Rachelle Hayes

EDS 3110
3-12-2001

Chapter 9 Summary – The History of American Education

Colonial New England Education: God’s Classroom

Dame Schools- 1600s, women interested in education became community
teachers.
Apprenticeship-boys lived with masters who taught them a trade; girls stayed at
home with mothers and learned how to be homemakers.
In loco parentis-in place of the child’s parents
Old Deluder Satan Law required that: 1) every town of 50 households must
appoint and pay a teacher of reading and writing. 2) Every town of 100 households must
provide a (Latin) grammar school to prepare youths for the university, under a penalty of
5 pents for failure to do so.
Latin grammar school-first step on road to creating high schools, students read
and recite in Latin and Greek. 18th century, incorporated mathematics, science, and
foreign languages.
Harvard College-first college (1836)
Blacks and Native Americans denied educational opportunities.
Location influenced educational opportunities.
The colonial experience established many of today’s educational norms: Local
control of schools, compulsory education, tax-supported schools, state standards for
teaching and schools.
The colonial experience highlighted many of the persistent tension points
challenging schools today.
A New Nation Shapes Education
Thomas Jefferson-education should be more widely available to white children
from all social classes
Benjamin Franklin-started the academy. 1751-started the Franklin Academy,
offering practical subjects, math, astronomy, athletics, navigation, dramatics, and
bookkeeping. Students chose courses, accepted girls and boys, later called the University
of Pennsylvania.
The Common School Movement
Horace Mann-advocate for the elementary school, a school open to all. Referred
to as “the father of the public school.” Helped create Massachusetts State Board of
Education (1837) and became secretary, like today’s superintendent. Waged a battle for
high quality schools. Wanted stricter teacher licensing procedures. Normal schools were
founded, schools devoted to preparing teachers in pedagogy.
The Secondary School Movement
1880-10 million Americans in elementary schools.
1821-English Classical School was the first free secondary school. Enrolled all
boys (176), but 76 dropped out. Name changed to The English High School, then Boys’
High School.
Secondary schools generally were private, tuition-charging academies.
 Kalamazoo, Michigan, case in 1874-courts ruled that taxes could be used to
support secondary schools. Saw secondary schools as bridge between elementary schools
and state university.
Last half of 18th century-America moved from agrarian to industrial, from rural to
urban. High school attendance grew, demands on high school increased.
1909-creation of junior high schools (7-9), recently middle schools (6-8)
School Reform Efforts
1892-NEA established Committee of Ten to develop a national policy for high
schools. Committee composed of college presidents and professors. Viewed high
schools in terms of preparing gifted students.
1893-Committee recommended: A series of traditional and classical courses
should be taught sequentially, high schools should offer fewer electives, each course
lasting for one year and meeting four or five times weekly should be awarded a Carnegie
Unite, which would be used to evaluate student progress, and students performing
exceptionally well could begin college early.
1918-NEA convened again. Committee consisted of representatives from newly
emerging profession of education. Focused on the majority of students for whom high
school was final step of education.
Cardinal Principals of Secondary Education-identified 7 goals for high school: 1)
health, 2) worthy home membership, 3) command of fundamental academic skills, 4)
vocation, 5) citizenship, 6) worthy use of leisure time, and 7) ethical character. High
school was a socializing agency to improve all aspects of one’s life.
1930s-Progressive Education Association provided suggestions to promote social
adjustment and individual growth. More electives were added to HS curriculum,
guidance counselors were added to the staff, and vocational programs were expanded.
1983-A Nation at Risk: The Imperative for Educational Reform was published. It
said mediocrity characterized US Schools. Declared that inadequate rigor of US
education had put the nation at risk, losing ground to other nations in subjects. Called for
fewer electives and greater emphasis on academic subjects.
John Dewey and Progressive Education
1875-Francis Parker introduced progressivism to his schools in Massachusetts.
1896-John Dewey established the laboratory school at the University of Chicago.
Progressive education soon spread to suburban and city public school systems across US.
Progressive Education: 1) broadened school program to include health concerns,
family and community life issues, and a concern for vocational education. 2) It applied
new research in psychology and the social sciences to classroom practices. 3) It
emphasized a more democratic educational approach, accepting interests and needs of an
increasingly diverse student body.
Focus of Progressivism: to build on child-centered interests and needs, assumed
children learn best when their learning follows their interests.
Role of teacher: to identify student needs and interests and provide an
educational environment that builds on them.
Criticisms of Progressive Education: 1) it was an atheistic, un-American force
that had destroyed nation’s schools because students were allowed to explore and
question, traditional values were not being taught. 2) School curriculum was not
academically sound. Argued for a more rigorous science and math-focused curriculum.
 Eight Year Study: Indicated that graduates of progressive schools: 1) earned a
slightly higher grade point average, 2) earned higher grades in all fields except foreign
languages, 3) tended to specialize in the same fields as more traditional students, 4)
received slightly more academic honors, 5) were judged to be more objective and more
precise thinkers, 6) were judged to possess higher intellectual curiosity and greater drive.
The Federal Government
National Defense Education Act (1958): designed to enhance the security of the
