There is a perception in the public mind, that teaching was a “woman’s” profession, and therefore, teacher education centered mainly around schools for women. Not only is that untrue, but for at least 200 years, there was virtually no teacher education for women, at all.

The New England states were among the first to offer free education, and make it mandatory in settlements of a given size. Very reluctantly, they established “dame schools”, which in a loose sense, became the first female teacher education in America. But women were only permitted to learn spelling and counting, since it was considered all they could handle. Their schooling usually took place in the kitchen of an older woman who could read and write, and who continued with her household chores while lessons were done.

Becoming a teacher remained a male dominated area, even with the advent of higher education institutes that opened in the 1700s, specifically for educating the educators. Americans actually have two wars to thank for advances in teacher education - the Revolutionary War, and the Civil War. George Washington was among the first to declare that it would take an educated America to become a democracy, which meant a need for more and better teachers. And with the men involved in the Civil War, women finally moved into a leading role as educators.

Women would continue to struggle to acquire decent teacher education, for almost a hundred years, having only the Normal schools, which prepared them for teaching elementary grades. Liberal Arts colleges were the only places to qualify for teaching higher grades until after World War II, and not until then, were women able to finally become a teacher at whatever level they chose, without the barriers of gender prejudice, and lack of training.

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