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History of Education - Important Events
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"Old Deluder Satan Act"
The "Old Deluder Satan Act" is America's earliest law in regards to education. The Puritans of the Massachusetts Bay Colony passed the law, which stated that a town of fifty or more families must hire a primary school teacher and that towns of one hundred or more families must have a Latin to teacher to prepare young men for college and the ministry. The name of the act refers to the Puritan belief that uneducated, illiterate people were easy targets for Satan. -
First State Board of Education
The first State Board of Education was established in Massachusetts. Horace Mann was appointed secretary. This board helped to continue establishing "common schools," which were organized school systems that were free and accessible to all children. This idea that education should be available for everyone was important to the future of education in America. -
America's first "Normal School"
In Lexington, MA, the first "normal school" was established. A normal school was a school for training teachers. This idea that teachers need preperation and study to be teachers was an important step for the profession of teaching. School administrators had special training to become "principal teachers." Horace Mann's "egg-crate" schools with separated grade levels and an administration changed schools forever. -
Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas
The U.S. Supreme Court made the decision in the case "Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas" to prohibit legal segregation of races in public schools. The U.S. still had many years to go before schools were fully integrated, but this ruling was a turning point toward educational equality for African Americans and minor ethnicities in general. -
Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA)
ESEA was enacted by President Lyndon B. Johnson as a way for schools to formally play a role in combating poverty and provide equal educational opportunities to children from poor families. Compensatory education provided special programs for poor children to compensate for their lack of home education.
