foundations of education

• Who would be interested in the history of schooling and education in America

  • In-service teachers
  • Pre-service teachers
  • Students
  • Parents
  • Administrators
  • Stakeholders
• Historicism


  Contextualizes history as a product of culture, and therefore irrational (interpretive)
• Fields of study that influence schooling and education


  • Education Studies
  • Psychology
  • Sociology
  • Political Science
  • Philosophy
• Core conceptions of schooling

  • Academic achievement
  • Arts and humanities
  • Civic responsibility
  • Citizenship
  • Patriotism
• Who determines what is taught in schools

  • Teachers
  • Administrators
  • Politicians
  • Elite members of society
  • General members of the public
• Interactions between colonists and native peoples of what would become America

  • Ethnocentrism (Eurocentrism) in culture and language
  • Regard of natives as "inferior" in many contexts
• Schools in the New England Colonies

  • The Town School
  • The Latin Grammar School
• The Town School


  • Boys and girls from the "common" class attended schools in which academic skills (reading, writing, math) and religion
• The Latin Grammar School


  • Boys from privileged class attend these schools focused on academics, Latin, and Greek in preparation for admission to college (Ivy League)
• Schools in the Mid-Atlantic Colonies


  • Ethnically, linguistically, and religiously pluralistic (Dutch, English, German, French)
  • Various churches created various types of schools
• Schools in New York

  • Dutch and English originally establish parochial (religious) schools
  • As NY urbanized, for profit schools in "business" and "culture" emerged
• Schools in Pennsylvania


  • Built as a refuge for "marginalized" peoples (mostly Quakers, or Society of Friends)
  • Offering academic instruction as well as vocational training (agriculture, crafting, etc.)
  • Provided education to "natives" and Black children
• Schools in the Southern Colonies

  • Widely dispersed populace
  • Slavery
  • Stratification between rich and poor White families
• Schooling in the Early Republic


  • Responsibility of the church and/or individual families
  • Not a "formalized" system
  • Centricity of separation of church and state
  • Led to the state university system in Virginia (later replicated in all states)
• One-Room Schoolhouses


  • Served small, generally rural communities
  • Various ages (sometimes between 5 and 16)
  • Taught by one teacher (who often lived in the schoolhouse itself)
  • Still used among Amish, Mennonite and other "insular" communities
• The role of history (and historicism) is essential in any academic discussion of education
• Schools in the colonial period were generally informal, inconsistent, and exclusive
• The idea of schooling was important in the narratives of the "founding fathers"
• Early provision of schooling: child factory workers

  • 19th century—many children worked in factories during the week
  • Religious education was provided on Sundays (factories closed)
• Early versions of "public" schooling

  • Protestant "Sunday School" models
  • American Sunday School Union
• Monitorial Education (Joseph Lancaster)


  • Developed in the UK to provide basic instruction in reading and math to large numbers of students at one time
  • Master teacher teaches older "advanced" students, who then teaches younger "less advanced" students
  • Similar to "peer tutoring"
• The common school


  • First example of publicly controlled and publicly funded schooling
  • Open to children of all social and economic classes
  • Largely Christian (despite separation of church and state)
  • Focus on reading, math, and recitation
• Some "seeds" of our current system


  • Organization of local school districts to serve kids within a certain geographical area
  • Establishment of school boards made up of residents
  • Establishing "levying" of taxes (use of tax money) to support schools
  • Compulsory schooling (MA & NY by 1850s; all by 1918)
• Deep-seated "Americanism" in schools

  • McGuffey Readers (first standardized textbooks)
  • Beginnings of "mythologizing" historical figures in educational contexts
  • Solidified "Christian roots" of American schooling
• Horace Mann: "father" of American public schools


  • Deep critic of the McGuffey Readers
  • Proponent of the common school
  • Public education is essential to democracy
  • "Americanizing" a nation of immigrants
• Mann's "six main problems"

  • The public should no longer remain ignorant
  • Education should be paid for, controlled, and sustained by an interested public
  • Education should be provided in a school that embrace children from a variety of backgrounds
  • Education is non-sectarian
  • Education must be based in the tenets of a free society
  • Education should be provided by well-trained, professional teachers
• A changing demographic; 1890s-1950s

  • Industrialization → urbanization
  • Distinction between demographic make up rural and urban (and burgeoning suburban) areas
  • Overcrowding (in urban areas) and attrition (in rural areas)
  • Migration of Southern Black people to northern cities (The First and Second "Great Migrations")
  • First wave of mass immigration (Irish, German, Eastern European Jews)
  • Solidifying socioeconomic class structures
• Catherine Beecher: an unconventional feminist


  • Prominent women's leader (opposed women's suffrage)
  • Equal educational access for women
  • Teacher Educator
  • Advocated for women as teachers
  • Response to limited vocational opportunities for women
  • Establishment of "women's colleges" (Barnard, Smith, Wellesley)
  • Deeply Christian in thought
• Two major schools of early curriculum development

  • Mental disciplinarians
  • Social efficiency theorists
• Mental disciplinarians


  • Grew out of an intellectual movement, originating at Yale University
  • Focus on "classical" education (Greek, Latin, Mathematics, Literature)
• Social efficiency theorists


  • School as sorter
  • Professional vs. trade ("blue collar"/ "white collar")
  • Separate modes of education/training
  • Retained the "aristocratic" organization of society
  • Social Darwinism (Herbert Spencer)
• • 1890: 6% of children in the US attended public schools
  • 1930: ~50% of children in the US attended public schools
  • Based deeply in the concept of American capitalism → "workers" and "managers"
  • The general "victory" of the social efficiency approach until and through much of the 20th century
• Schools of the 1940s and 1950s: focus on "Americanization"


  • Growing sense of nationalism (to some patriotism) from World War I and World War II
  • Increasing presence of immigrants from both Europe and Mexico
  • Required recitation of the Pledge of Allegiance (with the addition of "…under God…" certified by the Eisenhower administration) and the displaying of an American flag in each individual classroom
  • Assimilation
• • Differing views of what the basis of curriculum should be based on (Mental Disciplinarian vs. Social Efficiency)
  • American schooling and the basis of the Protestant ideal (despite Adams' and Jefferson's admonition)
  • Basis on the middle/upper-middle class White ideal (despite the context of "justice for all")
  • Preservation of "sorting" and perpetuation of socioeconomic class
  • Preservation of an "American Heritage" (minimal influence of "outside" cultures)
• Homer's Iliad and Odyssey established Greek cultural identity and served many educational purposes
• Opposing city-states: Sparta and Athens


  • Sparta
  • Athens
• Sparta


  • Militaristic focus
  • "Training" available only to physically fit males (weak boys were "exposed")
  • Prizing of bullying (and "defense")
  • Compulsory military service between 20 and 30 years old
• Athens


  • Liberal arts and humanities focus, in addition to military service
  • Grammatist- Reading and writing
  • Citharist- Music, literature, poetry
  • Paidotribe- Physical education, gymnastics, and athletics
• Plato's educational ideas


  • All humans existed in a spiritual realm before birth in this world ("pure ideas")
  • These ideas are repressed, but present, upon birth in this world
  • Reminiscence is the process of recalling these innate ideas → learning
  • Platonic curriculum: Literature, writing, music, gymnastics
• Aristotle's educational ideas


  • Socially just community depends on the rationality of citizens
  • Focus on "liberally educated" citizenry (arts and sciences)
  • Leads to rational thought about social problems
  • Curriculum: Prescribed, Categorical based (similar and different objects), History, literature, and arts