Education in the United States 1826-1876

1. Education in the United States1826-1876 Teresa Fitzpatrick

2. A Few Powerful Reasons Education Today Was Effected! • Free, universal, and common education. • Compulsory attendance. • Educators were viewed teachers of humanity, morality, and mentors.

3. Goal and content objectives • TSW understand how schooling and the education system have changed through the time period of 1826 to 1876. • TSW identify three changes in education for 1826 to 1876.

4. Some various reasons history of education is important: • Public Schools today are modeled on the Common Schools of the 1800s. • If educational leaders of the 1800s had not worked to preserve the ideals of the founding fathers, schools today could be very different. • Although much progress has been made in education since the 1800s, some of the same problems still continue to plague us today.

5. Three basic elements in American Life • Government leaders wanted to have a unified group of people in America. • Different groups of people had differences that needed to be addressed including religion and ethnicity. • Modernization was causing more people to be in the city for jobs.

6. Modernization Direct Case of Common School Movement • Centralizing power of the nation-state • Popular participation (group effort for the “public good”) • Industrial Urbanization • Impact of Secular Knowledge • Faith in Large-Scale School systems • Long term modernization

7. The Common School Movement • 1850, Educational reformers asked state government to promote a free, universal and common education. • Most state constitutions included provisions for education. • Educational reformers— Horace Mann and James G. Carter

8. The Common School Movement • Common School the only way education for all could be achieved. • All classes, attend together, common language and values to become good citizens. • Most states had boards of education and included funding for education.

9. The Common School Movement • All would live together without distinctions of wealth, religion, or national origin. • Taxes according to ability to pay. Money used by all. • Separation of church and state (Horace Mann 1837) • Opposition by many of too much state control especially Roman Catholic (parochial schools).

10. Popular Participation in Public Affairs Generalizations Democrats Whig * Against strong central government * Wanted strong, centralized government * Faith in popular and practical education * More traditional views * Economic traditionalists (agriculture) * Supported business and commercial * Suspicious of unitary central governments enterprises * Opportunity for poor and working class * Wanted the upper class to be more * Equalizer to restrain the upper class involved in political affairs * Wanted a means of achieving the equality * Strong Central government the revolution had promised * Believed in the popular practical * Liked the Common School thought it would education improve the chances of equality * For state leadership * Opportunity for rich and poor alike Both supported the Common School but each had different reasons for their support.

11. Urbanization • Urban population increased 15 times between 1820 and 1870 • Public schools in city grew at a overwhelming rate • Explosion included factories, mills, steamboat docks, railroad yards, stockyards, shops and stores. • Created ghettos and slums

12. Discipline • Teachers and principals wanted order, compliance and obedience for their sakes. • This order aided students to be able to cope with the new urban society • William T. Harris, U.S. Commissioner of Education and leading philosopher of education, wanted to teach students obedience to moral principle, but school administrators wanted obedience to the school principal.

13. Reason for Compulsory Attendance • It would keep poor immigrants from being exploited by greedy factory owners. • It would help the lower class get rid of rude habits and ignorance. • Protestants wanted to prevent the spread of the Roman Catholic religion.

14. Compulsory Education • Child labor was usually connected with poverty and crime. • Many poor children could not or would not attend school, therefore education was not common. • In 1852, Massachusetts passed the first compulsory attendance law in effect for a whole state. By the 1870s most states had laws concerning attendance.

15. The Common School Prevails… • Laws were passed requiring certain periods of school attendance for working children. • After the Civil War, the movement for compulsory attendance picked up; • In the 1870s-1880s 24 states had enacted laws requiring all children to attend school. • At this point in time elementary schools were free, universal, common, and compulsory.

16. PROS Humanitarian- protecting the poor from exploitation from manufactures. Helping them improve themselves. The belief that a civic education for political self-governance should be aimed at all cultural groups in society. CONS The higher classes didn’t want to be associated with those with uncouth habits, ignorance, and low morals of the lower class. Pros and Cons for Compulsory Attendance

17. McGuffey Reader The McGuffey Readers were introduced in the 1830s and used for over 100 years. They included literature selections and the ideas of hard work, punctuality and conformity.

