Chapter 7: The History of American Education
Thesis: The history of American Education has evolved since colonial times due to multiple significant scholars that changed the way education is viewed and taught today.
Key issues/concepts:
• Teaching being a “gendered” career in society
• The role of the federal government in education
• Sexism with women and education
• The history of segregation in school systems
• Maria Montessori’s methods continue today in Montessori schools
Key issue(s)/burning question(s):
• Is FAFSA the newer, evolved, “legal” vision of the National Defense Education Act (NDEA) because of the loans and scholarships to students?
Academic language:
Dame schools: a school ran by a woman inside of her home, which focusing
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Ferguson: court ruled for segregation, separate but equal
Separate but equal: segregation between black and white Americans used to legally separate school systems; was not equal
De jure segregation: segregation by law or by official action
De facto (unofficial) segregation: resulted from segregated residential patterns
Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka: court ruled that separate but equal did not have a place in the field of education and that separate education was truly unequal
Second-generation segregation: within school segregation
Kindergarten: purpose was to grow the child’s development and socialization; used sensory objects, such as clay and sand along with games for physical
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• Horace Mann - was the nation’s advocate for the formation of a common school for the common person; he was known as “the father of the public school.” He tried to reconstruct education by attempting to remove the class barrier and provide both practical and idealistic goals to improve the economy
• John Dewey - the movement he had with progressive education; he’s close to being the most influential educator of the twentieth century
• Emma Hart Willard - created the opportunity for women to attend higher education along with starting the first women’s college
• Friedrich Froebel – founded the first kindergarten
• Prudence Crandall – showed interest in education, racial equality, and women’s rights and many of her students continued her work
• Maria Montessori – created a curriculum in a particular environment to fulfill the inner need of children to work on jobs that interest them; individual based; Montessori schools are popular today
• Mary McLeod Bethune – created Bethune-Cookman College along with black civic and welfare organizations; became a national voice for African Americans
• Sylvia Ashton-Warner – inspired attitudes to put children in the middle of the
There was a time when America’s education system was top-notch according to the culture and society. With time, a myriad of things has changed, but unfortunately what has not evolved is the American education system. The country is still following a system which was not designed for the current global economic climate. Equality, as positive as it sounds is not as sufficient when it comes to education. The system treats students equally yet expect a similar culmination and outcome. Every child has his individuality and distinct abilities; one cannot judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree. Conversely, a few of the prominent reasons why the education system is failing are overcrowded schools, the rise of technology, and following the same old school hours.
Horace Mann, known as the "father of American public education", wrote the policy document Report of the Massachusetts Board of Education, that claims Massachusetts's school education is becoming unequal among the citizens. Mann develops his argument by using European and American values of men, and how society functions with men that have been treated as equals. Mann's purpose was to discuss the problems in Massachusetts's education system in order to inform his audience and persuade a change. Mann's audience assumes an audience that would be government workers or officials because of his message of changing the education system.
This college was the first college that was open to women as well as men creating the first opportunity for women in America to gain an advanced education.
	Horace Mann was the father of the American School System. Horace Mann’s had many reforms on education. He was born in 1796. Mann determined what the purpose of education should be based on his own experience and observation. Mann also had many ideas how education could be improved. Many of these ideas have been followed by schools today as well. Mann also had ideas on topics which one considers today to be controversial. The public should take into account what Mann’s ideas were on these issues.
In 1951 schools were separated by skin color, or segregated. The Brown v. Board of Education trial was brought to court because a third-grader, Linda Brown, was not allowed to attend the elementary school that was closest to her house. She wa required to take the bus to school across town instead. In the trial the point that “Education for Negroes is almost nonexistent(13).” This is an example of how there were old problems in the Fourteenth Amendment that needed to be changed. Another issue that was brought up in the trial was that, “Segregation… has a tendency to retard the educational and mental development of negro children…(19).” Without the proper education at segregated
"Education should seek to bring its subject to the perfection of their moral, intellectual, and physical nature in order that they may be the means of the greatest possible happiness of which they are capable, both as to what they enjoy and what they communicate." - Emma Willard. Emma Willard was a leader in women’s education. She opened Troy Female Seminary, the first school for girls offering them an education equal. (Lutz, A. (1964). Emma Willard: pioneer educator of American women)
After decades of coping with the doubt and the regulation that women could not be educated, a number of women began to revolt. The women felt they too should be highly educated just the same as the men. They protested against the fact that men could go to college and this was not allowed for them and wanted the right to learn (Westward Expansion 1). Women wanted to be educated to better and to prove themselves solid. Schools for women began to up rise and gain some admiration in the 1820’s (The American Pageant 327). 1818 a lady by the name of Emma Willard, made a request to the legislature of New York, to fund a education for women. She got support from President Thomas Jefferson and The Common Council, in which she received four thousand dollars to fund in a school she later opened in the 1820’s, called, Troy Female Seminary (Westward Expansion 1). Soon after many schools began to come up, and Oberlin College, in Ohio, became the first college to accept men and women (Westward Expansion 1). In the turn of the nineteenth century, more and more thoughts and ideas of education for women became topic of interest. Political ideals scoped support for the better education for women, because leaders of policies of education and political issues seemed to feel that there need to be citizens with a creditable history of
