Evolution of Education In America

This paper will discuss the evolution of education in America during the Revolutionary and Early National periods (1776-1828). In the colonial period which preceded the Revolutionary War, American education was dominated by the influence of churches. The main purpose of education was to give children the ability to read the Bible and other religious texts. During the colonial period, "there was scarcely any other purpose in the maintenance of elementary schools" (Cubberly 41). Elementary training of the time, particularly in New England, centered around the Latin grammar school. This was a very exclusive school designed to teach Latin to young men from the upper classes in order to prepare them for college training (Knight 113-14). Women, the poor, and nonwhite races were largely disregarded. Prior to the Revolutionary War, nine colleges had been founded throughout the colonies, and "the religious motive was strong in the establishment of all except one" (114). The exception was the College of Philadelphia in the Pennsylvania colony. Thus, early colonial education in America was not of the universal or public nature which developed in the years following the Revolutionary War.

The development of education in Pennsylvania was somewhat different than in the other colonies. There was more religious variety in Pennsylvania than elsewhere, and this caused the Pennsylvania leaders to be more open-minded in terms of public education. George Fox, the founder of the Relig

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leaders included Horace Mann of Massachusetts, who believed that "common schools should be supported by the state, controlled by the public, and open equally to all" (Gutek 362). James G. Carter, also of Massachusetts, wrote a series of influential letters to the Boston Transcript calling for free public education in that state (Johanningmeier 137). Henry Barnard was an influential leader in the common school movement in both Connecticut and Rhode Island. Governor George Wolf and politician Thaddeus Stevens worked together to enact the first public school law in the state of Pennsylvania (135). Benjamin Rush and Samuel Smith were two other Pennsylvania leaders who were interested in developing a unique American form of democratic education (Gutek 154-155). In New York, De Witt Clinton, leader of the New York Free School Society and later governor of the state, was an exponent of the monitorial system. This system, developed independently by Andrew Bell and Joseph Lancaster, was "designed to achieve basic literacy by having a master teacher train a number of student teachers--or monitors--who then trained other students as monitors" (359-60). Although the monitorial system eventually declined in use, it nonetheless had an i

Category: History - E