INTRODUCTION Universal public education, such as we see in the United States and most other developed countries in the 21st century, is a rather new phenomenon in human history. Long before mass education became the norm, learning took place either privately or on a very small scale under restrictive condi- tions. In Europe and England, for example, before the settlement of the North American colonies, education was a limited matter, largely in the hands of religious organizations and almost exclusively for boys. Europeans began to embrace the formal education of children as part of the Protestant Reformation in the 16th century. Prior to this, the Roman Catholic Church that dominated the continent offered reading and writing instruction for monks and future priests, and churches were some of the ear- liest centers of learning, but outside of the Church there was very little in the way of organized education. The major tenets of Protestantism—salvation through faith alone, the supremacy of holy scripture, and a direct relation- ship with God without the intercession of human organizations—combined to bring a new emphasis on reading the Bible. As a first step toward under- standing God’s requirements, worshippers needed to be able to read the scriptures. Thus, the earliest attempts at public education focused on reading over writing, and, in particular, the ability to read Latin was emphasized. On the European continent, education would remain in the hands of Protestant and Catholic churches until the public school movement of the late 19th century, with a notable exception being Frederick the Great’s institution of widespread public education in Prussia beginning in 1763 (although even then churches provided most of the teachers and schools).
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