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Five Historical Events in Education
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Massachusetts Act of 1642 (Massmoments .org)
This significant event in education was the beginning of society being held responsible for knowing how to act and behave by the law. It gave the first responsibility to teachers and it is still compulsory for children to go to school to this day. "...made education compulsory for young men, and parents and trade masters responsible for the teaching. Thus, able to write, there would be no excuses for not understanding and obeying the law." (Films Media Group, 2006, 6:48) -
Creation of American Textbooks (Photo by Benjamin M. Mears (AC 2011) on 13 May 2008.)
The creation of the textbook gave educators their first major tool of teaching.This event is not just significant, but critical to the influence and success of schools teaching education throughout its history. The textbook, created by Noah Webster, continues to influence education today. "Webster's enduring contribution to American education is, his dictionary, adopted as the national standard by congress in 1831, and it remains so today." (Films Media Group, 2006, 10:08) -
Morrill Acts (Wikimedia Commons)
Justin Smith Morrill and Abraham Lincoln made it a law to give land to build schools. The significance of that amount of land impacted the amount of school availability in pursuance of a profession. Without this event there would be less schools today. "Under the act, 30,000 acres of land were sold for each senator and representative of the united states that remained in the Union, and the proceeds were used to fund Land Grant college Programs..." (Films Media Group, 2006, 15:26) -
N.E.A Committee of Ten (National Education Association. Photos provided by NEA Archives and Corbis.)
The debate of practical vs academic education is still going on today. The significance with this event is that it gave people power over their education. It continues to influence education today by allowing choices. "And for the first time, students were allowed to choose among elective subjects to study rather than be forced to matriculate from a purely fixed curriculum." (Films Media Group, 2006, 17:18). -
Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ballotpedia.org)
Head Start is still being used to promote a healthy beginning for underprivileged children and families which is still significant today as much as it was in the1960's. Without this Act there would not be funding for these types of programs. "Head Start now serves children and their families in all 50 states and remains an enduring success." (Films Media Group, 2006, 24:49).
