European beliefs and practices, which had pervaded American’s schools, were gradually abandoned as the new national character was formed. In the 16th and 17th century England, The Puritans desire to reform the Church of England was viewed as treason.

The Puritans encountered both religious and political opposition, and they looked to the New World as an escape from persecution. The Puritans came to America not to establish religious freedom, but to establish their own church as supreme, both religiously and politically. The Puritans didn’t tolerate other religions nor were they interested in separating religion and politics.

The ideas that led to the American Revolution revolutionized our schools.

The purpose of the Massachusetts colony as to establish the “true” religion of the Puritans, to create a “new Israel” in America. Schools were simply an extension of the religious state, designed to teach the young to read and understand the Bible and to do honorable battle with Satan.

In the 1700’s American education was reconstructed to meet broader nonsectarian goals.

Thomas Jefferson wanted to go beyond education a small elite class or providing only religious instruction. Jefferson maintained that education should be more widely available to white children from all economic and social classes. Public citizens began to question the usefulness of rudimentary skills taught in a school year of just three or four months. They questioned the value of mastering Greek and Latin classics in the Latin grammar schools, when practical skills were in short supply in the New World.

In 1749, Benjamin Franklin penned Proposals Relating to the Youth of Pennsylvania, suggesting a new kind of secondary school to replace the Latin grammar school. Two years later the Franklin Academy was established, free of religious influence and offering a variety of practical subjects, such as:

1)mathematics 2)astronomy 3)athletics 4)navigation 5)dramatics 6)bookkeeping.

Students were able to choose some of their courses, therefore setting the precedent for elective courses and programs at the secondary level. In the late 1700s, it was the Franklin Academy and not the Boston Latin Grammar School that was considered the most important secondary school in America. The Franklin Academy accepted both girls and boys who could afford the tuition.

The Franklin Academy accepted both girls and boys who could afford the tuition, and the practical curriculum became an attractive innovation. The Franklin Academy sparked the establishment of six thousand academies in the century that followed including Phillips Academy at Andover, Massachusetts and Phillips Exeter Academy in Exeter, New Hampshire. The original Franklin Academy eventually became the University of Pennsylvania.

Jefferson’s commitment to educating all white Americans, rich and poor at government expense, and Franklins commitment to a practical program of nonsectarian study offering elective courses served American educational thought from its European roots.

Many years passed before these ideas became widely established practices, but the pattern for innovation and true American approach to education was taking shape.

Kalman, B. (2001). http://www.pbs.org/kcet/publicschool/evolving_classroom/furniture.html. Retrieved January 1, 2001, from : http://www.pbs.org/kcet/publicschool/evolving_classroom/furniture.html

Kalman, B. (2001). http://www.pbs.org/kcet/publicschool/evolving_classroom/furniture.html. Retrieved January 1, 2001, from : http://www.pbs.org/kcet/publicschool/evolving_classroom/furniture.html

Sadker, D. M., & Zittleman, K. R. (2009). Teachers, Schools, and Society A Brief Introduction to Education. New York, NY: David Patterson.