twice as
many students
Academies
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Private
Primarily Classical
Basically College Preparatory
Evolved out of the Latin
Grammar School
Academies
• Sometimes went by other
names
–Institutes
–Seminary
High School
• Originally was terminal
• First High School - Boston 1821
–Boys only, 12 years or older
High Schools
–Entrance examination
required
–English, mathematics,
science, history
High Schools, cont.
• Massachusetts Law of 1827
–Towns with 500+ families
established high schools
–United States History,
bookkeeping, algebra, geometry,
surveying
Massachusetts
–Towns with 4000+ inhabitants
also had to teach Latin,
Greek, history, rhetoric & logic
Early Agricultural Schools
• Gardiner Lyceum (Maine) - 18211832
• Agricultural Seminary (Conn.) 1824-1825
• These schools were boarding
schools - didn’t survive long
Early Ag Schools
• Boston Asylum and Farm School 1832
– “the establishment of a farm school in
the country, where idle and morally
exposed children of the city can be
rescued from vice and danger”
Growth of Schools
7000
6000
5000
4000
Academy
High School
3000
2000
1000
0
1800
1830
1860
1880
1900
High School Attendance
90
80
70
60
73.3
51.4
50
40
30
20
10
0
76.5
32.3
6.7
1890
11.4
1900
15.4
1910
1920
Number Enrolled
per 100 14-17 year
olds
1930
1940
1950
The Awakening
• At the dawning of the 20th Century the public
was disenchanted with public education
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–
–
–
curriculum was still primarily classical
no relevancy to an agrarian society
no practical application
lecture and rote memorization
were extensively used
Early Schools
The Media
• Education is “as it was 60 years ago in
our boyhood, so it is today in 99 out of
100 schools. Not a grain of progress
that will help the country boy to a better
understanding of the problem of
agriculture.” - Hoard’s Dairyman, 1895
The Media
• We need to abandon “the cut-and-dried
formula of a period when a man was
‘educated’ only when he knew Greek
and Latin” - Wallace’s Farmer, 1908
The Awakening...
• In 1910 only 8.8% of all 17 year olds
were high school graduates
• USDA, agricultural societies, farm
publications and others demanded
change in the educational system
The Awakening
• Many states started teaching agriculture
and home economics in the public
schools in the early 1900s
• A state ruling in North Carolina in 1903
required agriculture to be taught in
elementary schools
From 1910-1917
the teaching of agriculture in
schools was started in many
states
The Awakening
• The NC Legislature passed the Farm
Life School Act in 1911
• Boarding schools were established
where agriculture and home economics
was taught
Farm Life School Curriculum
• Agricultural subjects were substituted
for Latin
• All other traditional subjects were taught
(literature, etc)
• School had to have a farm and
adequate facilities
Cary Farm Life School
Students at Cary lived in this dormitory
Cary Farm Life School
This student from Edgecombe County was a boarder.
Cary Farm Life School
• First year:
– general principles of agriculture
– farm carpentry
– use of tools
– construction of things needed on the farm
First Year
Second Year
• Field crops
– different soils, fertilizers, cultivation
– seed selection & testing
• Fruit growing
– orchard location
– setting trees, budding, grafting
– pruning & marketing
Second Year
• Vegetable gardening
– construct hotbeds
– each student has a garden plot on farm
– becomes familiar with the vegetables that
should be grown on the farm
Second Year
Third Year
• Livestock
– different breeds & characteristics
– feeding
– livestock judging
– breeding
– dairying
– poultry raising
Third Year
Fourth Year
• Soils
– types
– laying of terraces, drainage methods
• Farm Management
– apply business methods to farming
• Rural Economics
– marketing problems
Cary Farm Life
School
Agricultural subjects on
the Report Card
Cary Farm Life School
The Poultry
Co-Op was
operated out of
the Cary Farm
Life School.
A New Era in Agriculture
• The passage of the Smith-Hughes Act
in 1917 provided federal funds to
support the teaching of agriculture
across the nation.