History

There were professional teachers before there were schools. Students in ancient Athens paid a fee to hear a particular teacher lecture on logic, grammar, oratory, or other subjects. When Greece came under Roman rule, Greeks became the preferred teachers in noble Roman households.

In medieval Europe, the most important teaching was in practical fields, such as training young noblemen in the skills of knighthood. Academic subjects were not highly regarded and were usually taught by priests as a part of religious education. In the later Middle Ages university teaching developed into a respected profession. However, teaching younger children generally remained a part-time task for the priests. No special techniques or knowledge were considered necessary for teaching.

At the end of the 17th century, the French priest Jean Baptiste de la Salle greatly advanced the idea of teaching as a systematic procedure by founding several schools especially for teacher training. From the 17th century through the mid-19th, theories and methods designed to make teaching more effective were developed by such men as John Amos Comenius, Johann Heinrich Pestalozzi, Friedrich Froebel, and Johann Friedrich Herbart.

Until early in the 19th century, elementary and secondary teaching in the United States involved no formal teacher training. Elementary subjects were usually taught by parents or neighbors, while secondary instruction was carried out on a part-time basis by anyone with an above-average education.

The first normal school (an institution that offered a training program for elementary teachers, taking less than four years to complete) was established in 1823 by Samuel Hall in Concord, Vermont. Throughout much of the 19th century elementary teachers generally received their training in normal schools.

Horace Mann, secretary of the Massachusetts state board of education, 1837–48, led a campaign to raise the standards of public school teaching. Through the efforts of Mann and others, teaching came to be regarded as a profession requiring a comprehensive education. By the end of the 19th century many four-year teachers colleges had been established and many normal schools were being converted to four-year colleges. In the 20th century, colleges of education were added to most universities and many liberal arts colleges added departments of education. After World War II many teachers colleges became universities or liberal arts colleges.

Beginning in the 1960's, many school districts became unionized and teachers' strikes for higher pay and better working conditions became increasingly common. The concept of having teachers pass a qualification test before certification took root in the 1970's when a number of states adopted laws incorporating this requirement. In the 1980's a number of proposals were made to give special status to outstanding teachers and to eliminate or retrain marginal ones.