History of education in Massachusetts

On January 1, 1644, by unanimous vote, Dedham authorized the first U.S. taxpayer-funded public school; "the seed of American education.

"[2] Lawrence Cremin writes that colonists tried at first to educate by the traditional English methods of family, church, community, and apprenticeship, with schools later becoming the key agent in "socialization".

They were publicly supplied at the local town level; they were not free but were supported by tuition or rate bills.

Larger towns had to set up a grammar school that would enable graduates to attend Harvard College.

Harvard College was founded by the Massachusetts Bay colonial legislature in 1636, and was named after an early benefactor.

Harvard first focused on training young men for the ministry, and won general support from the well educated Puritan government, some of whose leaders had attended either Oxford or Cambridge.

[10] Puritanism required a well educated ministry, and Harvard and Yale (founded in 1701) provided the men, Of the 2,466 graduates of the two schools from 1691 to 1760, 987 (40%) became ministers.

[11] On January 1, 1644, by unanimous vote, Dedham authorized the first taxpayer-funded public school; "the seed of American education.

The details in the contract require him to construct floorboards, doors, and "fitting the interior with 'featheredged and rabbited' boarding" similar to that found in the Fairbanks House.

[15] The early residents of Dedham were so committed to education that they donated £4.6.6 to Harvard College during its first eight years of existence, a sum greater than many other towns, including Cambridge itself.

Residents were content to allow the minister to be the local intellectual and did not establish a grammar school as required by law.

[18][19] On June 17, 1898, a monument was unveiled by Governor Frederic T. Greenhalge on the grounds of the First Church Green, near the site of the original schoolhouse, declaring Dedham's school to be the first.

[20] In several towns the local Native American or Indian population supported the colonists and in turn were tolerated.

They were inspired by the Prussian system, but insisted on a republican theme: Public schools taught by trained teachers were needed so that education could provide everyone with a fair chance of success in life.

[22] The first state-funded normal school in the United States was founded thanks largely to the efforts of Horace Mann and James G.

[25] Salem was selected due to many factors including the city's historical and commercial significance and need for local teacher education.

[27] Mann thus earned the accolade of the "Father" of the Common School Movement that swept the Northeast and West in the 1830-1860 era.

The Movement called on state governments to provide a basic public school education to every child funded by local taxes.

The model was hailed as successful, when in 1879, responding to critics of the progressive methods, state-ordered testing showed that Quincy pupils surpassed the scores of other school children in Massachusetts.

[28] From the 1880s to the 1920s, high schools grew rapidly in number and average enrollment, and in the qualification and experience of the teachers.

The most common were athletics, assemblies, debating, drama, orchestra, glee club, class meetings, and school newspaper.