Beginning of Essay
What factors in society ended sectarianism in schools, and made them secular? Probably no single movement so greatly affected colonial America as the Protestant Reformation. Most of the Europeans who came to America were Protestants, but there were many denominat ....

Middle of Essay
.... reading, writing, arithmetic, and religion. Learning consisted of memorizing, which was stimulated by whipping. The first "basic textbook", the New England Primer, was America’s own contribution to education(Pulliam, Van Patten 86). Used from 1609 until the beginning of the 19th century, its purpose was to teach both religion and reading. The child learning the letter a, for example, also learned that "In Adam’s fall, We sinned all." As in Europe, then, schools in the colonies were strongly influenced by religion. This was particularly true of schools in the New England area, which had been settled by Puritans and other English religious dis ....