The History Of Education In America
Since the earliest days, Americans have valued education. The first American schools opened during the colonial era. As the colonies began to develop, many in New England began to institute mandatory education schemes. In 1657, The Massachusetts Bay Colony passed a law requiring a community of 50 or more families to hire a schoolteacher. the ability of education to create useful members of a prosperous society, was first believed in, and recognized by Ben Franklin. However at that time only men were targeted for formal education as women were expected to follow in their mother's role of housekeeper.
Public schools were still a foreign idea in America, as was the study of ideas in technology, agriculture and other applied arts. Classical studies, which meant the great works and deeds of the past, were taught at private colleges, which were costly as well as exclusive. These included Harvard College founded by Puritans in 1636, and in 1701, the Congregational Church started Yale University. The Great Awakening, a revival of religious feelings, occurred around 1739. This search for new preachers resulted in new colleges. Princeton was built in 1746, and King's or Columbia started in 1754.
Dartmouth College opened in 1769. In New England there was an emphasis on literacy so that people could read the Bible. After the American Revolution, the new national government passed the Land Ordinance of 1785, which set aside a portion of every township in the unincorporated territories of the United States for use in education. The provisions of the law remained unchanged until the Homestead Act of 1862. After the Revolution, an emphasis was put on education, especially in the northern states, which made the US have one of the highest literacy rates at the time. The first national census conducted in 1840 indicated that near-universal literacy among the white population had been achieved, despite the fact that free elementary education was not provided by every state until 1870.
It was chiefly due to the African American community's tremendous efforts with the help of some Northern financial support in establishing schools and colleges, that 30,000 African American teachers were trained and by 1900, a majority of blacks in the South were literate. Education reformers such as Horace Mann of Massachusetts began calling for public education systems for all. Upon becoming the secretary of education in Massachusetts in 1837, Mann helped to create a statewide system of "common schools," which referred to the belief that everyone was entitled to the same content in education.
These early efforts focused primarily on elementary education. The common-school movement began to catch on in the North. Connecticut adopted a similar system in 1849, and Massachusetts passed a compulsory attendance law in 1852. By 1870, every state provided free elementary education. By 1900, 31 states required children to attend school from the ages of 8- to 14-years-old. As a result, by 1910, 72 percent of American children attended school. In 1918, every state required students to at least complete elementary school.
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