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The oldest school and first public school opened in America, the Boston Latin School is opened on April 23 1635. With a curriculum centered on humanities, the school was opened for upper class male students to learn characteristics that would lead them to prominent leadership positions.
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It is during this period also known as the "Permissive Period" that other colonies in early America begin to open up public schools. The Massachusetts Bay colony had such an influence on the importance of education the other New England colonies soon followed.
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What is now known as Harvard College, is opened in Newtowne (Cambridge) Massachusetts. This college was the first higher education institution to open in America.
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In 1642 the Puritans of the Massachusetts Bay colony passed a law requiring that all children in the "New World" be taught to read, write and understand the principles of religion.
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In November of 1698, the first public library in america is established in Charles Town, South Carolina. Two years after the opening of the library, the General Assembly of south carolina passes the first public library law.
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In 1751, Benjamin Franklin helps to establish the first English Academy in Philadelphia. The curriculum is mostly organized upon a classical and modern influence. Courses taught included history, geography, navigation, surveying, modern and classical languages.
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In 1779, Thomas Jefferson implements a two-track educational system. The different tracks are to outline the differences of the laboring and the learned.
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In 1787 the Young Ladies Academy is opened in colonial Philadelhpia becoming the first girls academy in the New World.
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Prior to the year 1801, teachers and instructors had no way of physically presenting the information neccessary for explanation of a lesson. James Pillans an early educator and advocate for compulsory education invented the blackboard by taking all of his students slates and putting them together along a wall to form the chalkboard.
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In 1826 Massachusetts passes a lwa requiring that every town chooses a local school committee.
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The state of Massachussetts passes a law in 1827 requiring that all towns that were inhabited by five hundred families or more to have public school open to all students. colonial Massachusetts was amongst many of the first places in the world to make education of young people an important factor and public responsibility.
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From influence by educational reformers and their efforts to change the way American schools were being funded and ran, arose the "Age of the Common Schools." The reformers were about making changes in the school system due to unsatisfactory short school terms, poor attendance, and the lack of preparation of the school teachers and their uses of corporal punishment.
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The newly formed Massachusetts State Board of Education names Horace Mann as its secretary. Once a former reformer nad educator, Mann worked to increaser funding for public schools and better training for teachers.
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In 1839 Massachusetts opens the first "Normal School," which are state funded schools specifically designed for teacher educ ation. These schools were created after concerns of public school teachers not being adequately prepared or educated to teach in the schools.
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In 1848 under the guidance of Samuel Gridley Howe, the first experimental school for the teaching and training of "idiotic" children is opened. This was the irst school of its kind and started a concentration of mental retardation services for children, it later became known as the " Massachusetts school for Idiotic and Feeble-Minded Youths.
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After growing concerns of attendance, Massachusetts enacts the first mandatory attendance law. The law, better known as the "Compulsory education attendance Act of 1852", was designed to control the attendance of school aged children. This law made it mandatory for children between the ages of eight and fourteen to attend school for at least three months out of each year, and of the three months six weeks had to be consecutive.
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On March 20th, 1854, under enactment of the Great and General Court of Massachusetts, th Boston Public Library is opened. The Boston Public Library is the first largest free municipal library in the United States of America.
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In 1856, the first kindergarten in the United States is opened in Wisconsin. Founded by Margarethe Schurz, the program was created to seperate younger students from the older students due to concerns of the different age groups taking in information at the same pace.
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Now known as the National Education Association, the NTA was founded by educators from Philadelphia. The association in the beginning served primarily as a society for the male school leaders to discuss policy and curricular issues.
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To help create more effective school systems the Department of Education is established. It's purposes wer to collect information on schools and teaching that would in turn bring about better methods of teaching and stronger curriculums.
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Founded by several groups of teachers from Chicago, they focused their efforts onriginally on the labor movement, avoiding the more popular political aggressions and confrontations that other institutional organizations had grown to be involved in.
