The New America By: Christina Frederickson September 14, 2010 EDU 224 http://eglingham.info/fitp/images/sc7theoldschoolhouse.jpg 17th Century Schoolhouse in England By: Christina Frederickson September 14, 2010 EDU 224

What if….. We went to school in 16th Century England? The Puritans wanted to reform the Church of England…that was considered Treason so they came to the New World to escape to escape persecution. The Puritans came to the New World to establish their own church as supreme, not to establish religious freedom. Their schools were designed simply to teach the young to read and understand the Bible in order to battle Satan — nothing more. “Men accepted tenets in religion and politics, however absurd, as truths, and bestowed no thought upon them” (publicbookshelf.com) They were not interested in separating religion from politics and were intolerant of any other religion. http://www.dailykos.com/story/2006/9/1/203029/9753 http://www.chesapeake.edu/library/EDU_101/eduhist_colonial.asp

An American / Education Revolution Along with the American Revolution came an Education Revolution. Leaders such as Thomas Jefferson no longer accepted that education was only about religion and for an elite class of society. He believed education should be available for all White children, regardless of socioeconomic status. Jefferson believed this should be done at the governments’ expense. http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~arcrawfo/mil-civil-war.htm http://www.nma.gov.au/index.html

Benjamin Franklin In 1749, Benjamin Franklin wrote Proposals Relating to the Youth of Pennsylvania The proposal was about an academy to replace the Latin grammar schools The Franklin Academy was established two years later offering practical subjects free from the religion of the Puritans early schools Some of the subjects offered included: mathematics, astronomy, athletics, navigation, dramatics, bookkeeping The Franklin Academy was considered “the most important secondary school in America” and was open to both male and female students, as long as they could afford the tuition. http://www.newgenevacenter.org/09_Biography/09b_Thinkers/enlightenment.htm http://www.archives.upenn.edu/primdocs/1749proposals.html http://languagelog.ldc.upenn.edu/nll/?p=1043

1778 ~ Phillips Academy in Andover, Massachusetts The Franklin Academy paved the way for modern day electives and programs at the secondary education level and sparked the establishment of six thousand academies over the next century, to include 1778 ~ Phillips Academy in Andover, Massachusetts 1783 ~ Phillips Exeter Academy in Exeter, New Hampshire The Franklin Academy later became the University of Pennsylvania Jefferson and Franklin paved the way for flexible scheduling of the secondary schools of today and the start of separation of church and state. http://www.pauldoolan.com/2009/11/education-for-21st-century-bad-case-of.html

References http://www.publicbookshelf.com/public_html/Our_Country_Vol_1/life17th_dh.html Sadker, D. M., & Zittleman, K. R. (2009). Teachers, Schools, and Society A Brief Introduction to Education. New York, NY: David Patterson. Reference in formation for photographs, all retrieved on September 8, 2010, are listed under each photograph individually