History of Education

Chapter FourThe Common School:

The Palladium of the Republic

Building Blocks in Public Education•Middle decades of 19th Century contributed significantly to public education•Public elementary schools adopted principles of free, universal, and common education

Three basic elements of American life driving development 1. commitment to republican goals for unified, democratic, political community2. pluralistic loyalties of different groups, each with self-interest (these were also divisive along locality, racial, religious lines)3. Long term modernization process occurring in the U.S.

Characteristics of Modernization

Centralizing Power of Nation-StateGrowing power of the nation-state to influence social and economic affairs , helped coordinate efforts of pluralistic groups

Popular ParticipationMore people involved in all aspects of political, economic, and social affairs of the countryLed to greater group effort on behalf of the public good

Industrial UrbanizationShift from agrarian to citified societyShift from agriculture to commerce, to the market system, to power driven machine production in factories in citiesLeadership in industrialization led by entrepreneurs of middle- class

Secularization“...the process whereby men become increasingly rational,analytical, and empirical in their political action...traditional(read religion based) orientations and attitudes give way to...decision-making processes involving...gathering of information, the evaluation of information, and laying out of alternative courses ofaction, ...and the means whereby one tests whether or not a givencourse of action is producing the consequences which were intended

Faith in Large Scale School SystemsThis trend, a departure from tradition, was adopted by modernizing societies to bring organization to growing populations

Segmental PluralismFrom beginning of the Republic, pluralism viewed as both a blessing and a curse on society

Historian Kammen refers to “unstable pluralism” that might threaten a society because of conflict between racial, religious, and regional groups, each having its own political party , “its own faction, ... its own school, and each dogmatist his own ideology”

Kammen said ...“Stable pluralism requires a strong underpinning of legitimacy...best insured by the rule of law...law made within the framework of an explicit constitution by elected representatives....”

This need to promote psychological as well as political legitimacy among diverse groups was a prime mover for promoting the common school to counteract the growing pluralism of mid- nineteenth century United States

Another perspective on pluralism and its effect on the public school movement is concept of segmentation per Weibe:

“...segmentation denotes...small social units—primary circlesof identity, values, associations, and goals—that have sufficientauthority to dominate the terms of their most important relation-ships with the outside world.”

Another case of pluralism competing with unum with regard to the the idea of common schools

National Cohesion and the SegmentsFactors sustaining and supporting segmentation

expanse of land allowed social segments to move away from eachother if conflict arose, just move and start anew

cultural diversity accentuated the difference in segments

lack of strong central government, common church, or financialinstitution led to autonomy of the various segments

This pluralistic fragmentation worked against spirit of nationalcohesion promoted after the Revolution

1850’s saw stronger segmentation—pluralism

Liberty and equality redefined, to reflect concentration of thosevalues on individual segments and factions and NOT on the entirepopulace

Strong emotions toward cohesion to bring everyone together,best way to do it was a common, public school

Proponents of the common school , counteract separatist, seg-mented movement, sought to not only make the public school

free and available, but also compulsory and secular

Lots of controversy and seeking of control by various segmentssuch as religion, race, ethnicity, and localism

Amid all this controversy in the mid 19th century, the people of theUnited States started building an elementary school system thatsought to be free, universal, common, compulsory, and secular

The Common School: Palladium of the Republic

a statue of Pallas Athena whose preservation was believedto ensure the safety of Troy

1826 NY Governor De Witt Clinton became foremost championof public education

Bitter struggle between Catholics and Protestants over schoolcontrol in NYC in 1830’s-40’s, example of segmented pluralismseeking control of education

De Witt pushed in 1820’s for state system of common schools tooffset the pluralists

Centralizing Power of the State

1850’s definite movement to modernize society and education, withfocus on pluralistic state governments ilo cohesive nationalgovernment

Economy was strong with growth in production, transportation, capital investment, and employment

States grew strong while federal government languished

Pluralism and segmentation flourished---self-interest

Educational reformers pushed for states to promote free and commoneducation during antebellum period

Post Civil War, with the federal government stronger , reformers

pushed for federal government involvement in public education

Revisions of state constitutions

Jacksonian era saw reactions to overall modernization in revised stateconstitutions in mid 1840’s and 50’s including provisions for publiceducation

Proclaimed that schools should be “public”, “free”, or “common”,as well as “efficient”, “thorough”, uniform”, and “open to all.”

