Woodbury High School - Warrior Yearbook (Woodbury, CT)

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14 million students of today regard these men as the fathers of the present system. It took our forefathers a long time tc realize that these schools should be for everyone, and net for a certain few, as the English schools had been. The founders had assumed that the public should pay the bill, but the people as a whole were not anxious to pay additional taxes for what they rogardod as education for the privileged classes. Gradually, as the power of the clergy declined, people began to think of revising the school system. Benjamin Franklin, to whom we owe so many fine things, said that ho saw little of value in the old curriculum and in 1750 founded an academy at Philadelphia which greatly resembled our high school of today. Students were no longer to be taught by tho red and they wero to be taught, net only Latin and Greek, but also English and Lfrithomatics. This emphasis on English soemed quite radical aftor the many years during which Latin had been the supremo longuago. However, evon this type of school did not make much provision for people who wore not going to college. It was still a college preparatory system. The first echool to be known as a high school.was established in Boston in 1821 and it was called the English High School. The term high school has since been identified with all public secondary education. This was a throe year high school and boys, in order to be admitted, wero required to be at least 12 years of age. Reading, writing, English Grammar, English Literature, arithmetic, geography, scionce, history, declamation, and logic wero taught. This school had as its aim,preparation for life and was definitely American. It came at a time v hen machinery was being invented v hich demanded mere efficient and trained labor than could be provided by children, so instead of working, children went to school to be fitted for the changes that industry was bringing about. Also in 1821, the first school for girls was founded in Troy, New York by Emma Willard. In 1826, Boston opened the first high school for girls and by 1860 co-educaticnal high schools had come to be the acoopted thing. At first it was claimed that tho high school beys were not as chivalrous as they had been when the girls were isolated and that the girls were not as lady like, but there developed between them a ccmr .deship and frankness which helped tc bring about this age in which v. men may meet men in business on an equal footing Since 1860, our high schools have progressed rapidly. High school courses have been extended to four years, electives have been introduced-, laboratory science, manual, domestic, commercial, and agricultural subjects have found a permanent place in the curriculum. Physical education, music, and art are mere recent additions. We are proud of what we have accomplished in three hundred years of secondary education, but we realize that there are weaknesses in the present system and we hope that in the future they may be pointed out and corrected, in order that we may continue to progress educationally .

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