Changes In Education Essay, Research Paper

There are many significant events in the world of education. Each one changed the way that teachers taught; the way schools were run and what they learned. To this day, something new and exciting happens all the time.

In 1647 the Old Deluder Satan Act enacted in Massachusetts, requiring establishment of schools. This law required every town of 50 families or more to elect a reading and writing teacher to teach the area children. Every town that had 100 families or more were to hire a Latin teacher to prepare the young men of the town for Harvard College. This made educating students necessary. More educating equals more intelligence, which equals more jobs.

In 1783 Noah Webster s American Spelling Book was published. The American version of English that Webster proposed would have to be taught deliberately and systematically to children in the nation s schools. Since teaching would be shaped by textbooks, Webster spent his life writing spelling and reading books. His Grammatical Institute of English Language was published in 1783. The first part separately published as the American Spelling Book became one of the most popular textbooks in the United States in the nineteenth century. Going through many editions, it sold some 15 million copies by 1837. Webster s greatest work, however was the Webster Dictionary published in 1825.

In 1827 Massachusetts passed a law requiring public high schools. High schools were not popular among the community. Parents had the mentality that when children could read and write they had all the education the needed.

In 1954 the decision of Brown vs. Board of Education of Topeka was passed. The decision required racial desegregation of public schools. This allowed blacks to go to an all-white school.