HISTORICAL FOUNDATION OF

CURRICULUM
EVOLUTION OF AMERICAN EDUCATION

PRESENTED BY:
ADONAY, LOREN B.
AMOROSO, GARMACO
COLONIAL PERIOD 1642 - 1776
 The curriculum's historical foundations are largely
rooted in the educational experiences of colonial
Massachusetts.
 The primary purpose of education during the colonial
period was to teach children to read the scriptures and
notices of civil affairs (Ornstein, 2009, p. 55).
THREE COLONIAL REGIONS
 Except for Rhode Island, New England Colonies followed Massachusetts educational model,
which states, "schools in colonial Massachusetts derived from two sources: (1) 1642
legislation required parents and guardians to ensure that children could read and understand
the principles of religion and the laws of the commonwealth and (2) the "Old Deluder Satan"
Act of 1647, which required every town of 50 or more families to appoint a reading and
writing teacher.
 These early colonial laws reveal that education was very important to Puritan settlers.
 Many historians believe these laws are the "roots of U.S. school law and the public school
movement" (Ornstein, 2009, p. 56).
 The Middle Colonies did not have language or religion in common. Parochial and
independent schools, which were related to different ethnic and religious groups were
established.
 In the Southern Colonies, school decisions
were left to the family. Usually the children of
wealthy plantations owners were privately
tutored while children of poorer status did
not receive a any formal education.
COLONIAL SCHOOLS
 Town Schools - students who attended were ages 5 or 6 to 13 or 14; but
attendance varied because students helped on their family's farm.
 Parochial & Private Schools - focused on reading, writing, and religious
sermons.
 Latin Grammar Schools - Secondary level; upper class boys attended to
prepare for college. The curriculum focused on the classics and hardly focused
on arts and sciences.
 Academies - Students who were not going to college were taught a practical
curriculum.
 Colleges - Based on the Puritan value that ministers need to be educated in
both the classics and scripture.
THE NEW ENGLAND PRIMER WAS THE FIRST AMERICAN BASAL READER.
IT WAS THE MOST USED TEXTBOOKS ACROSS THE COLONIES FOR MORE
THAN 100 YEARS.
THE NATIONAL PERIOD: 1776 - 1850
 A new mission for education began during the Revolutionary
period and continued through the National period. (Ornstein,
2009, p.58).
 "Leaders began to link free public schooling with the ideas of
popular government and political freedom" (Ornstein, 2009,
p.58).
 This period reduced the religious influence in schools
 Benjamin Rush

 Dr. Benjamin Rush believed that education should

"advance democracy and the exploration and
development of natural resources" (Ornstein, 2009, p.
59).
 Rush developed an educational plan that included
"free elementary schools in every township consisting
of 100 or more families, a free academy at the county
level, and free colleges and universities at the state
level for society's future leaders" (Ornstein, 2009, p.
59). This plan would be paid for with the use of taxes.
 His educational plan included: reading, writing, and
arithmetic (elementary), English, German, the arts, and
sciences (secondary & college), and good manners and
moral principles in all levels.
Jefferson: Education for Citizenship

 Thomas Jefferson believed that formal

education should not only be for
specific religious or upper-class groups.
 He developed a plan that would
provide free elementary education to
teach reading, writing, arithmetic, and
history. However, this plan never came
to fruition.
 Noah Webster

