Transcript The History of Education

Education in the Colonies
The School System in America
1607-Present
Colonial Schools
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Modeled on British
system
Stressed religious
education
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Reading was vital and
literacy important
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WHY?
New England: Mass Bay, New
Hampshire, Connecticut
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Church, State, schools
interrelated
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Establish system of town
schools
Learning focused on
curbing idleness and
growing up
The Middle Colonies: NY, NJ, Penn,
Del
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Wider variety of
students
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Swedes, Germans, Irish,
English, Dutch, Scot, etc.
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Mostly parochial schools
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Appealed to the various
Protestant and Catholic
Faiths of area
Similar curriculum to
New England School
The Southern Colonies: Virginia,
Maryland, Georgia, NC, SC
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Mostly limited to large landowners
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Promote religion
‘Civil Society’
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Few schools for lower class
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Gentleman and ladies of breeding
‘know your place’
Education for slaves forbidden
Types of Schools
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3 major types
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Dame Schools
Reading and Writing Schools
Latin Grammar Schools
Dame Schools
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Run by widows or housewives
Supported by modest fees
Provided basic schooling for both genders
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Reading, writing, arithmetic at elementary level
Sewing, homemaking lessons included for girls
Reading and Writing Schools
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Boys Only
Lessons based on Bible, New England Primer
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New England Primer
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Used woodcuts, rhymed couplets to teach letters of the
alphabet
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Couplets and images derived from Bible
Latin Grammar School
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Upper level education
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Students enrolled about 7 or 8
Boys only
Intend as preparation for Harvard University
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Ultimate goal would be position in church and
government
Life in a Colonial School
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Students sometimes began school as young as
2 and half!
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Used hornbooks to learn alphabet
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All ages shared a classroom
Textbooks were whatever books students brought
to school
Most schools were poorly located and quite
cramped
Discipline was harsh and quite violent
New Schooling Ideas: PreRevolutionary Era to Early Republic
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Compulsory Education
Broader Learning
Free and public schools
Female schools
‘Americanization’
Compulsory Education
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Massachusetts Act of 1642
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Required compulsory education
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Parents with illiterate children could lose custody!
Old Deluder Satan Act of 1647
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Required establishment of town supported schools
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Depended on size of town
Salary of teacher paid by town
Why the name?
Broader Education
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Benjamin Franklin
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Created ‘Philadelphia Academy’ (1751)
Intended to replace Latin Grammar School
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Lessons in English instead of Latin
Broader, practical knowledge
Secular and open to public (for small tuition)
Less emphasis on religion
Peaked about 1855 (6,185 total in US)
Philadelphia Academy Curriculum
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Grammar
Composition
Literature
Classical and Modern
Languages
Science
Writing and Drawing
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Rhetoric and Oratory
Geography
History
Agriculture and
Gardening
Arithmetic and
Accounting
Mechanics
Education for Women
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Little formal schooling for girls
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Education was intended to create better wives and mothers,
not scholars
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‘Our object has been, not to make learned ladies, or skilled
metaphysical reasoners, or deep read scholars in physical science:
there is a more useful, tho’ less exalted and less brilliant station that
woman must occupy, there are duties of incalculable importance
that she must perform: that station is home; these duties are the
alleviation of the trials of her parents; the soothing of the labours
and fatigues of her partner; and the education for time and eternity
of the next generation of immortal beings…’----MISSION
STATEMENT OF SARAH PIERCE’S FEMALE ACADEMY
(early 19th century)
More schooling for Women?
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Female seminaries
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Established in early nineteenth century to train
women for higher education and public service
outside the home
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Troy Seminary
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Founded by Emma Willard in 1821
First college for women in the country!
Jeffersonian Education
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Thomas Jefferson
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‘Bill for the More General Diffusion of
Knowledge’(1779)
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Virginia
State run schools providing free education to all white
children
Failed to pass
Opens University of Virginia in 1824
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Considered it his greatest achievement
Americanization
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Noah Webster
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American writer and publisher
Sought to remove British influence and ‘Americanize’
education and English
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‘colour’ vs ‘color, ‘labour’ vs ‘labor’
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Creates Elementary
Spelling Book (1783) and
The American Dictionary
Patriotic, moralistic virtues
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Know your place
Work hard
Respect property of others
Free Public Education
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1820-1865
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Common Schools
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Primarily in northeast, midwest
Open to all students and supported by the state
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Not always popular
 Loss of local control
Horace Mann
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First State Secretary of Education
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Traveled throughout Massachusetts writing reports
on schooling
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Argued that common schools could maintain republic
and capitalistic economy
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Told business it created obedient skilled workers
Told workers it improved opportunity to succeed and protect
rights!