Chapter 1. Spiritual Milk for American Babes, Drawn out of the Breasts of Both Testaments for their Soul's Nourishment; John Cotton, 1641
- Chapter 2. Excerpts from Some Fruits of Solitude in Reflections and Maxims; William Penn, 1693
- Chapter 3. An Essay Upon the Good Education of Children; Cotton Mather, 1708
- Chapter 4. Proposals Relating to the Youth in Pensilvania; Benjamin Franklin, 1749
- Chapter 5. Selected Writings of Thomas Jefferson
- Chapter 6. Selected Writings of Benjamin Rush
- Chapter 7. On Education of Youth in America; Noah Webster, 1790
- Chapter 8. An Address to the Public; Emma Willard, 1819
- Chapter 9. The Character of Young Ladies; Mary Lyon, 1835
- Chapter 10. Selected Writings of Catharine Beecher
- Chapter 11. Selected Writings of Horace Mann
- Chapter 12. Report of the Committee on Education of the House of Representatives; Allen Dodge, 1840
- Chapter 13. The Catholic Response to Protestantism in Public Schools
- Chapter 14. The Declaration of Sentiments, Seneca Falls; Elizabeth Cady Stanton, 1848
- Chapter 15. Common Schools; Horace Bushnell, 1853
- Chapter 16. Education; Ralph Waldo Emerson, 1876
- Chapter 17. Secularized Education; Robert Louis Dabney, 1879
- Chapter 18. Selected Writings of William Torrey Harris
- Chapter 19. Report of the Committee of Ten on Secondary School Studies; National Education Association, 1894
- Chapter 20. The Child; Francis W. Parker, 1894
- Chapter 21. The Function of Education in Democratic Society; Charles W. Eliot, 1898
- Chapter 22. Excerpts from Talks to Teachers on Psychology and to Students on Some of Life's Ideals; William James, 1899
- Chapter 23. Selected Writings of John Dewey
- Chapter 24. The Ideal School as Based on Child Study; G. Stanley Hall, 1901
- Chapter 25. Excerpt from Up From Slavery; Booker T. Washington, 1901
- Chapter 26. Selected Writings of W.E.B. DuBois
- Chapter 27. Why Teachers Should Organize; Margaret Haley, 1904
- Chapter 28. The Certification of Teachers; Ellwood P. Cubberley, 1906
- Chapter 29. Selected Writings of Jane Addams
- Chapter 30. The Contribution of Psychology to Education; E. L. Thorndike, 1910
- Chapter 31. Equal Pay for Equal Work; Grace Strachan, 1910
- Chapter 32. Report of the Commission of the Reorganization of Secondary Education; National Education Association, 1918
- Chapter 33. The Project Method; William H. Kilpatrick, 1918
- Chapter 34. Selected Writings of Mary McLeod Bethune
- Chapter 35. Excerpt from Dare the School Build a New Social Order?; George S. Counts, 1932
- Chapter 36. Selected Writings of Williams C. Bagley
- Chapter 37. Selection from Progressive Education at the Crossroads; Boyd H. Bode, 1938
- Chapter 38. Prejudice the Garden Toward Roses? Isaac Kandel, 1939