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Lancaster's Model School
In 1818, reformer Joseph Lancaster founded a model school to train teachers. A typical Lancastrian school was organized on a "monitorial" system in which older students taught and disciplined younger students. Corporal punishment was prohibited. Lancaster left the United States in 1823, but his schools set a precedent. -
The Boston English Classical School
In 1821, the Boston English Classical School (known as Boston English High School) opened in the Beacon Hill neighborhood of Boston in Massachusetts. It was the first public high school in the United States, and it had an enrollment of 101 boys. The school's goal was "to give a child an education that shall fit him for an active life, and shall serve as a foundation for eminence in his profession, whether Mercantile or Mechanic." -
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The American High School Experience
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Girls in High School
During the 19th century, parents were more likely to enroll their daughters rather than their sons in high school for two reasons:
1. girls did not provide an income on which the family depended
2. a common career path for girls was to become elementary school teachers, and high school prepared them for that career -
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High School Attendance from 1821 to 1945
Until the end of WWII, only a small percentage of American teenagers attended high school as their parents depended on their income. As a result, many more youths worked in mines and factories than enrolled in high school. -
The Labor Movement Advocates for Public Education
In 1928, the Labor Movement spoke out for the first time in favor of the creation of a public education system, arguing that public education was a right without which the aim of "republican liberty" could not be realized. Subsequently, many labor unions were also advocates of public education. -
The Central High School of Philadelphia
The all-male school opened in 1838, and taught its students practical subjects such as phonography (shorthand), navigation and bookkeeping. The mission of the school was to prepare students for employment right after high school. -
Life after Central High School
James McElhone graduated from Central High School in 1848 at 16 years old. He immediately started working in Washington DC as a congressional reporter. When Central was criticized for teaching practical subjects such as shorthand, the school's principal retorted that some of the graduates "not yet turned of twenty, are making more money by phonography and reporting than the Principal of the High School, after having given himself for more than twenty years in his profession." -
Morrill Act of 1862
Under the Morrill Act, the federal government can grant to the states land for the creation of colleges that will "benefit the agricultural and mechanical arts. This is significant as it changed the perception that people had of higher education. -
End of Civil War and Impact on Education
After the war, slaves were for the first time able to go to school. In the South though, the quality of education was very poor and inferior to the rest of the country. -
The Committee of Ten
In 1894, the Committee of Ten, a prestigious group of educators headed by the president of Harvard, issued a report on curriculum that had an immense influence on the high school experience. The Committee of Ten, ignoring the fact that most high school students did not go to college, created a four-year curriculum that was geared toward college readiness. -
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Standardization of High School
At the beginning of the 20th century, high schools increasingly start using the curriculum that had been created by the Committee of Ten. -
The Great Depression
During the Great Depression, a record number of youths enrolled in high school because jobs were unavailable. -
End of WWII and Increase of High School Enrollment
After the end of WWII, the idea of sending teenagers to high school took hold, and enrollment increased. -
The Hechinger Report
A report conducted in 2016 by Hechinger Report, a nonprofit national newsroom that focuses on the topic of education, concluded that “students of color and low-income students had considerably lower rates of mastery than their peers.” The same report showed that other purposes of high schools, namely preparing students for life / for college had not been fulfilled either as “nearly half (47 percent) of American high school graduates complete neither a college- nor career-ready course of study.” -
The Purpose of Education According to Students
Based on students' interviews conducted for The Atlantic, a number of students stress the importance of learning real-life skills in order to become "a functioning member of society who can work," and to "progress in society."