Chapter 5: The History of Schools in the United States

Free and universal education has been has been discussed in the United States for a long time, as evidenced by Jefferson's 1813 letter to John Adams. At first, education had a religious focus, and was built around the belief that children were born evil. Schools were used as a place to instill moral values in children, and that continues today, though the methods are now different, as well as the outcomes. The grade range of public education has expanded, from only earlier grades to today's system, which includes high school. The curriculum has shifted as well, according to the needs of the time, from industrialization to today's focus on computer technology.

Debates over school curriculum have raged through the ages. This is because people always have an idea of what they'd like their children to learn, but those ideas are always informed by different goals. For instance, religious people would like for their children to learn from a religious framework, while secular people object to that. These debates will always be similar, because the underlying goal is always the same. For the most part, people want their kids to learn in a way that's in line with what they themselves know and are comfortable with.