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Most schooling was influenced by the Protestant religion, it taught children to obey the law and respect authority. The majority of Americans were educated enough to read the local newspaper and bible, and do their taxes.
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Thomas Jefferson’s drafted a proposal that gave a select few of children, the opportunity to receive 3 years of public schooling. It provided three years of schooling for women that prepared them to be future wives and mothers.
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IMPORTANT EVENT
Noah Webster is called the “School Master of America”, and he published a textbook for children to create a unified culture based upon legends of the Founding Fathers. It was to separate the United States from Europe, especially England, and create our own identity as a nation. The book also taught how to spell and pronounce differently, creating a greater difference from England. The Speller was America's first official textbook. https://kids.kiddle.co/Noah_Webster -
IMPORTANT EVENT
Schools were created to teach a common body of knowledge to all students. It reached to all children, rich or poor and was completely funded by taxes. All the schools were standardized, the building, materials and teacher instruction.
https://mises.org/library/common-school-movement-and-compulsory-education -
Horace man was a politician dedicated to the promotion of public education. He inspected many different schools and drew attention to the need of better schools and education for children. He said that the government needed to be in charge of public education.
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Many Catholic Irish immigrants were seeking a free education for their children, the only opportunity was the tax funded, Protestant, public schools. The Catholic Irish immigrants did not want their children studying from anti-Catholic textbooks and bibles. This caused uproar and thirteen people died in the Philadelphia Bible Riots, but resulted in the beginning of alternative Catholic Schools.
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IMPORTANT EVENT
After he escaped slavery, Frederick Douglas played a huge role in desegregation in education. He encouraged to a group of African Americans to draft a petition to end segregation in public schools because it was depriving children of equal rights. This beginning made it possible for other discrimination cases in education to be more prominent. https://www.ducksters.com/history/civil_rights/frederick_douglass.php -
The first legal case concerning integration in education was started by a young, African American girl named, Sarah Roberts. After being denied access to 5 different schools, due to her race, her father planned to sue the city of Boston. The case was taken to the Supreme Court, resulting in the abolishment of segregation in all Massachusetts schools.
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After the Civil War, more than four million slaves became free and they were wanting to become literate. Congress required that all states offer free education to ALL children. Literacy went from 5% to 70% after the Civil War.
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This movement banned child labor and made it mandatory for children to attend school. The sayings was, "Make every working man a scholar and make every scholar a working man". School was meant to teach the American way of life, child immigrants were Americanized through the public school system.
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John Dewey is known as, "The Father of Progressive Education", and was one of the first individuals to attack the rigid school system. He focused on the children's physical, social, intellectual, and emotional development.
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The African American, third grader, Linda Brown was discriminated against at her school because of her race. Her father sued the city of Topeka, Kansas and the case went to the Supreme Court which launched the desegregation in American schools. Sixty years of segregation was ended.
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VERY IMPORTANT
Martin Luther King was the great leader of the Civil Rights movement. Under the civil rights act, discrimination of any race was banned in all government funded programs, this included public schools. Districts and schools that were desegregated received an increase in federal funds. 91% of black children in the south attended integrated schools!
http://www.historyforkids.net/martin-luther-king.html -
VERY IMPORTANT
Congress enacted the education for all disabled children act, that provided a free and appropriate, public education for all children with all disabilities in the least constrictive environment. It protected the rights and meet the individual needs for children with specific disabilities. This resulted in the improvement of education and equal opportunities to all children.
https://sites.ed.gov/idea/ -
This Act was passed by President George W. Bush to "close the achievement gap with accountability, flexibility, and choice, so that no child is left behind". It created even more equality and opportunity to more children.
