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The first settlement in America
Plymouth Colony, consisted of a group of religious dissenters who had left England in 1607 and, drawn by its opportunity for religious freedom, first relocated to Amsterdam. But freedom of religion wasn't what they really wanted. They wanted their religion to be the official religion, and they worried that Amsterdam's openness was corrupting their children. These families, whom we now call the Pilgrims, left Amsterdam for an unknown land and established a fledgling plantation in the New World i -
The founding of Boston Public schools.
These schools were based on European Schools in a Puritan area and were to prepare boys for college and the service of God. Shows heavy influence of religion on schools at the time. Protestantism believed in education was needed so that individuals could interpret the bible. -
The founding of Harvard.
Harvard was the first college in the United States and it started as a school for preparing young men to become ministers. It emphasized the study of classics and required students to know Greek and Latin for admittance. -
Massachusetts required teaching in all towns over 20 people.
This Massachusetts law did not state who would do the teaching but the main point was it required all students to learn how to read and it was under Puritan influence. -
The Quakers
Religious Society of Friends. Many scholars]today consider Quakers as radical Puritans because the Quakers carried to extremes many Puritan convictions. They stretched the sober deportment of the Puritans into a glorification of "plainness." Theologically, they expanded the Puritan concept of a church of individuals regenerated by the Holy Spirit to the idea of the indwelling of the Spirit or the "Light of Christ" in every person (Wikipedia, 2011). Many of these Quakers were imprisoned because o -
Yale Founded to Fight Liberalism
It may come as surprise that when Yale University was founded on this day, October 16, 1701, it was by Congregationalist ministers unhappy with the growing liberalism at Harvard. It wasn't called Yale then, of course, but rather the Collegiate School. The ministers donated forty books and declared their objective, that "Youth may be instructed in the Arts and Sciences who through the blessing of God may be fitted for Publick employment both in Church and Civil State." The huge campus of today -
The Great Awakening.
The Great Awakening in America in the 1730's and 1740's had tremendous results. The number of people in the church multiplied, and the lives of the converted manifested a true Christianity. Denominational barriers broke down as Christians of all persuasions worked together in the cause of the gospel. There was a renewed concern with missions, and work among the Indians increased. As more young men prepared for service as Christian ministers, a concern for higher education grew. -
American Academy founded by Benjamin Franklin.
The curriculum was geared to prepare most students for employment. Academies eventually replaced the Latin Grammar Schools and some admitted Women. -
The American Revolution.
Although not a religious event, the American Revolution freed not only Americans from English law, but English beliefs towards education as well. The Bible, hornbooks, New England Primers and blue-backed spelling books were now used in many classrooms as to help educate students. -
Northwest Land Ordinance
Religion, morality, and knowledge being necessary to good government and the happiness of mankind, schools and the means of education shall forever be encouraged. The utmost good faith shall always be observed toward the Indians; their lands and property shall never be taken from them without their consent; and in their property, rights, and liberty, they never shall be invaded or disturbed, unless in just and lawful wars authorized by Congress; but laws founded in justice and humanity shall fro -
Troy College:
Troy College was the first college for women and it was important because it recognized that women also need to be educated, since regular colleges at the time rarely enrolled women. This was an important development for the advancement of women in the realm of education. -
The Age of The Common School
The proposed solution was to replace these locally controlled, privately funded schools with a system of common schools. These schools would be common in the sense that everyone would go to them, which is why they also came to be called public schools. They would be paid for not by private tuition but by revenues from property taxes and would be free to all, so they were known as free schools as well. They would be staffed by specially trained female teachers, who would use new pedagogical pract -
Immigration and the Second Great Awakening
Between 1840 and 1850 the immigrant population increased by 240% and a huge percentage of these new immigrants were not English Protestants but Irish Catholics and Germans of various religious persuasions. Many of the immigrants who settled in urban areas were Irish Catholics who clashed frequently and sometimes violently with the established Protestants who had come from England. A major impetus toward the passage of common school legislation was the Anglo-American Protestants' fear of these n -
The Graded System
In 1847 John Philbrick implemented his "graded system" of instruction, consisting of two innovations. First, textbooks and other materials were broken down into smaller chunks so that an ordered, sequential "course of studies" was created for the students to follow. Second, Philbrick organized his teachers according to a division of labor. Rather than having each teacher hear the recitations of every level of student, individual teachers would specialize in only one level. Philbrick called thi -
The Third Great Awakening
The Third Great Awakening was a period of religious activism in American history from the late 1850s to the 20th century. It affected pietistic Protestant denominations and had a strong sense of social activism. It gathered strength from the postmillennial theology that the Second Coming of Christ would come after mankind had reformed the entire earth. The Social Gospel Movement gained its force from the Awakening, as did the worldwide missionary movement. New groupings emerged, such as the Hol -
The shift from Academies to High Schools
High Schools emerged to replace academies, which now allowed for coed schooling. By the late 19th and early 20th centuries, coeducation had become the almost universal practice in high schools for many reasons, varying from the demands of parents for their girls, to the economic sense of having one school for both sexes rather than two separate schools, to the fear that separate schooling encouraged homosexuality The high school curriculum was nearly identical to what academies offered, but the -
Making Schooling Compulsory.
The Massachusetts General Court passes a law requiring every town to create and operate a grammar school. Fines were imposed on parents who did not send their children to school and the government took the power to take children away from their parents and apprentice them to others if government officials decided that the parents were "unfit to have the children educated properly". -
Brown v. Topeka Board of Education reversed "separate but equal" doctrine.
Perhaps no other case decided by the Court in the 20th century has had so profound an effect on the social fabric of America as Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka. It forced integration of the United States for all schools for all children, no matter what the color of their skin. This doctrine eventually this led to forced bussing. -
Sputnik
Sputnik was the first artificial satellite to be put into Earth's orbit. It was launched into an elliptical low Earth orbit by the Soviet Union on 4 October 1957. The unanticipated announcement of Sputnik 1's success precipitated the Sputnik crisis in the United States and ignited the Space Race, a part of the larger Cold War. The launch ushered in new political, military, technological, and scientific developments. While the Sputnik launch was a single event, it marked the start of the Space Ag -
The Elementary and Secondary Education Act
The ESEA increased federalization of education included head start programs, free lunches, and special education for students. It had a huge impact on the public school system. It also emphasizes equal access to education and establishes high standards and accountability. In addition, the bill aims to shorten the achievement gaps between students by providing each child with fair and equal opportunities to achieve an exceptional education -
The Civil Rights Act
This act was a landmark piece of legislation in the United States that outlawed major forms of discrimination against blacks and women, including racial segregation. It ended unequal application of voter registration requirements and racial segregation in schools, at the workplace and by facilities that served the general public (Wikipedia, 2011) -
The Education for all Handicapped Children Act
This act basically stated that all physically challenged students are entitled to a fair and appropriate public education. As the courts have interpreted this program, it has led to a large increase in special education classes. Currently, there fight has moved onto mainstreaming of handicapped children in schools. -
No Child Left Behind Law
The "No Child Left Behind" law requires states to give students in grades 3-8 an annual test in reading and math. In 10 years, all students are supposed to test as "proficient." Test scores at individual schools must improve for all students and for minorities, low-income students and other subgroups. If a school receiving federal Title I funding misses the target two years in a row, students must be offered a choice of other public schools to attend. If a school fails to improve three years in
