American education has varied greatly since the Pilgrims arrived to this country until today. The first classrooms were mostly religious. In New England and other early colonies, children's education began at home. Some women transformed their houses in schools which were called dame schools. There were also apprenticeship programs for both boys and girls. Boys were taught by masters while majority of girls learned at home. The Puritans living in Massachusetts passed several laws with the purpose to improve the educational system and ensured that children learned properly. Puritans founded the first Latin grammar school in Boston in 1635 and Harvard College in 1636. Black and Native American did not have access to education, and even white poor people had limited education. The northern colonies, which were composed by Puritans, were the most advanced respecting education. Thomas Jefferson advocated for equal educational opportunities for every white child, and Benjamin Franklin founded an academy after his name that offered a practical program composed by elective courses free of any religious influence. Another important aspect about American education was the common school movement during the early decades of the nineteenth century that was composed by poor white people who wanted access to education. Horace Mann became the movement's leader. The common school movement had as a result the creation of the elementary school. Horace Mann made several contributions to education because he advocated for better build schools and the foundation of several normal schools in Massachusetts for a higher preparation of teachers. Also, a great part of American education's history is about the efforts of Native Americans and African American for the chance to learn and achieve equality. When I looked at the history of American education, I learned that it is extremely linked to sexism. First, girls were segregated from schools, and like Native American and African American, women had to struggle for their place in schools. Also, concerning education and sexism is the fact that teaching was considered a male career in colonial times, and women who taught in regular classrooms were considered masculine. Women who taught were unappreciated even though the years passed and more women dedicated to teach. In the first years of the twentieth century, people started to think about teaching as a female career because 90% of the teachers were women. Then, male teachers became suspect of being gays. Another historic aspect of American education is the creation in the 1880's of secondary schools and high schools to fill out the big gap between elementary education and university. American education's history would not be the same without John Dewey and his Progressive Education movement, which became widely known in the 1920s and 1930s. Progressivists gave education a new perspective because their program emphasized in the health subject, family and community relation, psychology, and social sciences. Also, this new educational way covered the interests of a growing number of diverse students. The responsibility for educating American is not mentioned in the Constitution of the United States because during colonial times education was a state responsibility, and it had nothing to do with the federal government. However, federal government found the way to influence in education with time, and education management came to be what it is today. Education has faced a growing diversity on the students' body while immigrants from all over the world have become part of the population like Hispanics, Asians, and Arab Americans. It is obvious to me that American education has come a long way from its foundations constantly changing and improving, and its history is filled with tenacity and the love of hundreds of people trying to live the American dream.
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