Desiderius Erasmus

• 1467 - 1536

• Parents not only have a duty to educate, but children have a right to that education.

• Children whose parents fail to fulfill that right are owed nothing from their children

• First person to emphasize the power of play

• Disapproval of the memorization of learning

• His beliefs were possibly connected to the neglect he suffered in his childhood

• Wrote a piece called On Education for Children

• Rejects corporal punishment for children; they should be treated as an individual

John Amos Comenius

• 1592 - 1670

• All children everywhere should be sent to school no matter what; all children matter

• No discrimination when it comes to education

• Very radical beliefs for his time

• Beliefs shape the way we look at education today

• Wrote and published many books

• Began to draw pictures with the words in books

  • First children’s picture book

• Children were able to understand more

  • They enjoyed learning!

• The World of Things Obvious to the Senses Drawn in Pictures

• Pictures teaches children about the letter sounds, philanthropy, and religion

John Locke

• 1632 - 1704

• Some Thoughts Concerning Education published in 1693

  • Maybe most influential book in education ever written

  • Book began as a series of letters he wrote to someone asking about raising her kid

  • Didn’t really like children

• Blank Slate Theory: born with no predetermined processing strategies in the brain, everything we know and think comes from experience and internal reflection

• Contrary to other views that say our minds are already fitted at birth with ideas about the world and a capacity for knowledge

Jean Jacques Rousseau

• 1712 - 1787

• On Education or Emil - about how to raise children

• Children are born naturally good

• Life is about love and nature

• Education should focus on the children ‘child-centered education’

Thomas Jefferson

• 1743 - 1826

• Two track educational system - for the laboring and the learned

• Scholarships would allow for some of the labor class to advance

• “raking a few geniuses from the rubbish”

Johann Heinrich Pestalozzi

• 1746 - 1827

• Whole children approach to education

• Focused on the head, heart, and hands

  • Head: intellectual knowledge - objectivity - observe the world around them, make observation, hypothesize

  • Heart: compassion and how to successfully interact with others

  • Hands: sensory input, hands on approach learning

• Father of modern children

Johann Herbart

• 1776 - 1841

• Teacher who sponsored an establishment of a pedagogical and lab school in 1810

• Founded a seminary for educating beginning teachers

• Advocates for a truly reflective teacher

• Education on morals is important

  • Some disregarded this saying it turns students into passive and obedient in an authoritarian state

Fredrich Froebel

• 1782 - 1852

• Studied architecture but was hired as a teacher

• Took course about teaching under Pestalozzi

  • Returned to study under him after he finished his education

• Continued to study various subjects (linguistics and geology)

• Founded kindergarten (ages 4-5)

• Germany

• Children could follow their own interests and develop at their own pace

• First kindergarten opened in the United States: Watertown, WI

  • Margarethe Schurz in 1856; Elizabeth Peabody: first American language kindergarten in Boston in 1860

  • Emphasized play, children exposed innermost thoughts, needs, and desires

• Incorporated songs, stories, and finger plays

• Started with simple activities and progressed into more challenging ones

Horace Mann

• 1796 - 1859

• The Common School Journal

• Father of Common Schools in America

• For society to be successful a basic level of literacy and conformity to common public ideals was essential

• Developed teacher training schools to be professionalize teaching

• Educated all students in one room with one teacher

• Needed some compensation to go to school (tuition)

• Teacher was either provided housing by parents or lived in the school house

• Education was becoming more accessible because it was free

Margaret Bancroft

• 1854 - 1912

• “Special children must have special schools”

• Understood people will special needs

• Had compassion to get to know what they needed from the world

• Helped launch the field of special education

John Dewey

• 1859 - 1952

• 1894: University of Chicago - ‘Pragmatism’ was developed

  • Most practical things - education is about life and growth

• Progressive idea (new way of thinking)

  • Emphasizes hands on learning

  • Child centered

• Interdisciplinary curriculum

  • Connection between content and concepts

• Teacher observes and facilitates learning

  • Teachers and students must learn together

Maria Montessori

• 1870 - 1952

• Developed her own theory of education while working with disabled children

  • Children learned best while being active

  • Applied to all kids

• 1907: opened first school in Italy Casa dei Bambini (Children’s House) Rome, Italy

• Worked with poor children who were eager to learn

• Primary goal: children learned how to learn

• Importance of independence

• Self-correcting toys which required little adult guidance

• Academics are taught only after sensory training is mastered

• Recognized for her work and word of her theories and products are spread

• One of Italy’s first female physicians

Rudolf Steiner

• 1861 - 1925

• Artistic approach to education

• Wait to present information until they are hungry for it, then the kids take it up with enthusiasm rather than pressure

• Practice the idea that there are many possibilities

• Waldorf Schools

Jean Piaget

• 1896 - 1980

• Concluded that young children are not just less intelligent than adults, they simply think differently.

• Theory of Cognitive Development

  • Sensorimotor

  • Preoperational

  • Concrete Operational

  • Formal Operational

• Development of the brain is qualitative rather than quantitative

  • Not just adding more information, the brain changing the way it thinks

  • This is why we cannot expect children to act like miniature adults that work instead of play

Sir Ken Robinson

• 1950 - 2020

• Culture and economics; what education is based on today

• Education systems need to change as society develops

• So many kids today are being medicated to get them focused in school

• Anesthetic: shutting off your senses - how we get kids with ADHD through education

• Why are children grouped according to age?

• Education deteriorates divergent thinking

John Hattie

• 1950 - current

• Visible learning: A Synthesis of Over 800 Meta Analyses on Achievement

• Researched every aspect of the classroom and educational systems

  • Developed a rating system to identify what is effective and what is not

• Attracted considerable attention across the professional educator world

Carol Dweck

• 1946 - current

• Growth Mindset vs Fixed Mindset

  • Growth Mindset: take on challenges and learn from them

  • Fixed Mindset: Doesn’t want to be challenged and grow

• Known for her work about psychological mindset

Angela Duckworth

• 1970 - current

• PhD in psychology

• Grit: The Power of Passion and Perseverance

• One way to think about grit is what it isn’t:

  • Grit is not talent

  • Grit is not luck

  • Grit is passion and perseverance for long term goals