Transcript The Common School Era PowerPoint

Questions:
Why were common schools established?
What were the main aims of early public schools?
How was the modern public school structured in the midnineteenth century?
What social forces were most important in their development?
The Common Man. The notion began with President Andrew
Jackson, identified as a “commoner” because he was from the
state of Tennessee.
Jackson wanted to remove government from economic affairs
because the govt. only acted on behalf of the wealthy (p. 96).
“Jacksonian” political philosophy centered upon catering to the
needs of the common man. The Whigs, a political party formed in
opposition to Jackson and his supporters, but also attempted to
reach and meet the needs of commoners, rather than just the
elite, through a strong, central government, also endorsed this
idea of a common man.
The Common School is an idea developed by the Whigs to benefit
all citizens through education.
The schools were to be focused on primary/elementary age and
were free (no tuition charged), “universal”-open to all children, and
controlled by local and state governments.
Common school reform was more political and organizational than
pedagogical or curricular,” it promoted “a more efficient form of
school governance and management, one that would permit the
schools to assimilate the great numbers of students
Factors leading to common school movement included and
economic shift to industrialization and resulting class inequities, a
physical and psychological “dislocation,” and increased
immigration
Chapter Three
School as a Public Institution:
The Common School Era
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Tozer/Senese/Violas, School and Society, 5e
Mann and the Common Schools
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Served as secretary to the Massachusetts
State Board of Education 1837-1848
Powers limited to the collection and
dissemination of information regarding
education in Massachusetts
Created county educational conventions
Distributed annual reports
Established Common School Journal in 1839
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Tozer/Senese/Violas, School and Society, 5e
Mann’s Central Issues
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School buildings
Moral values
Lessons from the
Prussian school
system
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School discipline
Quality of
teachers
Economic value
of schooling
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Tozer/Senese/Violas, School and Society, 5e
School Buildings
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Improved physical setting of schools
through
Use of surveys
 Public encouragement for model districts
 Publication of school expenditures by town
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Tozer/Senese/Violas, School and Society, 5e
Moral Values
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Schools as agents of social harmony
Moral values as “common elements” of
the common school
Anti- Catholic bias
John Stuart Mill’s argument for secular
education
Foreshadowed continuing separation of
church/state issues in schools
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Tozer/Senese/Violas, School and Society, 5e
Lessons from the Prussian School
System
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Designed to develop Prussian nationalism and
position German states for world leadership
Aristocratic tier
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Vorschule
Gymnasium
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Military academics/universities
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Common tier
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Volkshule
Workforce/technical schools/normal schools
Reinforced Mann’s support for free, state-financed,
state-controlled universal and compulsory schools
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Tozer/Senese/Violas, School and Society, 5e
School Discipline
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Spoke out against harsh treatment of
students
The “pedagogy of love” rather than
overt authoritarianism
Teacher’s responsibility as moral agent
Self-discipline ultimately supports selfgovernment
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Tozer/Senese/Violas, School and Society, 5e
Quality of Teachers
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Emphasized need for special teacher
preparation
Normal schools created with pedagogical
methods dominating curriculum
 Teachers as moral role models
 The feminization of teaching
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Lower costs
More nurturing of children
(c) 2006 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.
Tozer/Senese/Violas, School and Society, 5e
Economic Value of Schooling
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Forerunner of human capital theory
Material well-being for the masses
 Worker productivity and satisfaction
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Inherent contradictions not
acknowledged/addressed
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Tozer/Senese/Violas, School and Society, 5e
Success of Common School
Reforms
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Supported by diverse interests in
Massachusetts, including financial
interests
Mann’s “common elements” was a
satisfactory compromise for religious
interests
Reforms incorporated popular classical
liberal thinking
(c) 2006 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.
Tozer/Senese/Violas, School and Society, 5e
Concluding Remarks
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Massachusetts political economy and
ideology hospitable to state-funded and
state-controlled schools
Horace Mann as leading proponent of
schooling as agent of cultural uniformity
Questions remain about the implications
of the common school era’s reforms
(c) 2006 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.
Tozer/Senese/Violas, School and Society, 5e
Developing Your Professional Vocabulary
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character education
decentralization
discipline and a
pedagogy of love
feminization of
teaching
humanitarian reform
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normal school
Prussian model
sectarianism
university
urbanization
(c) 2006 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.
