Reflection # 20

The Puritans left England because they committed a crime of treason trying to reform the church of England. According to the passage, the Puritans looked to the New World to escape from both political and religious problems in England. Puritans believed in religion and politics joined together as one. The Puritans believed that schools would be good for the religious community to teach people how to read so that they could understand the Bible and battle against the devil with scriptures. During the early seventeenth century Thomas Jefferson wanted to go beyond educating small religious groups. So now white people regarding their state of wealth or them being poor they were granted the right to be educated at any public school. Girls were usually educated in Dame schools. Dame schools were schools that were taught by women in their own house. Boys were taught in Latin Grammar schools.

A new secondary school replaced the Latin Grammar schools, they were called Academy. Academy schools were free from any religious influence. These schools offered a variety of subjects such as math, astronomy, athletics, navigation, drama and bookkeeping. Franklin Academy was the first Academy established it was free yet still the most important secondary school in all of America. Francklin's Academy offered education for both boys and girls.
Horace Mann established the first common school or as we know it today the first elementary public school.

The democracy in schools was the thought that not everyone was in favor of free schools. The idea that there would be free schools available to anyone brought up the thought that America may become over educated.

Massachusetts was the first state with a secondary school or as we know it to today, a public high school. The school was established in Boston in 1821. This school enrolled 176 students all boys. In 1852 Boston then established another secondary school for girls. High schools in the nineteenth century seemed very similar to private schools. They were not free educational institutions. The push that forced the creation of free public high schools was the resistance to paying school tax. In 1874 the courts verdict was that taxes could be used to support the funding for free secondary schools.