Early American Education 1

If people made the laws, and churches made the people, it was education that helped shape them both. New England's educational philosophy stemmed from the belief that every person should be able to read the Bible for himself. With this policy of education for all citizens, America quickly showed itself to be very different from the European nations of that day. Even though at this period in history it was far more common to formally educate boys than girls, female literacy in New England far exceeded female literacy in other countries.

Many children were taught at home, and in 1642 the General Court of Massachusetts (that is, its legislature) expanded education by enacting the first public education law in the nation. It required that all children, both boys and girls, receive an education and be taught the principles of religion. That law also started public, or what they called common, schools. 

Five years later, a 1647 law affirmed that a general education was necessary because it was the "one chief project of that old deluder, satan, to keep men from the knowledge of the Scripture” The education law became known as The Old Deluder satan Act.

Subsequent American literacy laws similarly stressed the importance of citizens knowing the Scriptures - such as 1690 Connecticut law, which declared: This legislature observing that...there are many persons unable to read the English tongue and thereby incapable to read the holy Word of God or the good laws of this colony...it is ordered that all parents and masters shall cause their respective children and servants, as they are capable to be taught to read distinctly the English tongue.

Content sourced from The American Story, The Beginning. David Barton and Tim Barton