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CHRONOLOGY 1635 Boston Latin School is opened as the first Latin grammar school in the colonies for boys who will occupy the upper echelons of society. 1636 Harvard College is established, the first institution of higher education in the colonies. 1647 The Massachusetts General Court issues the Old Deluder Satan Act to stimulate literacy as a weapon against evil the law requires every town within the colony with at least 50 families to hire a schoolmaster to teach reading and writing and every town with at least 100 families to open a Latin grammar school. 1690 The New England Primer, which will become the most widely used text- book in New England, is published in Boston. 1787 The Land Ordinance of 1787 is passed by the Confederation Congress to control westward expansion. It divides the Northwest Territory into 640-acre townships every township must reserve one section of land for education. 1805 The Quaker-operated Free School Society in New York opens the first monitorial school in the United States. Based on the ideas of British edu- cators Joseph Lancaster and Dr. Andrew Bell, the system utilizes superior students to teach their peers and emphasizes organization and control. Monitorial schools enjoyed widespread popularity before their eventual demise by the 1850s. 1821 Boston English High School opens, the nation’s first public high school. 1827 Massachusetts creates a law requiring each town with more than 500 fam- ilies to establish a public high school.