THE HISTORY OF AMERICAN EDUCATION… THE BASICS Competency 4.1

 Pilgrim children used a special kind of schoolbook called a hornbook.  It was a piece of wood with a printed page on each side.  The name hornbook came from the thin sheet of horn that covered the page.  School children wore their hornbooks around their necks for safekeeping.  Hornbooks for notes

1600s - Colonial Days: School at home or church  Mainly religious education  Apprentice programs – to learn job skills  Challenges – unequal opportunities for women, minorities, and poor

1647 – Massachusetts, the “Old Deluder Satan Law”  Passed, requiring every town of 50 households to hire a teacher. This law was the model that made the establishment of schools a reality

Colonial Latin Grammar Schools – boys only  In the 1700s states were given the responsibility to open schools for girls and boys

Horace Mann: Father of Public Education for all Americans  Elementary public schools for poor and wealthy; education improves the quality of life – Early 1800s

Public High Schools catch on slowly – Late 1800s  Eventually, high schools represented equal opportunity  Later attempted to solve social problems

Efforts to Reform Education & Debates on Change  1892 “The Committee of Ten”  1983 “A Nation at Risk”

Early Instructional Materials  Colonial hornbook  First real textbook: The New England Primer  Noah Webster’s American Spelling Book  McGuffey’s Readers emphasizing hard work, patriotism, and morality (100 million copies from )

1900s – Federal Funding $$$ for specific programs  Outlaws racial segregation – 1954  After Sputnik – Science, Math & World Languages – 1957  Head Start for pre-schoolers – 1964  Title IX prohibits sex discrimination – 1972  P.L Education for All Special Needs Students – 1975 (Now IDEA)

History Cont..  The effort to educate America’s children is as old as our country.  Inequities in educating the poor, females, minorities, and special needs students have been with us from the beginning.  As the next generation of teachers, the future is in your hands.

Class Assignment  Reflect on appropriate behavior for teachers. Should teachers be expected to live up to a higher standard? Should teachers be role models for students? Support your opinions.  Create a Flyer or a T-chart to compare and contrast the code of conduct – then and now.