Education

Given America’s roots in English traditions and culture, the value of an education is well established from colonial times forward. Thomas Jefferson calls education “the most effectual means of preventing tyranny,” and supports a two tier system.

The relatively few upper class children are tutored at home or at boarding schools, where they are exposed to a classical curriculum, straight out of European academies. Around the age of sixteen they enroll at universities, completing their degrees four years later, and then transitioning into careers ordained for their class.

America’s first major university, the New College (later Harvard) is founded in 1636. Like most others to follow, it has a church affiliation, reinforcing the importance of religious as well as secular training.

12.0 America’s Earliest Colleges And Their Religious Affiliations

The vast majority of children are likely educated by their mother, who teaches the letters of the alphabet, how to sign one’s name, basic numbers and reading. But still the obvious benefits of an education prompts the drive toward formal public education for all children.

The colony of Massachusetts leads the way here in 1647 by decreeing that towns with 50 families or more hire a school teacher. Over a century later, the new U.S. government steps in with the 1785 Land Ordinance which sets aside a 640 acre parcel in town plats to build a school.

Among the earliest and most popular public school “textbooks” is The New England Primer, compiled by London bookseller, Benjamin Harris, and first published around 1690. It is based on The Protestant Tutor, and is used by the Puritans to teach various scriptural lessons to children, via rote memorization of sayings or prayers.

Now I lay me down to sleep, I pray the Lord my soul to keep. If I should die before I wake, I pray the Lord my soul to take. In Adam’s fall, we sinned all.

In 1785, teacher Noah Webster publishes his three volume primer, A Grammatical Institute of the English Language. It is secular in content, intending to “diffuse the principles of virtue and patriotism.” It focuses on the alphabet, key words, pronunciation and spelling. Included are works from Plutarch and Shakespeare to essayists Jonathan Swift and Joseph Addison.

Impressive gains in literacy (the ability to read and write) appear to follow, with researcher Sheldon Richman, estimating growth from 60% in 1650 to 90% in 1795.

American education in the early 1800’s is transformed by six leading figures.

12.1 Early Educational Reformers

Until Emma Willard opens her Troy Female Seminary in 1821, education for women is limited to “Dame Schools,” focused entirely on preparing them to become good housewives and dutiful supporters of their husbands, under the marital banner of “coverture.” Willard rebels, writing that “we are not just satellites of men.” By 1831, her school has 300 students.

Another early educational reformer is Bostonian Bronson Alcott who commits himself to challenging traditional teaching methods. He is influenced by Swiss educator, Johann Pestalozzi, whose 1801 book, How Gertrude Teaches Her Children, asks teachers to engage in “conversations” with students about the lessons rather than simply relying on memorization. In 1834 he opens the Temple School at a Masonic Lodge in Boston, where he decorates his classroom with paintings and sculpture, artifacts to prompt the Socratic dialogue he seeks.

Starting in 1836 and lasting for more than a century, schoolchildren across America achieve literacy with the aid of a series of textbooks known as “McGuffey’s Readers.” William Holmes McGuffey is convinced based on his frustrations as a roving teacher that young children are drawn into reading through exposure to stories which fascinate them and follow-up questions that engage their intellects. In turn he creates six graduated learning texts, each introducing new stories (from simplistic to Shakespeare), along with his discussion guides. Over 122 million copies of his Readers are sold over time.

In 1837, Brown University professor, Horace Mann, is elected Secretary of the Massachusetts Board of Education. His interest lies in the process by which students move beyond merely memorizing what they are being taught to actually internalizing the meaning. Mann’s answer lies in tying words and sentences to associated visual pictures, and then asking students to describe how these combinations relate to their everyday experiences. This linkage of auditory and visual learning has a huge effect on fluency and reading comprehension.

But Mann is also a remarkable administrator who earns the title “father of public school education in America.” He calls for mandatory schooling of all children up to 16 years old; use of public funds to support education; a professional force of well-paid teachers; the end of corporal punishment; and secular textbooks consistent with Christian moral standards.

His system follows the “Prussian model” beginning with kindergarten through 8th grade, followed by four years of high school, and then, for top students, universities. It is Mary Lyon who transforms education for women when she opens her Mt. Holyoke Female Seminary in 1837. Her primary target is poorer girls, given her own hardscrabble upbringing on a Massachusetts farm. But it is her dedication to a full classical curriculum, including seven courses in laboratory science and math, that distinguishes Mt. Holyoke. Students are expected to work on campus to defray costs and keep tuitions down. Her school becomes the model for Vassar College in 1861 and Wellesley in 1870.

Meanwhile formal education for African-Americans barely exists until after the Civil War.
A 1740 statute in South Carolina actually forbids it, based on belief that educating the enslaved would encourage their quest for freedom. The North at least makes a few scattered attempts. A private school for black children surfaces in Boston in 1798; various African Methodist Episcopalian (AME) churches offer Sunday schools in the 1830’s; the Canterbury School admits black children in Connecticut before being shut down by angry neighbors; and Oberlin Collegiate Institute admits its first black student in 1835 amidst much controversy.

America’s early history is also shaped by one other important phenomenon, its almost entirely self-educated men and women. Ben Franklin and Abigail Adams qualify as symbols along with the most prominent example, Abraham Lincoln. Proof that humanity’s quest for knowledge can overcome all obstacles.

Finally, it seems safe to say that the success of the American experiment in democracy rests heavily on the education of its citizens. Over time it levels the playing field, narrowing the gap between the gentry and the common man, and supporting the American dream of life, liberty and happiness for all.