Dr.Jorge Osterling
George Mason University
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History of US Education

Notes for a History of U.S. Education

At this early stage, no claims to the accuracy of the material can be made.
Corrections and comments are welcome.

Main Sources

Jorge P. Osterling, Ph.D.
Classroom notes
George Mason University
<josterli@gmu.edu>

Leon Samuel Reed
George Mason University
<lreed@gmu.edu>

PBS
School, the Story of American Public Education
http://www.pbs.org/kcet/publicschool/roots_in_history/index.html

Daniel Schugurensky, Ph.D.
University of Toronto

http://www.oise.utoronto.ca/research/edu20/home.html

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INDEX
Notes towards a History of US Education

1600 — 1776

Colonial Period

1776 — 1840

Early National Period

1840 — 1880

1860—1899

1890s—1919

From Plessy v Ferguson to 1919

1920 — 1945

Between World War I and the End of World War II

1945 — 1965

A Struggle for Educational Equality

1965 — 1981

Major Civil Rights Legislation

1981 — 1989

The Reagan Years

1989 — 1999

2000 — 2009

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HIGHER EDUCATION: AN OVERVIEW

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OVERALL NOTES AND COMMENTS

From Encyclopedia Encarta: http://encarta.msn.com/encyclopedia_761571494/Public_Education_in_the_United_States.html

The national system of formal education in the United States developed in the 19th century. It differed from education systems of other Western societies in three fundamental respects:

  1. Americans were more inclined to regard education as a solution to various social problems.
  2. Because Americans have confidence in the power of education, Americans provided more years of schooling for a larger percentage of the population than other countries.
  3. Educational institutions are primarily governed by local authorities rather than by federal ones.

The most notable characteristic of the American education system is the large number of people it serves. In 2002, 86 percent of Americans between age 25 and 29 had graduated from high school, 58 percent had completed at least some college, and 29 percent had earned at least a bachelor’s degree. Expanding access to college education is an important priority for the U.S. government.

From: LinguaPax RE: Bilingual Education
http://www.linguapax.org/congres/taller/taller1/Beykont.html

  • The 18th and 19th centuries were characterized by the absence of a uniform school language policy in the U.S.
  • Decisions about language(s) of instruction were made locally. No official language was designated and generally, the federal government did not intervene with language choices of individuals because free choice of languages was viewed as an extension of the democratic ideal (Crawford, 1995; Heath, 1976; Keller & Van Hooft, 1982; Padilla, 1982).
  • Immigrant groups, including Germans, French, and Dutch, settled in different parts of the country. In these ethnic enclaves, church services were conducted in the native language of the community and private and church-affiliated schools used children's native languages as a main instructional medium. Some of these schools taught English as a second language; others used English as a second instructional medium.
  • In order to attract minority communities, some public schools also started bilingual programs. The liberal treatment of languages and language minority groups continued until World War I.
http://www.consideringhomeschooling.org/publicschools.html
 
  • For the first 200 years of education in North America , the primary goal of schooling was to foster religious devotion. The original Puritan and Separatist colonists, inheriting the Reformation’s concern that everyone be able to read the Bible, opened schools for teaching children how to study the Scriptures.
  • A biblically literate population was seen as the best insurance for a successful society.
  • Our founding fathers, even those who were not avowedly Christian, recognized that education should primarily serve to encourage faith in Christ. They acknowledged that civilization’s health and very existence depended on people who understood and lived Christian principles.
  • In the 1830’s, secular concepts, already widely embraced in Europe , began infiltrating the worldview of US citizens.

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