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Many colonial families taught their children reading or math at home. What was worth learning depended entirely on the parents. Boys were generally taught a trade or farm work, and girls learned to be good wives. As colonies grew, the wealthy would hire governesses to teach their children. Southern colonies were in favor of families directing the education of their children, resisting the push for public education later on.
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Boston establishes a Latin School to provide a classical education, similar to the free grammar schools in Boston, England.
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Dame schools were a combination of preschool and daycare. A woman would teach young children out of a horn book while going about her daily chores. Dame schools provided women with an opportunity to prove that they could be effective teachers, and they raised expectations for children's education, especially girls.
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Massachussett’s Law required that parents and master see to it that their children knew the principles of religion and the capital laws of the commonwealth.
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Puritans decided that towns of 50 or more should be required to hire a man to teach reading because Scripture could save the soul.
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Public Education was a very controversial topic among the states. Many favored more exclusive, home-based education as a means of excluding minority populations, a view especially popular in the South. Divisions among the rich and poor, white and marginalized, and established and immigrant became dividing lines throughout much of this period of education.
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Jan Amos Comenius writes and publishes “Orbis Sensualium Pictus” (World in Pictures).
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John Locke publishes work about the theory of tabula rasa, which means that the mind is a blank slate at the time of birth, not filled with innate ideas. This concept became very influential in educational psychology.
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Thomas Jefferson designs an educational system in which "the laboring and the learned" are segregated. This way, he generously allowed, a few lower class citizens could advance by "raking a few geniuses from the rubbish."
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Pennsylvania State Constitution wants to provide free education to poor children. Rich children are still expected to pay.
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By this year, most Southern States have laws in place forbidding African Americans to read.
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Massachusetts creates our country's first school board.
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The trendsetting state of Massachusetts mandates compulsory education in an attempt to "civilize" the children of poor immigrants.
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Congress makes it illegal for Native Americans to be taught in their native languages. It also takes young Native children away from their parents and send them to faraway boarding schools designed to "kill the Indian to save the man."
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1865-1877
African Americans mobilize to bring public education to the South for the first time. While words get changed around and laws enacted, in practice, white children benefit more than Black children. -
We finally see a turn in the sad state of affairs as the U.S. Supreme court requires California to offer public education to the children of Chinese immigrants. More opportunities await at the turn of this century.