Horace Mann, an American politician and education reformer, helped establish the common school movement. It was this common school movement that revolutionized the teaching and structure of schools across America. After visiting nearly one thousand schools within 6 years, he found that the facilities were in poor condition, lacked many educational tools such as textbooks, and were built on inequality. It was Mann, who established the first normal school back in 1839 with the idea that these schools would provide education and equality to all boys and girls. “Education then, beyond all other devices of human origin is the great equalizer of the conditions of men, the balance-wheel of the social machinery. (p. 183),” said Mann. It was his belief that everyone was entitled to the same content in education. Oftentimes, wealthy children would stay in school longer than the poor children, who couldn’t afford to go at all. The “great equalizer” of education meant that education through common school would be available and equal for all, whether rich or poor. As historian, Kathryn Kish had pointed out, “ The equalizing capacity of the school was something that he very much believed in. The common school became for him the place where we all came together,
First and foremost, the American Educational System has received numerous advocates offering crucial inputs on education from centuries ago up to the present time. Even so, with focus, shining on past advocates, three well-known men who are still receiving constant acknowledgment for their ideas and contributions regarding the system. Notably, Dewey, Man, and Jefferson all share major impacts, alike and unlike, resulting in significant effects on the American Educational System.
Horace Mann was an early 18th century politician and a visionary in the area of education reform. He is credited as the person responsible promoting the belief that education not only be free, but should be available to all. Horace Mann’s concept for equality in education ensures “that everyone receives an education that will allow them to compete for wealth on equal terms.” (Spring, 2014 p. 58.)
Horace Mann was the father of the American School System. Horace Mann’s had many reforms on education. He was born in 1796. Mann determined what the purpose of education should be based on his own experience and observation. Mann also had many ideas how education could be improved. Many of these ideas have been followed by schools today as well. Mann also had ideas on topics which one considers today to be controversial. The public should take into account what Mann’s ideas were on these issues.
During the 1800’s it was a really rare thing to see a woman in college. Schools like Oberlin college began to accept women. Lucy’s father did a nice thing and payed for her college education. She was the first woman who received a college education in Massachusetts. Lucy’s major protest was at the time of her graduation.
“The subject of the Education of Women of the higher classes is one which has undergone singular fluctuations in public opinions” (Cobbe 79). Women have overcome tremendous obstacles throughout their lifetime, why should higher education stand in their way? In Frances Power Cobbe’s essay “The Education of Women,” she describes how poor women, single women, and childless wives, deserve to share a part of the human happiness. Women are in grave need of further improvements in their given condition. Cobbe suggests that a way to progress these improvements manifests in higher education, and that this will help further steps in advance. Cobbe goes on to say that the happiest home, most grateful husband, and the most devoted children came from a woman, Mary Sommerville, who surpassed men in science, and is still studying the wonders of God’s creations. Cobbe has many examples within her paper that shows the progression of women as a good thing, and how women still fulfill their duties despite the fact that they are educated. The acceptance of women will be allowed at the University of New England because women should be able to embrace their abilities and further their education for the benefit of their household, their lives, and their country.
“There is nothing in the universe that I fear, but that I shall not know all my duty, or shall fail to do it.” This was a famous quote that was said by Mary Mason Lyon. Mary Lyon has been, and is still to this day, a very important person in the history of women empowerment. Born on February 28, 1797 in Buckland, Massachusetts by Aaron and Jemima Lyon, Mary Lyon was not aware of the life that she was to have as she got older and what fame that would come. As Mary Mason Lyon began to get older, she attended school for a short while until she reached the age of 13. Soon after, at the age of just Seventeen, she got an offer to teach and had accepted. A while after she began teaching and educating other people, she then realised that she wanted to continue an education of her own causing her to go back to school and attend college at Sanderson Academy. As she grew in age good things and opportunities continued to come her way. Mary Mason Lyon soon because the creator and founder of the very first women's college.
“There is nothing in the universe that I fear, but that I shall not know all my duty, or shall fail to do it.” This was a famous quote that was said by Mary Mason Lyon. Mary Lyon has been, and is still to this day, a very important person in the history of women empowerment. Born on February 28, 1797 in Buckland, Massachusetts by Aaron and Jemima Lyon, Mary Lyon was not aware of the life that she was to have as she got older and what fame that would come. As Mary Mason Lyon began to get older, she attended school for a short while until she reached the age of 13. Soon after, at the age of just Seventeen, she got an offer to teach and had accepted. A while after she began teaching and educating other people, she then realised that she wanted to continue an education of her own causing her to go back to school and attend college at Sanderson Academy. As she grew in age good things and opportunities continued to come her way. Mary Mason Lyon soon because the creator and founder of the very first women's college.