High School

The American high school, an institution with which most adults in the United States have at least a passing familiarity, has existed in largely the same form for the past 150 years, enduring continuing struggles to determine its form and function. Yet, despite such struggles, it goes about its primary duty of educating the young citizens of our nation. Some argue it does not do enough to educate our 14- to-18-year-old students; others say the high school has taken on too much of a burden and needs to scale back its aspirations to the most basic elements. Throughout the argument, the teachers, school psychologists, principals, and other school staff endeavor to do their jobs to guide our youngsters toward adulthood.

The high school first appeared in the United States in 1635 as the Latin Grammar School in Boston, Massachusetts, having been established only five years after that colony itself was founded. It focused on teaching Latin and other subjects considered “classical” in order to prepare a particular segment of our then-U.S. society—namely wealthy, white boys—for college. Subjects included preparing youths to read and speak Latin in verse and prose, to use the Greek language correctly, and to understand “common arithmetic.” According to Johnson and colleagues (1985), “within 16 years after the Massachusetts Bay Colony [Page 241]had been founded, seven or eight towns had Latin Grammar schools in operation” (p. 284). The schools were designed similarly to those that had existed in Europe for many years and had as their dual aims the preparation of boys for college and for the service of God.

Within another 100 or so years, Benjamin Franklin established The American Academy in Philadelphia. Franklin believed the Latin Grammar Schools “were not providing the practical secondary education needed by youth” (Johnson & colleagues, 1985, p. 288). His idea for these schools was to prepare youngsters for employment, so the curriculum, philosophy, and methodology of Franklin's Academies focused upon this goal rather than a classical education. Already the underpinnings of some of our current struggles (academic training versus vocational skills) in education were being shaped.

By 1821, the city of Boston opened the English High School, enrolling 100 boys in its first year, under the direction of George B. Emerson. Its curriculum was comprised of three years of English, math, science, and history. Within a few years, more academically oriented courses were added, and the Latin Grammar School was becoming obsolete. The American High School, similar in form to today's schools, had been born (Johnson & colleagues, 1985).

The struggle to determine the goals and, consequently, the curriculum of the high school was emerging in full force. By 1892, the National Education Association (NEA) established the Committee of Ten to study the purpose and function of the high school institution (Willis & colleagues, 1994). They set the following recommendations for secondary schools as the 20th century began:

• Courses shall be arranged sequentially.
• High school should consist of grades 7 through 12.
• Very few electives should be offered to students.
• Carnegie units (measures of how much time a student has studied a subject) should be awarded for each course, provided the course met the time requirements.
• High schools should try to graduate students earlier so that they could attend college sooner.

The first four decades of the past century saw several commissions and committees defining the ultimate aims and objectives of secondary education, which were to include civic education, vocational training, leisure time pursuits, maintenance of health and physical fitness, preparation for further learning, home membership, and progress in social relations with peers and adults. By 1944, the NEA embraced “every youth in the United States—regardless of sex, economic status, geographic location, or race” in its pursuit of a “broad and balanced education,” (Johnson & colleagues, 1985, p. 291).

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