nation and to develop the mental resources and technical skills of its young men and
women. Supported improvement of instruction and curriculum development, funded
teacher training programs and provided loans and scholarships for college students that
allowed them to major in subjects deemed important to the national defense.
The responsibility for educating Americans is not even mentioned in the
Constitution. Under 10th Amendment, any area not specifically stated in the Constitution
as a federal responsibility is automatically assigned to the states.
Land Ordinance Act of 1785 and Northwest Ordinance of 1787: required
townships in newly settled territories bounded by the Ohio and Mississippi rivers and the
Great Lakes to reserve a section of land for educational purposes.
Categorical Grants: used federal dollars on specific programs, which created new
colleges and universities, promoted industrial research efforts, and to provide schools for
Native Americans and other groups.
Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka (1954): Supreme Court ruled that
separating children from others of similar age and qualifications solely because of their
race generates a feeling of inferiority as to their status in the community that may affect
their hearts and minds in a way unlikely to ever be undone.
The World We Created at Hamilton High: A Schoolography
This section described what one high school in the United States was like from
the 1950s through the 1980s. It was a true story with a fictitious name, but could have
happened at any high school around the US during this time period.
The Education Hall of Fame
This section described several different people and their contributions to
education throughout history.
Comenius: believed education should be build on the natural laws of human
development and that caring teachers should gently guide children’s learning.
Jean-Jacques Rousseau: saw children as developing through stages and believed
that child’s interests and needs should be the focus of a curriculum. The senses were a
child’s first teachers and more efficient and desirable than learning in the schoolroom.
Pioneer of the contemporary deschooling movement.
Johann Heinrich Pestalozzi: Two levels of teaching. 1) Teachers taught to
alleviate the special problems of poor students. 2) Teachers should focus on teaching
students to learn through the senses, beginning with concrete items and moving to more
abstract ideas.
Friedrich Froebel: founded the first kindergarten (1837) to cultivate child’s
development and socialization. Believed in importance of establishing emotionally
secure environment for children. Saw teacher as moral and cultural model for children.
 Johann Herbart: believed primary goal of education is moral education, the
development of good people, development of cognitive powers and knowledge would
lead naturally to moral and ethical behavior, the fundamental goal of education.
Emma Hart Willard: 1814-opened Middlebury Female Seminary, which offered
college level program. Established rigorous course of study for women. 1837-formed
Willard Association for the Mutual Improvement of Female Teachers, the first
organization to focus public attention on the need for well-prepared and trained teachers.
Horace Mann: Described above in Common School Movement
Prudence Crandall: Opened a school where she allowed a black girl in, causing
controversy. 1833-Connecticut passed “Black Law.”-Forbade founding of schools for the
education of African Americans from other states without permission of local authorities.
She was arrested and tried.
Maria Montessori: Children have an inner need to work at tasks that interest
them. Curriculum-children learned practical skills and formal skills. They developed
motor skills and intellectual skills. Teacher worked with each student individually.
John Dewey: philosophy focused on commitment to democratic education. Also
described above during Progressivism.
Mary McLeod Bethune: founded Bethune-Cookman College. Created number of
black civic and welfare organizations, serving as member of Hoover Commission on
Child Welfare, acting as adviser to FDR.
Jean Piaget: Four stages of cognitive development: 1) Sensorimotor stage-
infancy to 2 years, infants explore and learn about their environment through the senses
2) Preoperational stage-2 to 7 years, begin to organize and understand environment
through language and concepts 3) Concrete Operations-7 to 11, children learn to develop
and use more sophisticated concepts and mental operations, can understand numbers and
processes and relationships 4) Formal Operations-11 to 15 and through adulthood,
highest level of mental development, level of abstract thinking
B.F. Skinner: belief that organisms are entirely the products of their environment,
engineer the environment and you can engineer human behavior. Behaviorism-a way of
controlling people and enslaving the human spirit. Believed that children could be
conditioned to acquire desirable skills and behaviors. Skinner Box experiment.
Sylvia Ashton-Warner: encouraged self-expression among children. Developed
key vocabulary system for teaching reading to young children where words drawn from
children’s conversations were written on cards and then children learned to read.
Kenneth Clark: established several community self-help projects to assist
children with psychological and educational problems, designed to prevent school
dropouts, delinquency and unemployment. Provided a catalyst for government action.
Jerome Bruner: The Process of Education (1960) hailed a practical and readable
analysis of curriculum needs. Schools should attempt to teach the structure, the general
nature of a subject. Stressed need for developing intuition and insights as a legitimate
problem-solving technique.
Paulo Reglus Neves Freire: believed instructor domination denied legitimacy of
student experiences and treated students and secondary objects in the learning process.
Championed a critical pedagogy that places the student at the center of the learning
process. Student dialogues, knowledge, skills are shared cooperatively. Pedagogy of the
Opressed illustrated how education could transform society.