Chapter 5: The History of schools in the United States

How curriculum has developed over 300 years.....
The First school(s) and curriculum were built in 1642 so that all children could learn to read and understand religion and the law. It was still another 60 years or more before there was a general agreement that everyone needed a basic education. Around this time, the schools were primarily teaching the students to read and how to become a good citizen. During the early 19th century the curriculum was greatly influenced again when Noah Webster’s speller and text books started to be used in the schools. These books were later replaced by McGuffey Readers, during second part of century. In 1821 Boston built the first high school which was called the English Classic School (later renamed the English High School) which was an alternative for children not attending boarding schools. This school curriculum began by teaching English, geography, arithmetic, algebra, geometry, trigonometry, history, navigation, and surveying; but eventually most high schools ended up ‘reverting’ to a traditional ‘old grammar school’ method which taught math, English, history, and political economy. Another big change occurred around 1960-70 which said that school Curriculums needed to incorporate, teachings about other ethnic groups in history lessons.

Debates
Back in the colonial period it was debated whether academies in Europe should expand education beyond the study of Latin and Greek. Dissenters believed the schools were limiting the freedom of ideas by teaching students to obey the church and/ or the government. Today arguments still take place concerning the bible and whether it is alright to bring one to school, let alone teach about it in school. In the 1800’s there was also a debate about how much school Americans really needed and whether building high schools was really necessary. Today we know high schools are necessary but the government still argues over how many we need ( more or fewer schools) and what needs to be taught in them. One other huge debate that has haunted America for a long time was whether there should be segregation within schools or not; only since the 1960’s has this issue slowly been worked out, yet it is still not completely accepted in some places down south.