Timeline

1801

Johann Pestalozzi first introduces his methods in his book, “How Gertrude Teaches Her Children.”

1805 

Creation of The Boston Gleaning Circle, the earliest female literary society

1821

Emma Willard opens Troy Female Seminary

1820

First public high school in the U.S., Boston English, opens

1823 

First Private Normal School opened by Samuel
Hall

1823

May: Catherine Beecher opened the Hartford Female
Seminary in Hartford, Connecticut

1827

Massachusetts passes a law making all grades of public school open to all pupils free of charge

1830s 

American culture begins to focus on motherhood as a primary way to create loyal nationalists

Marks the beginning of the moral reform movement – coalitions of moral reformers start to reconceptualize the school as morality and discipline training

Political Coalition of Reformers and Feminist Unite to change Laws for Women

1831  

Creation of Philadelphia’s Female Literary Society (the first established literary society for African American women)

1833

Oberlin Coeducational College Opens- Admits Women and Colored Race-Ohio

1836

The English Home and Colonial Institution becomes a forum for the introduction of Pestalozzi’s ideas in England, United States, and Canada

1836

First Women College Opens Weslyn Female College-Macon Georgia

First series of McGuffey readers published

1837 

First school Superintendent position created in Buffalo, NY

1837

Calvin Stowe presents “Report on Elementary Public Instruction in Europe” – When the Pestalozzi methods introduced to the U.S.

1839

First Married Woman Property Act passes – women get the right to own property

1839 

First state supported public Normal School in Lexington,
Massachusetts.

1839

Emma Willard & Henry Barnard develop teacher institutes

1840s

Teachers begin to move West, due to oversupply in the profession and need for teachers in mission schools

1841

First Female Graduates to graduate with male degrees in the U.S. (Three women graduate from Oberlin)

1846 

Board of National Popular Education organized by Catherine Beecher

1848

Seneca Falls Women’s Rights Convention- Declaration of Sentiments written demanding legal and social reforms- right to vote

Quincy school introduced graded classrooms

1850

7 million McGuffey textbooks sold since first publication

1860s 

Beginning of awareness of the influence of environment on the cultivation of moral and civic values

1861

Woman’s Suffrage Movement is put on hold with the beginning of Civil War

End of the 19^th Century

Pestalozzian practices take an active role in progressive school reform theory throughout the US.