Education and America's Early Settlers
American Colonists Laid Groundwork for Modern Education
Early 1600 settlers established a Christian-based educational system run by the church but as more people populated the newly developed country, they refused this concept, writes Deeptha Thattai, Assistant Professor School of Civil Engineering SRM University, in an undated web article.
The same thoughts are echoed in a 1997 Web article by Randy Chafy in "Exploring the Intellectual Foundation of Technology Education," where he writes that since the colonial era, Western institutionalized education during the colonial era was used increasingly for civilization building, private enterprise and personal wealth–a turn from previous methods. During the early Middle Ages education was used for advancing spiritual well being; church or state sponsored occupations and morally proper forms of knowledge.
Issues of Church and State
Common School reformers during the 1800s changed this and President Thomas Jefferson supported it. They didn't want to worship in the way of the religious educators and they wanted lessons that weren't English language exclusive. Most people used private schools to educate their students. However, until 1840 the educational system was available only to the wealthy.
The idea that the masses should be literate comes from the ideas of the Common School reformers like Horace Mann of Massachusetts and Henry Barnard of Connecticut--fathers, so to speak, of the modern public school system. They thought that if children were educated and made literate they would make better citizens, unite society and prevent crime and poverty--the same ideals Americans hold dear today.
One-fifth of the Population Excluded
Note, African Americans were not considered a part of American society at the time but as chattel. The first blacks arrived in America as slaves around 1619 but by mid-19th century there were 4.5 million blacks in the country. They weren't largely educated until President Abraham Lincoln freed the slaves in 1863. The literacy rate was around five percent under slavery because teaching a slave to read was illegal but by 1910 literacy rates were at 70 percent.
No Girls Allowed
Girls traditionally were not educated either. They were admitted into school years after the establishment of the early settler's first schools and were not taught the same subjects. It wasn't until the 1950s did the idea that girls could have a more equal education settle in but by then racial, social and civil unrest had begun to take hold in the country. Segregation was common in the south as the Plessy v. Ferguson Supreme Court decision allowed it.
More money was spent on white schools and teachers received higher pay on average. The facilities were better kept in white schools as well. When the Supreme Court ruled in favor of Brown in the Brown v Topeka KS Board of Education in 1954, segregation was lifted for many in name only. Today's attitude about literacy and education is the biggest hurdle. Unmotivated teachers and students who only go through the motion of teaching and learning have to be reached, so that the excitement of learning new things will not be left by the wayside.
Early Settlers had their own Version of School
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