State legislatures’ duty was to “establish, maintain, and support”the schools

Established state boards of education, state superintendents, and state funding for schools

Followed general trend to bureaucratize most areas of government

Strong controversies existed over religious and racial pluralism

Most state constitutions prohibited public funds for religious schools, and were silent or ambiguous regarding race, until postCivil War

Crusaders for the Common SchoolHorace Mann in Mass., among several others, wrote articles, madespeeches, organized volunteers to promote public schools

Mann developed his Common School Journal, one of many suchpublications of the period promoting public schools

Revolutionary ideals of strong republicanism merged with pressurefrom modernization to have stronger governmental control overthings

To assure that public schools served the common good, they shouldbe common schools serving all children, regardless of race, creed, color, or economic status

Thus schools had to be free, and only way to do that was to make them publicly funded

This would help eliminate class distinction

Tax people according to ability to pay

Direct taxation of real property by local districts, plus state funds

States assumed authority for public education with localdistricts assuming daily control

1837 Mass. established state board of education with HoraceMann secretary, Conn. followed suit in 1839

Some religious pluralists and “localists” resisted state control, as did the Jacksonian Democrats, who opposed any monopolies

Mass. Governor Morton, a Jacksonian Democrat, even arguedagainst his own new state board of education regarding control.He expressed a localist view (pluralist) of local control of schools

The Committee on Education of the Mass. House of Reps tried toabolish the board of education in favor of local control

Many felt all the state government should do was provide

money, with “...the selection of teachers, the choice of studies,...and books, and teaching methods...best left to the school district.”

These sentiments were from Brownson and echoed by the House Committee.They further felt that ...”the more...the whole matter of the school is broughtunder the control of the families specially interested in it, the more efficientwill the school be...Where ever there is a power to be exercised, there shouldalways be a concentration of it in as few hands as possible.”

This principle of “subsidiary” was echoed by John Coons in 1970 as a policy fordecentralizing decision making and locating it in the smallest community competentto discharge it.

Subsidiary respect for divergent community behaviors based upon group preferencesThat, and decentralization, are much like social segmentation and cultural pluralism

Brownson went on to say that “Government is not...and cannot be the educator of the people. His views, along with his cohorts, reflected growing pluralism and individual-ism in mid 19th century, stressed the freedom from government control

Horace Mann and other reformers appealed to the idea that the founding fatherscould and must be the educator of the people

Bill in the House to abolish the board of education was defeated and Horace Mannand his followers continued to gain control during 1840’s

This struggle for state promotion of the common school were beginnings of longconfrontation between push to strengthen local community by positive governmentaction and pluralist push for voluntary, family, or local community action

But consensus prior to Civil War was that free, universal, common schooling, run bystate governments, was essential to the welfare of the country

Growth of popular participation in public affairs, and urbanization/modernizationincreased momentum toward “thorough and efficient” public school system

Democrats often opposed central state government control of schools, but viewed common schools as a means of opportunity for the poor and working class, and as an “equalizer” to restrain the “uppity “ upper classes

Whigs were more for state control but were also for common schools for rich andpoor alike

Working men “turned to local political action in protest to industrialization that had lowered their wages, and thrown many out of work, pressed for common schoolingas means of establishing equality promised by the Revolution

Whigs promoted common schools on behalf of the public good of the greatercommunity

Horace Mann wrote “Education, then, beyond all other devices of human origin,is the great equalizer of the conditions of men, the balance wheel of the socialmachinery.”

