Education history

By ivegonerooky

  • First English Academy

    1751 - Benjamin Franklin helps to establish the first "English Academy" in Philadelphia with a curriculum that is both classical and modern, including such courses as history, geography, navigation, surveying, and modern as well as classical languages. The academy ultimately becomes the University of Pennsylvania.

  • Modern Blackboard

    1801 - James Pillans invents the modern blackboard.

  • Public Highschool

    1821 - The first public high school, Boston English High School, opens .

  • National Teachers Association formed

    1857 - The National Teachers Association (now the National Education Association) is founded by forty-three educators in Philadelphia.

  • Dewey Decimal System

    1876 - The Dewey Decimal System, developed by Melvil Dewey in 1873, is published and patented. The DDC is still the worlds most widely-used library classification system.

  • Hull House

    1889 - Jane Addams and her college friend Ellen Gates Starr found Hull House in a Chicago, Illinois neighborhood of recent European immigrants. It is the first settlement house in the U.S. Included among its many services are a kindergarten and a night school for adults. Hull House continues to this day to offer educational services to children and families.

  • First U.S. public community college

    1901 - Joliet Junior College, in Joliet, Illinois, opens. It is the first public community college in the U.S.

  • Bureau of Educational Experiments

    1916 - The Bureau of Educational Experiments is founded in New York City by Lucy Sprague Mitchell with the purpose of studying child development and children's learning. It opens a laboratory nursery school in 1918 and in 1950 becomes the Bank Street College of Education. Its School for Children is now "an independent demonstration school for Bank Street College." This same year (1916), Mrs. Frank R. Lillie helps establish what would become the University of Chicago Nursery School.

  • School Transportation

    1919 - All states have laws providing funds for transporting children to school.

  • Closing of schools

    1929 - The Great Depression begins with the stock market crash in October. The U.S. economy is devastated. Public education funding suffers greatly, resulting in school closings, teacher layoffs, and lower salaries.