Early American Education Research Paper

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The American system of education has undergone dramatic transformations at various times since its origins in the 1600s, reflecting changes in the social life and culture of the nation. The first forms of education began years after the Protestant Reformation when Europeans began settling in North America. The largest influence on early education was religious sects-including, Puritans, Huguenots, Anabaptists, and Quakers. Schools were frequently built by the religious leaders in order to ensure the replication of individual sects. As time develops we can see how education spread throughout the states and developed significantly.
In the early colonies the Massachusetts Bay colony began spreading schools all throughout the states. In 1647 …show more content…

The increasing demand for ministers aided in the revival of schools because scholars were needed to train preachers and ministers. Colonial education was certainly a large innovation in history, for the concept of free schools was unknown in Europe at that time. The subjects were set in place to help students succeed in life through arithmetic for business; languages to communicate, debate, and preach; and reading to provide access to the Bible and to understand contracts, government documents, and laws. A few schools under more learned schoolmasters even offered language classes in …show more content…

The demand for greater educational opportunities has always been an essential for women. While young women were admitted into the public schools, the majority of women in the United States were denied educational opportunities. In 1830, it was calculated that women’s literacy was but half of men’s. Just as Horace Mann defined the common school movement, Emma Willard (1787–1870), Catharine Beecher (1800–1878), and Mary Lyon (1797–1849) were three leading female figures in the progress of women’s education. However, unlike Mann and the common school movement, women reformers themselves had to struggle for education as second-class citizens. Emma Willard started teaching when she was seventeen; in 1814 she founded the Troy Female Seminary, which was the first recognized institution for educating women. It was later renamed the Emma Willard School. An advocate of a meticulous curriculum for girls, she addressed the New York State legislature in 1819 and challenged Thomas Jefferson’s disparaging views about women’s mental capacities. Her entire life was devoted to women’s education, and many of the graduates of the Emma Willard School joined the ranks of the women’s rights movement to fight for education

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