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John Amos Comenius
John Amos Comenius (1592-1670) supported the idea of a "universal education". He wrote of the first children's picture books in 1658; "The World of Pictures". -
John Locke
John Locke (1632-1704) believed that children were born as blank slates and that their experiences would shape and mold them. -
Jean Jacques Rousseau
Jean Jacques Rousseau (1712-1778) believed that children were born innately good and not evil (which many believed at the time). The good intentions of children would be corrupted by society. -
Friedrich Froebel
Friedrich Froebel (1782-1852) is known as one of the founders in creating kindergarten. He was one of the first persons to formally teach children and he extremely stressed the importance of play, a theory that is still being used in early childhood classrooms today. -
Sigmund Freud
Sigmund Freud (1856-1939) is one of the founders to understanding why people do what they do. He developed the theories and techniques of psychoanalysis, a psychological approach which is still being taught worldwide. -
John Dewey
John Dewey (1859-1952) is the father of progressive education. He emphasizes the important to a child-center approach to education, which was unheard of at the time. -
Maria Montessori
Maria Monterssori (1870-1952) was an Italian physician and educator best known for the philosophy of education that bears her name, and her writing on scientific pedagogy. She believed that if you "...expose their (children's) minds to appropriate learning experiences at the appropriate developmental times, their minds will grow"! Maria was also a firm believer in the child-center approach to education. -
John B. Watson
John Broadus Watson was an American psychologist who established the psychological school of behaviorism. -
Jean Piaget
Jean Piaget (1896-1980) was a Swiss developmental psychologist and philosopher known for his epistemological studies with children. His theory of cognitive development and epistemological view are together called "genetic epistemology". He claimed that children construct new knowledge by applying their current knowledge structures to new experiences and modifying them accordingly. -
Erik Erikson
Erik Homburger Erikson (1902-1994) was a German-born American developmental psychologist and psychoanalyst who expanded Sigmud Freud's beliefs and created a theory on psychosocial development of human beings. He may be most famous for coining the phrase identity crisis. -
B. F. Skinner
Burrhus Frederic "B. F." Skinner (1904-1990) was an American psychologist, behaviorist, author, inventor, and social philosopher. He build off of John B. Watson's behaviorism and added the "operant conditioning theory", focusing on reinforcements and punishments. -
Howard Gardner
Howard Earl Gardner (1943-) is an American developmental psychologist who is the John H. and Elisabeth A. Hobbs Professor of Cognition and Education at the Harvard Graduate School of Education at Harvard. He defined the different intelligences that people can possess. -
Elementary and Secondary Education Act
The Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965 was created in order to put limits and regulations on funds for pirmary and secondary education while forbidding the establishment of a national curriculum (something which is now being revised). It also emphasized equal access to eduction and established higher standards teaching and holding teachers more accountable. -
The American Head Start Program
After being elected President in 1964, Lyndon B Johnson declared war on poverty and begin thinking of ways to help out the families who could not afford to educate their youngest children. In May of 1965, Congress launched Head Start, which was a program geared to give low-income families the chance to educate themselves and their children (focusing on children between the ages of 3 and 5; expanding later on). -
Individuals with Disabilities Education Act
The Individuals with Disabilities Education Act was a law enacted in 1975 to ensure that children with disabilities have the opportunitiey to recieve a free and appropriate public education until the age of 21. -
No Child Left Behind
The No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 is the most recent iteration of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965. This law authorizes federal spending of programs to support k-12 schooling and have become very controversial over the years.
