The Lust for Learning

1. The Lust for Learning Education and its Reforms

2. Public education continued becoming more popular • States made grade schools • Accept fact government can not function without educated people • Tax supported elementary schools • Checked child labor • Provided free textbooks

3. Teacher training schools or “normal schools” expanded after the civil war from about 12 to 300 • By 1900 there were 6,000 high schools • Number of parochial schools increased with immigration in the 1880s and 1890s • Kindergartens which were borrowed from the Germans became popular after gaining support

4. Chautauqua Movement (1874) • Public schools excluded adults • Resembled the lyceums, public lectures • given by well known speakers and held in tents • In 1892 100,000 people enrolled in courses of home study

5. People began to see education as a birthright • Crowded cities would bring about better educational facilities • Small one room schools would not be good enough for the growing number of students attending • Success of schools seen • Illiteracy dropped from 20% in 1870 to 10.7% in 1900

7. Education for Black People And Booker T. Washington

8. Booker T. Washington • “Foremost Champion of Black Education” • 1881: headed the black and normal industrial school at Tuskegee, Alabama • Taught useful trades so black students could gain self respect and economic security • “Accomodationist” • Strived for economic independence

9. George Washington Carver • George Washington Carver” Agricultural Chemist • Dr. W.E.B. Du Bois • First to urn Ph.D. at Harvard of his race • demanded complete EQUALITY • National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) (1910)

10. The Hallowed Halls of Ivy: The growth of colleges and universities

11. New Opportunities • A college education, for everyone, seemed indispensable for success • Women’s colleges gained ground • Like Vassar • By 1900, every fourth college graduate was a woman • Black institutes blossomed in the South • Howard University, Washington D.C. • Hampton Institute, Virginia • Atlanta University, Georgia

12. The “Enlightened” Laws • Morrill Act of 1862 • Provided a generous grant of the public lands to the states for support of education • These “land-grant colleges” eventually became state universities • Bound themselves to provide certain services, such as military training • Hatch Act of 1887 • Provided federal funds for the establishment of agricultural experiment stations

13. Private Philanthropy • Richly supplemented federal grants • New industrial millionaires donated fortunes • These philanthropists were cynically described as, “one who steals privately and gives publicly.” • Money barons gave away almost $150 million • New private universities of high quality were opened, with the help of the philanthropists • Cornell • The University of Chicago

14. Specialized Institutions • There was a sharp increase in professional and technical schools • Had modern laboratories where students could experiment • Leading these specialized institutions was John Hopkins University • Maintained the nation’s first high-grade graduate school • Carried the Germanictradition • Before, Americans had to go to Germany for a graduate degree • Dr. Woodrow Wilson received his Ph.D. here