The History of American Education… The Basics

1. The History of American Education…The Basics Competency 4.1

2. Pilgrim children used a special kind of schoolbook called a hornbook. • It was a piece of wood with a printed page on each side. • The name hornbook came from the thin sheet of horn that covered the page. • School children wore their hornbooks around their necks for safekeeping. • Hornbooks for notes 

3. 1600s - Colonial Days: School at home or church • Mainly religious education • Apprentice programs – to learn job skills • Challenges – unequal opportunities for women, minorities, and poor

4. 1647 – Massachusetts, the “Old Deluder Satan Law” • Passed, requiring every town of 50 households to hire a teacher. This law was the model that made the establishment of schools a reality

5. Colonial Latin Grammar Schools – boys only • In the 1700s states were given the responsibility to open schools for girls and boys

6. Horace Mann: Father of Public Education for all Americans • Elementary public schools for poor and wealthy; education improves the quality of life – Early 1800s

7. Public High Schools catch on slowly – Late 1800s • Eventually, high schools represented equal opportunity • Later attempted to solve social problems

8. Efforts to Reform Education & Debates on Change • 1892 “The Committee of Ten” • 1983 “A Nation at Risk”

9. Early Instructional Materials • Colonial hornbook • First real textbook: The New England Primer • Noah Webster’s American Spelling Book • McGuffey’s Readers emphasizing hard work, patriotism, and morality (100 million copies from 1836-1920)

10. 1900s – Federal Funding $$$ for specific programs • Outlaws racial segregation – 1954 • After Sputnik – Science, Math & World Languages – 1957 • Head Start for pre-schoolers – 1964 • Title IX prohibits sex discrimination – 1972 • P.L. 94-142 Education for All Special Needs Students – 1975 (Now IDEA)

11. The effort to educate America’s children is as old as our country. • Inequities in educating the poor, females, minorities, and special needs students have been with us from the beginning. • As the next generation of teachers, the future is in your hands.

12. Assignments 4.1 • Reflect on appropriate behavior for teachers. • Should teachers be expected to live up to a higher standard? • Should teachers be role models for students? • Support your opinions. • Create a Venn diagram or a T-chart to compare and contrast the code of conduct – then and now.