Massachusetts was the first state to issue a law of required education in 1852.
It required that every city and town have a primary school for basic things, like arithmetics and grammar.
In 1821, Boston started the first public high school in the United States. By the close of the 19th century, public secondary schools began to outnumber private ones. Over the years, Americans have been influenced by a number of European reformers; among them Pestalozzi, Herbart, and Montessori.
