-
The Mayflower arrives at Cape Cod, bringing the "Pilgrims" who establish the uth Colony.
Many of the Pilgrims are Puritans who had fled religious persecution in England. Their religious views come to dominate education in the New England colonies. -
The first Latin Grammar School (Boston Latin School) is established.
The first Latin Grammar School (Boston Latin School) is established. Latin Grammar Schools are designed for sons of certain social classes who are destined for leadership positions in church, state, or the courts. -
The first "free school" in Virginia opens.
However, education in the Southern colonies is more typically provided at home by parents or tutors. -
Harvard College
the first higher education institution in what is now the United States, is established in Newtowne (now Cambridge), Massachusetts. -
The Massachusetts Law of 1647
also known as the Old Deluder Satan Act, is passed. It decrees that every town of at least 50 families hire a schoolmaster who would teach the town's children to read and write and that all towns of at least 100 families should have a Latin grammar school master who will prepare students to attend Harvard College. -
John Locke's Some Thoughts Concerning Education is published
describing his views on educating upper class boys to be moral, rationally-thinking, and reflective "young gentlemen." His ideas regarding educating the masses are conveyed in On Working Schools, published in 1697, which focused on the importance of developing a work ethic. -
The College of William and Mary is established in Virginia.
It is the second college to open in colonial America and has the distinction of being Thomas Jefferson's college. -
Christian von Wolff describes the human mind as consisting of powers or faculties.
Called Faculty Psychology, this doctrine holds that the mind can best be developed through "mental discipline" or tedious drill and repetition of basic skills and the eventual study of abstract subjects such as classical philosophy, literature, and languages. This viewpoint greatly influences American education throughout the 19th Century and beyond. -
The Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching is founded
It is charted by an act of Congress in 1906, the same year the Foundation encouraged the adoption of a standard system for equating "seat time" (the amount of time spent in a class) to high school credits. Still in use today, this system came to be called the "Carnegie Unit." Other important achievements of the Foundation during the first half of the 20th Century include the "landmark 'Flexner Report' on medical education, the development of the Graduate Record Examination, the founding of the E -
Educational reformer Ella Flagg Young becomes superintendent of the Chicago Public Schools.
She is the first female superintendent of a large city school system. One year later she is elected president of the National Education Association.
