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Benjamin Franklin
One of the founding fathers of the United States.In 1731, Franklin formed the first subscription library in the United States, called the Library Company in Philadelphia.He donated books from his own collection.He was a big advocate for education for other people. -
Frederick Froebel
He is best known for his work on kindergartens and play,he has a lot to say for informal educators.He also invented the educational toys called Froebel Gifts. -
Commons Schools
This guy wanted Massachusetts to establish normal schools to prepare teachers for the emerging "profession" of education.This movement emphasized the social and political role of publicly supported schools.It also provided the basis for the systemization of schooling. -
McGuffey Readers
He is remembered chiefly for his series of elementary school reading books popularly known as the McGuffey Readers. -
Thomas Jefferson
He founded the University of Virginia,which he established in 1819 as a secular institution after he left the presidency of the United States. -
Normal Schools
A school created to train high school graduates to be teachers. Most such schools are now denominated "teachers' colleges". -
Horace Mann
He is most commonly known for the creation of the Common School Movement. He was a proponent of a democratic form of schooling that would be provided and funded by the state through taxation. -
Booker T. Washington
He controlled the flow of funds to black schools and colleges.He founded the Tuskegee Normal and Industrial Institute in Alabama (now known as Tuskegee University).The school was made to train people that wanted to become teachers.He wanted to promote the economic progress of his race. -
John Dewey
Progressive education is essentially a view of education that emphasizes the need to learn by doing. Dewey believed that human beings learn through a 'hands-on' approach. -
Elizabeth Palmer Peabody
She opened the first English language kindergarten in the United States. -
Morrill Act
An Act that donated Public Lands to the several States and Territories which may provide Colleges for the Benefit of Agriculture and the Mechanic Arts. -
Maria Montessori
She opened the first Montessori school. Today there are over 7,000 Montessori schools worldwide. You can find schools that serve children from infancy all the way through adolescence. -
Smith-Hughes Act
This Act provided vocational education in "agriculture, trades and industry, and homemaking", and provided federal funds for this purpose. -
Dick and Jane Readers
Dick and Jane are the main characters in the popular basal readers. They were used to teach children to read from the 1930s through to the 1970's in the United States. -
Brown vs. Board of Education
The Court stripped away constitutional sanctions for segregation by race, and made equal opportunity in education the law of the land.For some, it signaled the start of the civil rights movement of the 1950's and 1960's, while for others, it represented the fall of segregation.He changed racial racial segregation of children in public schools violated the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment. -
Civil Rights Act
This Act banned discrimination and segregation on the basis of race,religion,national origin and gender in the workplace,schools, public accommodations and in federally assisted programs. -
Project Head Start
It was designed to help break the cycle of poverty by providing preschool children of low-income families with a comprehensive program to meet their emotional, social, health, nutritional, and psychological needs. -
Elementary and Secondary Education Act
The nation's national education law and shows a longstanding commitment to equal opportunity for all students. -
Children with Disabilities Act
Schools were not required to educate children with disabilities whatsoever. Some states even had laws that allowed them to deny access to education of children with disabilities. -
No Child Left Behind
This authorizes several federal education programs that are administered by the states. States are required to test students in reading and math in grades 3–8 and once in high school.