 When America's constitution became law in 1789,

Webster argued that the U.S. should have its own
"language as well as government" (Ornstein, 2009, p.
60).
 Webster believed that a national language and
literature would create a sense of "national identity."
 According to Webster, a U.S. language would "(1)
eliminate the remains of European usage, (2) create a
uniform U.S. speech free of localism and provincialism,
and (3) promote U.S. cultural nationalism." (Ornstein,
2009, p. 60).
 His book, Grammatical Institute of the English
Language, was published 1783. However, Webster's
greatest work was The American Dictionary, which
was published in 1825 after 25 year of research.
 William H. McGuffey
 Wrote five Readers, which were America's
most popular textbooks during this era.
 McGuffey's Readers celebrated patriotism,
heroism, hard work, diligence, and virtuous
living.
 His Readers helped teach many generations
of American students.
 He also developed first grade Readers and
"paved the way for a graded system, which
began in 1840." (Ornstein, 2009, p. 60).
 McGuffey's Pictorial Primer and some of his
Readers are still used today in some rural,
conservative, or fundamentalist schools.
19TH CENTURY EUROPEAN EDUCATORS
 European thought greatly influenced U.S. education.
 German Educators, at the college level, influenced the field of natural
science, psychology, and sociology.
 In the K-12 level, German and Swiss thinkers had progressive ideas,
which "led to curricular and instructional methods that were
psychologically oriented and considered students' needs and interests"
(Ornstein, 2009, p. 60 - 61).
 Traditional curriculum, which focused on Greek, Latin, and the classics
became less popular. Instead, new educational and teaching practices
began to replace rote learning, memorization, and corporal punishment.
 Johann Pestalozzi (1746 - 1827)

 Johann Pestalozzi, a Swiss educator, "laid the basis for

the modern elementary school and helped to reform
elementary-school practice (Ornstein, 2009, p. 61).
 Pestalozzi believed that education should focus on a
student's natural development and they should learn
through their senses.
 He pushed that the curriculum should link to home
experiences.
 There were two methods - the general method and
the special method. The general method asked
educators to provide children with emotional
wellbeing and affection. The special method
considered children's auditory and visual senses.
(Ornstein, 2009, p. 61).
 Friedrich Froebel (1782 - 1852)
 Froebel was a German educator and he developed
"kindergarten" where he focused on 3 and 4 year olds.
 He believed that organized play with individual and group
activities should be the focus of learning for 3-4 year olds.
 He encouraged a "child-centered curriculum," similar to
Pestalozzi's, "based on love, trust, and freedom." (Ornstein,
2009, p. 62)
 Activities included: songs, colorful material, games, playful
activities, manipulating objects, and shape and construct
materials. All of these activities allowed children to "grow
naturally" (Ornstein, 2009, p. 62).
 "Many of Froebel's ideas of childhood experience and
methods of pay have been incorporated into current
theories of early childhood education and progressive
schooling" (Ornstein, 2009, p. 62).
 Johann Herbart (1776 - 1841)
 Herbart's main goal for education was moral development,
which he believed was essential for all other educational
goals or purposes.
 Herbart detailed "five major kinds of ideas as the
foundation of moral character: (1) inner freedom, which
referred to action based on one's personal convictions, (2)
the idea of perfection, which referred to the harmony and
integration of behavior, (3) the idea of benevolence, by
which a person was to be concerned with the social
welfare of others, (4) the idea of justice, by which a person
reconciled his or her individual behavior with that of the
social group, and (5) the idea of retribution, which indicates
that reward or punishment accrues to certain kinds of
behavior" (Ornstein, 2009, p. 62).
 Herbart also developed five pedagogical principles, which
became known as Herbartian method. These principles
included: (1) preparation, (2) presentation, (3) association,
(4) systemization, and (5) application.
 These five steps have formed the basis of today's
curriculum planning or curriculum development.
 Herbert Spencer (1820 - 1903)
 Spencer believed that students
should be taught how to think and
not what to think.
 Spencer also advocated that
curriculum should be built on the
basis of what is useful and essential
for promoting progress.
UNIVERSAL EDUCATION: 1820 - 1900
 Americans in the early 1800s expanded to the westward
and life on the new frontier helped deepen America's
faith in the common people who were the ones that
built the new nation.
 Mass education became necessary for "intelligent
participation in a political democracy and for economic
growth of the country.
MONITORIAL SCHOOLS
 Monitorial school was a European invention and it spread quickly to urban
areas with large immigrant populations and to the frontier where a school
system was needed.
 In Monitorial schools teachers taught the lesson to high-achieving student
called monitors, who then presented the lesson to the other classmates.
 Instruction was very structured and based on rote learning and drilling the
three R's.
 Monitorial schools focused on the three R's and good citizenship and made
educational opportunities more widely available. Most importantly, they
focused on mass education and tax-supported elementary schools. In the
1840s, Monitorial ideas where introduced to high schools and suggested for
colleges. However by the 1850, the popularity of Monitorial schools
decreased.
COMMON SCHOOLS
 Common schools were established in Massachusetts in 1826 after the state
passed a law that required every town to choose a school board for all local
schools.
 The establishment of common school helped develop the foundation of U.S.
public schools.
 Schools taught students from ages 6 to 14 or 15.
 Individual teachers taught different subjects to students of all ages, which
required them to plan up to 20 lessons a day.
 Common schools flourished on the frontier because they "embodied the
pioneers' desire to provide free education for their children" (Ornstein, 2009,
p. 65).
ELEMENTARY SCHOOLS
 Throughout the 1800s, the trend was to add different courses
to subjects such as reading, spelling, grammar, and arithmetic.
 1825 - religious doctrine changed to manners and moral
instruction.
 By 1875, lessons in conduct replaced morality lessons.
 1850 - 1900 - more subjects were added to the curriculum
such as geography, history, science, visual art, physical education,
biology, zoology, music, homemaking, and manual training.
ACADEMIES
 In the early 1800s, the academy started to replace the Latin grammar school.
 The Academy offered students a wide range of curriculum and was designed
to provide practical program for terminal students as well as college-
preparatory course of study (Ornstein, 2009, p. 66).
 1855 - 6,000 academies taught 263,000 students.
 Academies were eventually replaced by public high schools. Then, academies
became finishing schools for young women and provided courses in classical
and modern languages, science, mathematics, art, music, and homemaking.
 A few private military and elite academies exist today.
HIGH SCHOOLS
 The first high school was founded in 1821 in Boston. However, high
schools did not become very popular until after 1874.
 High schools focused on college-preparatory programs and formal
education of terminal students.
 They offered a more varied curriculum than academies.
 1900 - highs schools offered vocational, industrial, commercial, and
clerical courses.
 High schools helped contribute to social and political reform and
produced a skilled workforce.
THE TRANSITIONAL PERIOD: 1893 - 1918