Thus, after much controversy , both political parties finally agreed that free,universal, common schools were politically necessary.

Civic Role of Public Schools

Most agreed on best type of civic education

Text books taught values of liberty, equality, patriotism, Christian morality, middle-class virtues of hard work, honesty, integrity, and rewards of hard work

Horace Mann a proponent of “political education” by which people could “under-stand something of the true nature of the government under which they live.” Hefelt schools should teach commonly agreed upon values but skip over politicallycontroversial issues, basically a “civics” curriculum

United States was growing rapidly during the mid 1800’s, with urbanization strongalong with modernization and growing industrialization

More people moving to cities

Schools and colleges became common and visible signs of spread of a commonculture, served to bind the “island communities” together

Urbanization brought problems, with no help from a weak central government solocal city governments had to take control

Bureaucratization developed to better control growth, i.e water departments,police departments, fire and transportation, and eventual education departments

Bureaucracy in the schools brought:

graded schools based on student agegraded curriculum with specific subjects taught in specific order in each gradesmaller classes needed more teachers, so schools to teach teachers establishedfull time boards of education to deal with public on one hand and teachers on otherfull time principals, superintendants with staff

i.e. a full time educational bureaucracy to establish order and a sense of system to the ever larger school systems developing because of urbanization

Urban schools promoted an urban discipline, not meaning discipline in the strictest sense, but to teach young people how to live in close association with others in modern urbanized society as opposed to living in rural agrarian society

William T. Harris, of St. Louis, stressed this point of the urban discipline

He was the first supt. of schools in St. Louis, then U.S. Commissionerof Education, and a leading philosopher of education in the country

Harris had about all classes of children inSt. Louis in public schools by 1880’s

They had to abolish the fee system to remove the taint of poverty andcharity so that poor children were attracted to public schools

School leaders felt class-consciousness was wrong and that thecommon school combated group divisiveness of all kinds—class,ethnic, religious, and political

School reformers saw another aspect of society that the commonschool addressed: child labor

Child labor connected with poverty, which was associated with increased crime

Schools might be free but were no good to poor children workingin factories because of the growth of urbanization & industrialization

First the cities then the states began asserting power over parentsto send their children to school instead of work

In 1820’s Boston was one of first cities to appoint truant officer

Main cause of truancy was child labor, kids working in factories

Compulsory Education

Working conditions were harsh and cruel for children

1836 Mass. passed law prohibiting employment of children under 15unless they attended a school three months of the year

1842 legislature, after much effort by Horace Mann, prohibited childrenunder 12 from working more than 10 hours a day

Still, 40% of working class children had no schooling, and increasingimmigration made the problem worse

1852 Mass. passed first compulsory attendance law state-wide, the first in the country, requiring children 8-14 to attend school at least threemonths a year, with fines on parents who did not comply

In 1870’s 14 states passed laws requiring all children to attend school,and in 1880’s another ten followed suit

Secularization

Traditional ideals of religious and family hierarchy applied to U.S. education gradually gave way to secularization, involving morescientific, practical, technical, and professional studies

Overall modernization (urbanization and industrialization) led to themove away from the traditional standards, as diversification of manynew cultures influenced society

Children became more free and independent, emerging from the traditional subservience to the family and church, as they expandedtheir studies

Learner-oriented Ideal

Conflict over instructional methods between Horace Mann and the establishment

Mann brought back questionable disciplinary methods from Prussia based on love and affection in lieu of fear and the rod

Boston schoolmasters felt that duty must come before affection, andthat authority not love must be the relationship between student and teacher

Mann objected and his support gradually grew among parents and laypeople

Teachers viewed themselves as the “authoritative conveyor of ...knowledge, manners, and morals”. They pressured students to learnthe value of conformity to laws and regulations, and stressed the

obedience and submission to authority, what they called anachievement oriented ideal

The increasing conflict between learner –oriented and achievementoriented ideals contributed to the secularization process of educationaway from the traditional ideals of religion and family

