Since the founding of our country, there has been many key players in making education what it is today. Each of these education philosophers had different views, goals, and ideas about education that they wanted to see implemented in their life time. Every one of these people succeeded greatly and shared the common goal of bettering education.
Benjamin Frankin
Benjamin Franklin was one of the most successful men of his time. He is known for being a founding father and an advocate for education. Franklin dropped out of latin school after a few months. He was able to skip two class levels in his time at the grammar school, and had a love for reading. After Franklin left the school he began learning different trades and learned through experience and self education. Franklin was an advocate for self education being the key to success. Noah Webster
Webster was a major influencer in the American English language. He wrote the American Spelling Book (1783) and American Dictionary of the English Language (1825). Webster creating the first dictionary was beneficial to education because the US now had a defined definition of every word in the English language. He advocated for men and women both having an English education. Horace Mann
Horace Mann brought many forward thinking ideas to society in the early 1800’s. Prior to Mann and his idea of the “Common School”, not all children had access to free schooling. He envisioned the Common school to be free to all children regardless of race and religions. He planned for it to be paid for with tax money and for recitation and reading to be the main curriculum. Mann proposed the idea of high school being a “capstone” for excelling students. Mann believed that the churches who were running the majority of the schools at the time were no longer fit to do so. Churches running schools resulted in some children not getting educations and turmoil between people of different religions. Mann could be seen as an advocate for less fortunate populations who could not afford to give their children education. He believed that giving everyone an education would better the US. Most of society would just ignored those who were struggling and less fortunate, but Mann believed that educating children could deter them from living lives of crime. Mann’s innovative ideas changed the schooling systems in many positive ways that has helped shaped education into what it is today. |
Thomas Jefferson
Jefferson was not only a signer of the Declaration of Independence but an education philosopher as well. In 1779, Jefferson proposed a bill that each county would be divided into 100 wards each which would provide 3 years of free education to all free mate and female children. He also believed that the top 20% o students should be sent to boarding schools for a college education. Jefferson was firm believer that an elementary education was the basis for citizenship and being a good American citizen John Dewey
John Dewey was a psychologist, philosopher, a democratic socialist, and of course an education reformer. He advocated for the developmental aspect of school children, and giving each student undivided attention. He also believed it was beneficial to align school curriculum with what students need after graduation would make them better members of society. Catherine Beecher
Catherine Beecher was one of the first women to have a significant impact and influence on American Education. She was an activist for women to become teachers, which really changed the American Education System for the better and was one of the first times in American history where a woman was fighting for rights. Beecher believed that women should be allowed to be more than just mothers and homemakers. She believed women should be teachers because of their natural inclination to care for children. |
Ella Flagg Young
Ella Flagg-Young was a very influential educator in Chicago during her lifetime. She attended the University of Chicago. She eventually became the superintendent of the Chicago Public Schools. Flagg-Young had a vision for the school system to follow the blueprint of the American democracy. She believed that teachers should not be the ones who decides the curriculum for the students but boards of educators should. With a system based off the democracy, Flagg-Young believed it would make the school system stronger and more impactful from kindergarten all the way through the end rest of an American’s time in the school system rather that be through high school or college. |
Septima Clark
Septima Clark was a women in education who made an impact not only in education, but the civil rights movement as well. Clark’s activism in the civil rights movement reflects the time period of the mid twentieth century. This time was the peak of the civil rights movement and Septima Clark was not only fighting for the equality of women but the equality of African Americans as well. During the time most of the changes in education centered around segregation vs integration so it made sense that Clark was more of an activist for civil rights and the integration of schools, rather than curriculum changes in the schools. Clark was one of the first member of the NAACP and because of this, she lost her teaching job when South Carolina made a new law that teachers could not be a member of the NAACP. Septima Clark stayed in the organization despite losing her job and fought for the rights of teachers to be members of the NAACP. |
John Holt
John Holt was a popular author and educator. After teaching in the public schools for several years, John Holt believed there was no hope for the public school system, and began to advocate for home schooling. He thought that children would turn out better outside of the system. He put the blame of children failing on the school system rather than the children themselves. |
Linda Darling Hammond
Linda Darling-Hammond has been very successful in her career. She served as the executive director of the National Commission on Teaching and America's Future in 1996. She served as the chair of President Obama’s education task force prior to his presidency in 2008. She also played an important role in the development of the No Child Left Behind (NCLB) program. Although having a part in the development of the NCLB program, she was not a big supporter of it for many reasons. She believed that the program would hurt schools who are making big strides in improvements. Darling-Hammond’s biggest concerns were that only measuring success based on test scores would target less fortunate populations, African Americans, and special needs students making education even more unequal. Her concern was high risk students such as these would drop out. Darling-Hammond also critiques the expectation of all schools being one hundred percent proficient in testing by 2014. Darling-Hammond is still alive today and continuing to contribute to American education |