Session 3

• Three areas
– New England
– Mid Atlantic
– Southern

• New England- The first schools were linked to the Puritan church
• Their goals were:
– For students to be able to read scripture to propagate the religion
– For students to be able to read notices relate to civil affairs, laws, doctrines,

• Had same goals as the early New England colonies
• Passed a law called the Old Deluder Satan Act
– It required all towns of 50 or more families to a reading and writing teacher
– All towns of 100 or more had to have a Latin teacher as well
– Goal to prepare students to enter Harvard
– To make sure there was never an uneducated lower class like there was in Europe

• Education was more difficult here because there were so many different languages
– German, English, Dutch
• As a result they ended up without one common system of education
• They ended up with many parochial Schools and independent schools related to the different ethnic groups
• Still in effect today to some extent

• Did not have an formal system
• Wealthy landowner’s children had private tutors
• Later these same people were required to provide a basic education for poor children, orphans and illegitimate children
• But this system maintained the great inequity in the classes and remained that way long after the civil war

• Taught mostly Reading and Writing with some arithmetic
• Taught some religion
• Teachers were to be strict disciplinarians
• Believed that:
– Children were born in sin
– Play was bad it was idleness
– Children‘s talk was gibberish

• Town Schools
• Parochial Schools
• Private schools
• Latin Grammar Schools
• Academies
• Colleges

• Locally controlled public elementary schools
• One room, with a teacher pulpit
• Both boys and girls attended school
• Attendance was irregular depending if the children were needed to support the family

• Established by different religious groups for children of their own kind
• Focused on reading, writing and religion
• The south also had a version of these,
• In the south poorer children attended “charity schools- less demanding and taught vocational skills

• In the early 1600's Puritan families were concerned with the thoughts that someday their trained and learned leaders would be no more.
• As a result they established the Latin
Grammar Schools.
• For boys only at first
• Major goal was to prepare them for entrance into Harvard

• In a further attempt to ease their fears of not having an educated ministry the Puritans founded Harvard College.
• In order to enter this college one has to pass an entrance exam which demanded that they knew how to read and speak Latin and Greek.
• The Latin Grammar school focused initially on
English then on Latin and Greek

• Initially most colleges were for the preparation of ministers, Harvard, Yale,
Cornell Based on the puritan view that ministers had to demonstrate a mastery in
Latin, Greek and the classics
• Other course included , logic, astronomy and math, natural sciences and metaphysics
• Every religion had its own college
• PA has one of the most

• Based on Ben Franklin’s Idea,
• Intended to offer a practical education for this not going to college
• Courses included- English, grammar, public speaking, classics, writing, Practical math, history as a study of ethics
• and many practical skills, including engraving, printing, painting, cabinet making, farming and bookkeeping

• Textbooks were first introduced around 1690
• One of the first was The Hornbook Primer, included Westminster Catechism and old testament
• The book was made from flattened cattle horns, hence the horn book
• Most books of this time taught alphabet
• Focused on rote and drill

• Textbooks later written by Thomas Dillworth
• he wrote a variety of books
• Initially one book for all subjects
• Then the books became specialized as they are now

• With a new government came a new mission for schools
• At this time we saw the first laws to mandate the existences of schools in certain communities
• Did not mandate attendance
• Saw the beginning of removing religion from the schools a big push for secular ism

• Was one of the first to begin a push to remove the classics from education.
• He equated learning the classics, two dead languages, ( Greek and Latin) “To amusing ourselves catching Butterflies”
• Wanted school to advance democracy and explore our natural resources

• Was one of the first to outline a plan for PA to have a elementary school in every township of
100 or more families
• He wanted free academies at the county level and free colleges at the university level
• He wanted Tax dollars to pay for it all
• His elementary curriculum emphasized reading, math and writing, his secondary curriculum had
English, German, the arts, science

