A few weeks ago, the subject of this blog turned to schools — primarily because of the change the coronavirus has had on the education system. That led to me reminiscing about my school days and the mention of a one-room school house in the Story community near Maysville, where a number of my friends attended through the eighth grade.
I thought it might be interesting to take a closer look at our education system over the years. To go way, way back, the earliest humans didn’t need schools to pass along information. Kids were educated on an individual basis within the family unit. But of course, the populations grew and societies were formed.
When people started living in organized societies, someone figured out that instead of each family being responsible for educating the young, it would be easier and more efficient to have a small group of adults teach a larger group of children — and low and behold, the concept of school was born.
In the beginning, and for a long time, schools weren’t like the schools we have today. The earliest schools usually focused more on teaching skills and passing along religious values, rather than teaching specific “subjects” like schools do today.
In the US, the first schools began in the 13 original colonies. Boston Latin School, founded in 1635, became the first public school and the oldest existing school in the country. The earliest public schools focused on reading, writing and math, or arithmetic. The New England colonies were first in requiring towns to set up schools. The Massachusetts Bay Colony made basic education a requirement in 1642. Maybe not surprisingly, many of the earliest schools were only for boys. At the time, girls had few, if any, options.
Education became a higher priority after the American Revolution and most of the states began to establish public schools. As we know from today’s news, states rules and regulations aren’t universal or consistent — they weren’t then and never have been… they vary from state to state.
Credit for the modern school system we have today usually goes to Horace Mann, often called the “Father of the Common School Movement.” Mann became Secretary of Education in Massachusetts in 1837 and instituted a system of professional teachers that would teach students an organized curriculum of basic content.
The success of Mann’s system in Massachusetts was copied and established in other states. More and more states made school attendance mandatory — by 1918, every state required students to complete elementary school.
Throughout the 20th century, the education system improved by leaps and bounds leading to the advanced systems we enjoyed until 2019. In 2020, the education system (along with almost everything else) changed. The system will, for the foreseeable future, have to be re-invented. We’re currently facing the same problems we had following the American Revolution — education decisions are being left to the individual states with no overall or centralized guidance. Maybe another Horace Mann will come along and set forth a vision that is workable, and acceptable, across the nation.
For now, we have to start where we are, use what we have and do what we can….
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