Historical Foundations of
Education
Chapter 7
Historical Lenses
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Celebrationist historians…see the brighter side of
historical events
Liberal historians…focus on conflict, stress,
inconsistencies
Revisionist historians…learn more by studying what
has been wrong than what has been right
Postmodernist historians…see history through the
unique lenses of social class, race, ethnicity, gender,
age
Learning Outcomes
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List important early educators in the world
Detail major educational accomplishments of
the early Eastern societies
Analyze the life of the colonial school teacher
Articulate the roles government played in
colonial America
Analyze how an understanding of early
American history informs today’s teacher
The beginnings of Education
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Informal education…all peoples have cared for their
children and prepared them for life
Hindu and Hebrew education…how to live a good
life
Chinese education…Lao-tszu and Confucius
Egyptian education…education provided for
privileged males
Eastern civilizations developed education prior to
Western civilizations, for the most part
Western Education
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The Age of Pericles (455-431bce), city states
in Greece
Sparta, from 8 to 18, boys were wards of the
State…education to develop courage,
patriotism, obedience, cunning, and physical
strength (little intellectual content)
Athens, heavily stressed intellectual and
aesthetic objectives
Western world’s first great
philosophers
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Socrates…the Socratic method: a way of
teaching that centers on the use of questions
by the teacher to lead students to certain
conclusions…Socrates’ fundamental
principle, “Knowledge is virtue.”
Plato…Republic recommendations for the
ideal society…three classes of people:
artisans, soldiers, philosophers
Greek philosophers
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Plato… “A good education is that which gives to the
body and to the soul all the beauty and all the
perfection of which they are capable.”
Aristotle…a person’s most important purpose in life
is to serve and improve humankind…Aristotle was
scientific, practical, and objective…had the greatest
influence on thinking through the Middle Ages
Females and slaves did not possess the intelligence
to be educated. (Plato and Aristotle)
All paid employment absorbs and degrades the
mind. (Aristotle)
Western Education—The Romans
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In 146 BCE the Romans conquered Greece,
many of the advances of the Roman Empire
inspired by the enslaved Greeks
Between 50 BCE and 200 CE, an entire
system of schools developed
Quintilian (35-95 CE) described current
practice and recommended the type of
system needed in Rome…very humanistic
Education in the Middle Ages
(476-1300)
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Roman Catholic Church the greatest power
in government and education (by 476, the fall
of the Roman Empire)
The Dark Ages…earthly life as nothing more
than a way to a better life hereafter
Charlemagne (742-814) valued education,
and found Alcuin (735-804) and focused on
the seven liberal arts (trivium and
quadrivium)
The Revival of Learning
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Thomas Aquinas (1225-1274) “more than any other
person helped to change the church’s views on
learning”…rooted in the ideas of Aristotle, led to the
medieval universities, formalized scholasticism (the
logical and philosophical study of the beliefs of the
church)
The East had no dark ages. Mohammed (569-632)
led a group of Arabs from northern Africa into
southern Spain…spread slowly throughout Europe,
significant advances in science and mathematics
Education in Transition (1300-1700)
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Renaissance and Reformation
Renaissance represented the protest against
the dogmatic authority of the church over
social and intellectual life…revival of
classical learning called humanism
Reformation represented a reaction against
corruption in the church which kept most
people in ignorance
The Reformation
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Formal beginning in 1517…ninety-five theses of Martin
Luther…his disagreements with the Church
The Church believed its duty was to pass on the correct
interpretation of the Bible to the laity…Luther thought each
should interpret for self, and thus individual education was
important…to attain salvation
Luther’s coworker in education, Philipp Melanchthon, stressed
universal elementary education…education should be provided
for all regardless of class, compulsory for both sexes…state
controlled and state supported
Education in Transition
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Ignatius Loyola(1491-1556), to combat the
Reformation, began the Jesuits in
1540…established schools to further the
goals of the Catholic Church, were involved
with teacher training from early on
Comenius (1592-1670),wrote many texts,
first to use illustrations, writings based on
science
John Locke(1632-1704) tabula rasa
Modern Period (1700 to present)
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Descartes(1596-1650), laid the foundations
for the modern period and rationalism
Reason is supreme, the laws of nature are
invariable, truth can be verified empirically
Frederick the Great (1712-1786), leader of
Prussia, friend of Voltaire, interested in better
training for teachers
Emergence of the Common Man
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A period during which developed the idea that
common people should receive at least a basic
education as a means to a better life
Rousseau…most important educational work, Emile
(1762) about the liberal education of
youth…naturalism, education must be natural not
artificial “…we ascribe too much importance to
words. With our babbling education we make only
babblers.” Children are born good but corrupted by
society
The Emergence of Common Man
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Pestalozzi (1746-1827) Swiss educator who put
Rousseau’s theories into practice… educators from
all over the world came to view his schools…unlike
most teachers of his time, he felt students should be
treated with love and kindness
Herbart (1776-1841) studied under Pestalozzi,
organized the educational psychology…preparation,
presentation, association, generalization, application
Froebel (1782-1852), kindergarten, social
development, cultivation of creativity, learning by
doing…women best suited to teach young children
Colonial Education
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Southern Colonies…in 1619, twelve years
after the founding of Jamestown, slaves
brought to the South for cheap labor…two
distinct classes of people emerged, a few
wealthy land owners and many poor workers,
mostly slaves…landowners hired tutors to
teach their children
Middle Colonies
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Various national and religious backgrounds,
so they did not agree on a common school
system…each established their own religious
schools, many received education through
apprenticeship
Northern Colonies
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Settled mainly by the Puritans
People lived close to one another, shipping
ports established, industrial economy
developed
Old Deluder Satan Act(1647)…required
towns to provide for the education of
youth…the Massachusetts laws of 1642 and
1647 became the model for other colonies
Types of Colonial Schools
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Dame schools, writing schools, charity
schools
Colonial colleges: Harvard (1636), William
and Mary (1693), Yale (1701),
Princeton(1746), King’s College (1754),
College of Philadelphia (1755), Brown
(1764), Dartmouth (1769), Queens College
(1770)…heavy emphasis on theology and
the classics
Toward Universal Elementary
Education
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Monitorial schools (1805), in New York City,
economical way to teach the masses…one lead
teacher with lots of helpers among the older and
better students…closed by 1840 because seen as
not worth the cost
Horace Mann (1796-1859), leading proponent of
common elementary schools, the forefather of the
contemporary public school
Massachusetts in 1852 passed compulsory
attendance laws…by 1900, 32 other states did
likewise
Secondary Schools
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Latin Grammar Schools…strictly college preparatory,
must know Latin and Greek for college admittance
American Academies… Benjamin Franklin in
Philadelphia among the first to prepare young men
for employment through practical studies…an also
enrolled women
High Schools…replaced the academies, were
financially more in the reach of the masses
Federal Involvement in Education
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Northwest Ordinance (1785 and 1787)
…encouraged the establishment of schools,
set aside the sixteenth section of each
township to be used for educational
purposes
Morrill Land Grant (1862)…to provide the
vocational educated that was needed
Smith-Hughes Act (1917)…high school
vocational education
Teaching Materials
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Hornbook
New England Primer
Blue-Backed Speller
Slates
McGuffey’s Reader