• Was a farmer at heart and had faith in the agrarian society and distrusted the urban proletariats
• He proposed a plan for VA that would educate the common man and the gentry at “the expense of all”- public taxes
• Curriculum very similar to rush
• Felt schools were needed to support the democracy

• Was a farmer at heart and had faith in the agrarian society and distrusted the urban proletariats
• He proposed a plan for VA that would educate the common man and the gentry at “the expense of all”- public taxes
• Curriculum very similar to rush
• Felt schools were needed to support the democracy

• Both of their plans were never passed
• Although both concepts helped to shape the schools that would come

• Creating schools in the new country and agreeing on a curriculum was more of a problem because we had so many diverse cultures
• Noah Webster felt we needed our own language as well as our own government- we needed our own cultural independence as well
• He wrote several books in this effort

• Some of these books were grammar books spelling books
• The only book that lasted was his dictionary
• The American Dictionary- helped create a sense of a US language, identity and nationality

• McGuffey was also a patriot and felt that although the young country owed a lot of its culture to other parts of the world, That the
United States had also made some contribution to humankind
• He developed a set of readers, the best selling textbook for decades
• Extolled the patriotism heroism, hard work, diligence and virtuous living

• Although there was a push from people like
Webster and McGuffey to develop a nationalistic American way, education was highly influenced by people like
– Pestalozzi
– Froebel
– Herbart
– Spencer

• Was a Swiss Educator
• Is credited for laying the basics for today’s elementary school
• Wanted children to learn through their senses
• He deplored rote learning
• Proposed a general and special method
– General method- educators provided emotional security and affection for students
– Special method- dealt with dealing with senses like auditory and visual

• Had a strong belief that early education was important
• Designed the concept for kindergarten
• Believed that learning should be organized around play and the student’s interests- use manipulatives
• Provide a safe secure environment.

• Believed in a balance curriculum
– Traditional curriculum to rigid
– Believe that there was two bodies of knowledge
• Ethical knowledge
• Empirical data, facts and theories
• Needed to develop the morality
• Wanted history, English, science and math integrated into all levels of education

• Believed learning was a psychological process that teachers needed students needs and interest through:
– Planning- considers students previous learning
– Presentation-introduce new lesson
– Association-tie new material to existing material
– Systemization- teach rules, principles or generalization
– Application-the new ideas are tested and applied to pertinent activities ( authentic assessment)

• Opposed religion- The beginning of many
• Believed that traditional schools were impractical and a luxury of the upper class
• Advocated for a scientific, practical curriculum that would support an industrial society
• believed that students should be taught how to think, not what to think

• Was a believer in Darwin and felt that a school curriculum should advanced a societies ability to survive and progress
• Believed in a form of discovery learning and was an influence on the followers of john
Dewey

• What forces do you think was the greatest influence in changing the schools

• Schools for everyone began to be adopted in all areas of the country
• The urban east, schools were always there for the upper class, but now available for the lower class as well and seen as an important opportunity
• Schools were also being established in the newly settled west
• Schools had many different looks and approaches

• Were run on the premise of keeping them efficient ( sound familiar)
• The teacher taught the bright students and then they taught the other students
• Taught the three Rs and religion

• Forged by Horace Mann
• Was the precursor to our public schools
• Mann was a salesman- Sold each faction of society on how the common school would help everyone
– Told Puritans that it would promote a common culture
– Told business it would prepare workers
– Build a better society
– Told rich it was their obligation

• Were in full gear by 1900
• Religion was dropped from the curriculum
• Added morals/ manners instead

• Although many children attended elementary schools, the secondary schools were established were not well attended till the
1930s to 1970 range

• Replaced the Latin Grammar school
• Designed to provide a practical curriculum
• Similar to a secondary school, but had a much larger enrollment
• Prepared students for not just college ( but mostly), but also for vocational careers as well
• They eventually became High schools, what remained were mostly all girl schools