18. High Schools • In the mid-1800s, there were many private academies for wealthy children and many religious academies for various groups. • As the middle class became more powerful, they wanted their children to attend high school. • Poor people opposed taxes to provide high schools because they didn’t believe their children would benefit.

19. High Schools After the Civil War, high schools became supported by public funds mainly for common sense reasons. If public funds supported Common Schools and helped to support colleges, it was only reasonable that high schools should be supported.

20. Secularization • School reformers including Horace Mann began to promote affection and motivation instead of harsh discipline. • Schoolmasters continued to use harsh discipline including corporal punishment. • Parents and other community members began to support Mann’s view. • Teachers were seldom trained to be learner-oriented but were usually trained to be teacher-oriented.

21. Religious Diversity • These beliefs were not satisfactory, and Protestant nondenominational consensus was expressed as the goal of training in common citizenship. • The Act of 1842 included a provision that no public funds should go to any school that taught sectarian religious doctrines. • A few Protestant ministers began to make the point that religion should not be present in schools because of the offense to non-Christian citizens. • The Constitution established a republican government, one in which all men enjoyed equal rights of conscience, therefore, schools should not compromise these rights by religious instruction.

22. Religion • During these years problems with religious diversity continued. • The Act of 1842(New York) said Catholic schools could receive no public funds if any religious doctrine was taught. • In 1853(New York) a law was passed to banish religious education from the common schools. • The United States followed with the same type of law in 1876.

23. Religion • During these years, most people had a difficult time separating religion and morality. • Horace Mann tried to find a solution. He proposed that teachers read the Bible but provide no commentary on the readings. • Others, including Horace Bushnell, favored teaching morality in a way that Catholics could be included. • Most Catholic people did not agree.

24. Segmental Pluralisms- Religion There were three main elements impacting religious diversity. • Separation of church and state • Rivalry between Protestant groups • Increasing numbers of Roman Catholics State constitutions said church and state should be separated.

25. Religious Diversity • It was assumed by Americans that morality and religion were closely linked. • Horace Mann proposed that the schools should instill morality by teaching elements of Christianity that were common to both major faiths and all sects. These were of course found in the Bible.

26. Religious Diversity Protestants viewed Roman Catholic beliefs as a threat, therefore: • Protestants quarreled among themselves, but drew together to face a common enemy. • This approach was found in public schooling. • Protestant groups cooperated in efforts to establish non-secular schools to oppose the diversion of funding for Catholic schools

27. Ethnicity • People began to believe that since all students had to attend school together, there should be assimilation through Anglo conformity. • Many wanted schools for the immigrants to be like schools for earlier settlers to help eliminate the threat from immigrants. • A belief emerged that if immigrants were not educated they would ruin the country and would not learn the proper civic values. • A national language and set of values must be put in place to help America remain strong. • The Common School was thought to be the way to achieve these goals.

28. Ethnicity Other people believed assimilation should be achieved through Democratic Cosmopolitanism. • During this time people including Ralph Waldo Emerson and Walt Whitman began to speak of a “new” America. They believed American society would be enriched by the inclusion of many cultures and customs. • This type of school was much more difficult to achieve. Assimilation had to be a two-way process. Several bilingual schools tried to help with this kind of assimilation. These projects eventually failed when too many groups demanded similar treatment.

29. Higher Education of Women Mary Lyon pioneered higher education of women in founding Mount Holyoke Female Seminary (now Mount Holyoke College) in 1837 to provide for women the type of education that Harvard and Yale provide for men. Because of budget restrictions, both she and her students had to pitch with maintenance chores. Many of the early graduates went on to missionary work in Asia and Africa.

30. Assessment • Students will create a public service announcement publicizing citizens to support the Common School or compulsory attendance. • Think of an announcement you have seen on television. Work in groups. Develop a set of bullet points that could be used in a three-minute Public Service Announcement to build a broad community support.

31. Public Awareness Campaign : Public Service Announcement

32. Sources • http://www.lib.muohio.edu/my/pix/reader.html • www.mises.org/story/1679 • http://www.pbs.org/kcet/publicschool/photo_gallery/photo1.html