Tozer/Senese/Violas, School and Society, 5e
Resistance & ‘The Appeals’
Religion
Protestants vs. Catholic
To the Wealthy (industrialists)
The productivity of educated vs. uneducated workers
Property & Taxation
“For the benefit of all”
To The Working Class
Child labor: & “the domination of capital and servility of
labor”
Horace Mann and his notion of the Common School - Mann, most
famous Common School advocate from Massachusetts, had
experience in law and state politics.
He advocated “Protestant Republicanism,” (Christian values with
belief in nation’s republic), nonsectarian morality (broad Christian
values without commitment to a specific sect), and assimilation
(partly because of the high immigration rates at this time)
He also argued that schools would morally educate future
workers, schools would funded by taxes for the benefit of all,
(interesting to note his socialistic, religious rationale for taxing all,
even those with no children in schools), and benefit workers by
creating social stability.
Race, Religion, and Gender in the Common School.
Racially, non-white students were not included in Common School
plans. In terms of religion, schools were overwhelmingly
Protestant (although claimed to be nonsectarian), which caused
Catholics to begin their own network of parochial schools (105).
Common schools were coeducational (education of both sexes),
yet we begin to see that schools are viewed as a “nurturing”
environment, thus women were allowed to work in educational
sphere as it was an extension of family life (women’s traditional
“place”) – also notice that at this time period women’s pay for
teaching is lowered and standardized.
Sarah C. Roberts vs. The City of Boston.
The general school committee of the city of Boston have power, under
the constitution and laws of this commonwealth, to make provision for
the instruction of colored children, in separate schools established
exclusively for them, and to prohibit their attendance upon the other
schools.
THIS was an action on the case, brought by Sarah C. Roberts, an infant,
who sued by Benjamin F. Roberts, her father and next friend, against the
city of Boston, under the statute of 1845, c. 214, which provides that any
child, unlawfully excluded from public school instruction in this
commonwealth, shall recover damages therefor against the city or town
by which such public instruction is supported.
http://www.masshist.org/longroad/02education/roberts.htm
Mann, “Tenth Annual Report”
Mann’s justification for free public schooling in the Tenth Annual
Report, dates back to the founding of American colonies, yet he
also connects in to major nineteenth century ideas of religion and
republicanism (the best form of government in Mann’s opinion).
He strongly defends the right to tax for school with what he sees
as an “immutable, natural law,” (of divine origin), to educate all
children in a common school, but one wonders if he meant to
educate all children (2). Moreover, Mann endorses education, a
“general diffusion” in light of principles (seen during Jefferson and
the Enlightenment) of civic and social duty (i.e., for the collective
good) and education as essential for the preservation of the
country’s new-found rights and liberties (3).
The religious rhetoric Mann uses seems to ensure that at least
broadly conceived religious principles would be taught in these
Resistance & ‘The Appeals’
Religion
Protestants vs. Catholic
To the Wealthy (industrialists)
The productivity of educated vs. uneducated workers
(Bartlett’s letter)
Property & Taxation
“For the benefit of all”
To The Working Class
Child labor: & “the domination of capital and servility of labor”
Pedagogy & Phrenology
Student vs. Teacher centered learning
Questions:
Why/how were common schools established?
What were the main aims of early public schools?
How was the modern public school structured in the midnineteenth century?
What social forces were most important in their development?
What did Mann mean regarding the following:
Equal opportunity for all?
Social harmony?
Schools are the "great equalizer?"
Did Mann believe education would reduce crime?
Considerations
Taxes pay for public schools. Is there a relationship between having
everyone pay for schools and what Mann felt resulted in the educational
process -- social harmony?
Mann wrote education equips students to be part of a self-governing
people. How does this relate to required classes like history, civics and
social studies?
Mann published an article that stated, "Intelligence is Primary Ingredient
in the Wealth of Nations." What did he mean?
Mann wrote a school should be filled with students who reflect the
community. In that way they can learn from and about each other and
maintain common values. If this is true, what happens when students go
to a school without a mix of students?
What would happen if there were no public schools?
Discussion Questions
What do you think Mann meant when he said public education would
increase the wealth of individuals, communities, the state and the country
as a whole, while teaching respect for private property?
Why is public education seen as the most successful progressive social
ideal in American history?
What does this quote mean? "Education then, beyond all other devices of
human origin, is a great equalizer of the conditions of men, - the balance
wheel of the social machinery. I do not here mean that it so elevates the
moral nature as to make men disdain and abhor the oppression of their
fellow men. This idea pertains to another of its attributes. But I mean that
it gives each man the independence and the means by which he can resist
the selfishness of other men."