• In 1870 courts ruled that taxes could be used to fund schools
• Then state after state mandated attendance
• Unlike the European models, it served all classes of students under one roof
• Offered a full range curriculum

• Algebra
• Higher Arithmetic
• English Grammar
• Us History
• Latin
• Geometry
• Physiology
• natural philosophy
• Physical geography
• German
• General History
• Rhetoric
• Bookkeeping
• French
• Zoology
• Some vocational courses as well

• As school evolved there were many unsettled questions- European philosophies versus new psychology
• In 1983- The NEA formed Three committees to develop a philosophy that would guide schools
– The Committee of Fifteen- Elementary School
– The committee of Ten- Secondary Schools
– Committee on College Entrance

• This committee actually took a step back
• It did away with Kindergarten
• Thought that students needed strict discipline and strict teacher authority
• Made elementary schools k to 8

• Curriculum stayed the same, but they added four tracks
• 1. Classical
• 2. Latin Scientific
College bound tracks
• 3. Modern Languages Not college bound
• 4. English

• The Committee was somewhat political, eight of the ten members were college representatives and stated what they wanted

• Defined what they expected students to have in High School
• They strengthen the program in High School
• The credits the students accumulated were measured in Carnegie Units, still used today

• Were two conservative educational reformers
• Harris: Had a major impact on the schools for decades
• Limited any vocational
• Focused on
• Focused on
– work versus any play
– Order versus any freedom
– Effort rather than interest

• Harris focused so much on the classic, it discouraged working class students from attending school

• Eliot
• Believed that elementary students could work on much higher subjects
• Also supported tracking , even in elementary school
• Wanted vocation al schools, but in a separate place
• Later this became a common belief

• Eventually educators could not ignore all of the information from Educational Psychologist and educators like Pestolozzi, Montessori, Froebel,
Piaget, Dewey and Gestalt psychologist
• The end of the classical curriculum- they argued that there was no research that showed studying the classics hade greater benefit for developing mental capacity tan other curriculums.

• Around 1917
• Had four basic areas
– Science
– Civics
– Industry- Trades
– Aesthetics

• Pushed to have schools be a neutral institution
• Democracy was a social institution that could be enhanced by schools
• Democracy in Education

• Was the first to used statistical research to make decision about what was right to do in schools
• Looked at what was the best methods to use to teach children to solve problems
• Had two tracks of students
– Slower students
– Brighter and Average students

• NEA in 1918 recommended that High schools serve everyone
– College prep
– Vocational tract
– Began to assume the modern curriculum patterns we see today

• Saw the first book written on curriculum by
Charles and Bobbitt
– Many of the principles proposed are still used today
– First to propose evaluation of curriculum into process
• Written in the behaviorist approach we talked about last session
• Concerned with
– Objectives
– Efficiency

• Evolved the curriculum further , a discipline of
Dewey
• Try to merge the behaviorist approach with the progressive approach the new approach was the project approach or the purposeful activity
• He advocated giving children input into the curriculum ( selecting the project)

• Got together all of the power brokers in schools of the time ( 1930) from Bobbitt to
Kilpatrick and they wrote two volumes on the direction schools should take
• Proposed and Ideal curriculum
• Later developed into four guiding principles

• A statement of objectives
• Sequence of experiences-
• The subject matter that is best means for engaging the students
• Statement of outcomes
• Not bad for 1930

• Was Another influential work
• It compared different types of curriculum and measured how students did using these different approaches
• Developed basic principles a best practices of sort

• Also called for evaluation of the curriculum
• First to develop that a single topic could achieve multiple objectives
• Had three categories of objectives
– Knowledge acquisition
– Intellectual Skills
– Attitudes and feelings

• Although much had been written and research a study in 1969 found little had changed in schools, things like
– classrooms were teacher centered
– Emphasis on control ( not fair)
– No enthusiasm or excitement- teacher is flat
– Little media, little guest speakers
– Teachers had minimum expectations
– Good looking students and athletes were most popular kids in the schools