 "Reformers began to ask if elementary schools

should offer two curriculum tracks: on for children
bound for high school and one for children whose
formal education would end at the elementary
level" (Ornstein, 2009, p. 70).
The National Education Association (NEA) helped organize three major committees to help answer
some unsettled questions about education.
 The first committee was the Committee of Fifteen on Elementary Education. The second committee
was The Committee of Ten on Secondary School Studies. The third committee was The Committee on
College Entrance Requirements.
 The purpose of these three committees was to determine school's curricula. Their reports helped to
"standardize" the curriculum of the 20th century.
 The Committee of Fifteen compartmentalized subject matter and this compartmentalization has
remained the norm.
 The Committee of Ten identified nine academic subjects that were central to high school curriculum:
Latin, Greek, English, other modern languages, mathematics, physical sciences, natural history or
biological sciences, social sciences, and geography, geology, and meteorology. They also recommended
four different tracks: classical, Latin scientific, modern languages, and English.
 Today, schools offer vocational, industrial, or technical programs but academic programs are still
considered superior to others.
 At the turn of 20th century, education was strongly
influenced by the ideas of Dewey, and Francis Parker, the
Gestalt psychology and child psychology movements, the
learning theories of behaviorism and transfer learning,
and the progressive movement in schools and society"
(Ornstein, 2009, p. 74).
Charles Judd
 believed that the laws of nature should be
used to educate the young.
 He used research based on statistics to
determine curriculum content's worth,
which means "the extent to which
particular content enhanced students'
ability to promote thinking and solve
problems" Ornstein, 2009, p. 75).
 Students should be taught how to deal
with problems, not how to acquire and
recall endless knowledge.