History of Education

Colonial Period Blog


The Massachusetts Bay colony began the idea of education. These people were Puritans and wanted to make sure their children knew how to read the bible. The people in the colony passed two important laws that started education in American. The laws of 6142 and 1647 required all families in towns of 50 or more homes to find someone to teach the town’s children. The families in the town were responsible for paying the person to teach. Families in cities with 100 or more homes were required by the law to start a Latin Grammar School. The Latin Grammar School was started in Boston inb 1635. The school used a curriculum that was grounded in the tradition of European education. The languages of Greek and Latin were taught as well as Math, Science and English. This school was to be used to prepare young boys ages 7-14 for the university. .Since the school was privately funded by wealthy families only the wealthy boys from those families could go to the school In the Massachusetts Bay colonies, African –American males and American Indian males were not allowed to go to the school. No girls were allowed to go to the school. The girls were taught in the home and these schools were called Dame Schools. Those while boys from families who could not afford to go to the Latin Grammar School became the apprentice of someone to learn a specific skill. The New England Primer was the curriculum used to teach reading in the New England colonies. The alphabet was taught using verses from the bible

Families in the Mid-Atlantic colonies were from a variety of religious backgrounds. For this reason, they did not want their schools to be a place for teaching religion.. These private schools that started were called English Grammar schools. Girls from Mid-Atlantic families were allowed to also attend the English Grammar schools .The schools were skill based and the curriculum was designed to teach students careers. For example, ship building and ship navigation were some of the types of skills that were important for the boys to learn.
During the colonial times in the south, only wealthy southern families paid a tutor to come to their plantation to teach the boys. This was because the south was not as populated as the other colonies of the Northeast and Mid-Atlantic regions. The Hornbook was used to teach the alphabet.












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Early National Period Blog

During this time the nation began. The Revolutionary War was over. The goal of education was to teach the principles of living in a democratic society. The passage of the Northwest Ordinances of 1785, 1786 gave the new nation land west of the colonies. The added territories meant more people Thomas Jefferson helped people see the importance for educating all white citizens. In 1779 he suggested the use of a two track system to educate the student for the university and the student that would be in a trade. During this time, Noah Webster realized the importance of having all the new immigrants that were coning into the land learn a common language. He wrote the American Spelling Book. Also, during this time teachers were still not formally trained to teach.


Common School Movement -1820-1865 Blog
Horace Mann is called the Father of Public Schools. He wanted all people of all color to learn. . He was from Massachusetts and was very important in helping to begin the idea of a free public school. This was called a common school. The school was designed to teach basic knowledge of reading, writing and math. The common school is like our elementary school. The McGuffey Reader was the text that was used to teach reading in the common schools. Horace Mann realized that teachers needed to be trained in how to teach students information. He worked with others to begin Normal schools. These schools were established to teach teachers how to teach. The Normal School program originally lasted two years after high school.

The Secondary School Movement Blog

I am interested in teaching in a Physical Education in a public high school. I wanted to blog my understandings of how the secondary movement came about. The first public high school in America began in Boston in 1821. The school was free but only for boys. The Kalamazoo case of 1874 provided for taxpayer funding of free public secondary schooling. In this Michigan court case the court said that the local government could taxes citizens to fund a secondary public school.
In 1882, a group called the Committee of Ten was formed by the National Education Association (NEA) to develop a standardized set of subjects that would be taught in all high schools. In 1893 the committee recommended that all high school courses last for a year and meet four or five times per week. The student would be given one Carnegie Unit for passage of the course. In 1918 the Cardinal Principles of Secondary Education were passed by NEA’s Committee of Ten. Over the years secondary education has been shaped by decisions from members of committees wanting to reform secondary education. The move to standards based education in the early 1980’s came from the report of the National Commission on Education Excellence called A Nation at Risk. Physical Education became a part of the secondary curriculum when secondary schools became known as comprehensive high school in the early part of the 19th century. The high school has changed very little since it began.