Number of private academies grew in mid-1800’s, some for males, some for females, some co-educational, teaching “college prep”curricula including romance languages, sciences, commercial arts,and fine or performing arts. These academies appealed to the growing middle classes who wanted a more practical education thanthat provided by the colonial grammar school, and who felt that aboarding school environment would be better than a public schoolin an urban setting

But that gradually began to change and the free, public high schoolgained popularity, touted as a way to benefit the entire community,and offering free education to both girls and boys

They started offering similar curricula, i.e. “college prep”

1827 Mass. passed a high school law requiring schoolmasters in townsof more than 4,000 to teach Latin, Greek, history, rhetoric, logic,history, bookkeeping, geometry, surveying, and algebra

By 1860 Mass. had 100 of the 300 high schools in the country

Up until now, the free, common school was primarily at elementarygrade level, and education above that level was mostly in the privateacademies. Most towns could not get their people to pay moretaxes to support free high schools

Working class opposed taxes for the public high school, feeling their children would end up as they did, in the working class, regardless ofeducation and that the rich children would benefit more from the free, public high schools

The well-to-do often opposed the free, public high school becausethey did not want their children mingling with the poor

Some groups tried to stave off secularization by establishing privatereligious based schools, i.e. St. Pauls in Concord, NH in 1855

The move to popularize public high schools lost momentum and wasnot revived until after the Civil War

Court cases were brought in many states to test the legality of taxsupport for public high schools

The legal question was whether or not school boards taxing rightswere restricted to free, elementary level “common schools” or if they extended to the authority to levy taxes for support of freehigh schools as well

Kalamazoo, Mich. brought a test case with the plaintiffs arguing thatsecondary education, i.e. high school, usually consisted of classicaland foreign languages (thus not practical or necessary for all), wasan “accomplish for the few rather than the many”, and thus should bepaid for privately by those who could afford it.

1874 Michigan Supreme Court ruled that the whole history of education in Michigan held that the state did have the right to“furnish a liberal education to the youth of the state in schools brought within the reach of all classes.” This could include aclassical education if the people so declared. Primary schools (elementary level free schools) and a university were already in

place and publically supported, so it would be absurd to assumethat the state could not provide secondary schools at publicexpense as a means of transition from one to the other

SummaryPluralism still prevalent but diminishing in influence

States more involved in public education with new constitutions and other laws passed

Merger of Modernization and Revolutionary ideals, i.e. historic Revolutionary ideals devoted to republican form of government ingeneral, idea that common schools should serve the common good,in which all classes of children could attend together and learn together coupled with modernization requirements of a largergoverning body for schools than local districts, i.e. state boards ofeducation, and bureaucratization of the large systems

Public funding via taxes, allowed by new state laws

Centralization of contol, i.e. state boards

Increased suffrage, thus more people in the decision making processthus wider range of ideas and pluralism dilluted

Industrial growth bringing more children to the cities, society saw aneed to educate them, or at least get them off the streets

Child labor aspect, leading to compulsory schools, i.e. designed tokeep the children out of the factories

Bureaucratization, i.e. development of large systems needing dedicated, organized administration, leading to full-time school superintendents, principals...a professional bureaucracy

Establishing an urban discipline designed to familiarize children withliving and working in close proximity to others, as opposed to the agrarian, rural atmosphere that was previously prevalent

Secularization, movement away from dominant religious influence in favor or more rational, scientific, empirical approach to things

Growth of the public high school, expanded taxes and funding to payfor secondary education for both girls and boys

Unum still not achieved , gaps between social classes, and pluralismand segmentation along racial, religious, and locality lines still dividingefforts to more completely unify the education system, but things wereimproving

History of EducationChapter 4 summary

3 elements driving American developmentcommitment to republican goalspluralistic devisivnesslong-term modernization

more people (men) voting and involved in policy making

Industrial modernizationshift from agrarian to urban disciplinebrought more people into cities---for jobscreated child-labor problem

summary cont.

secularization approach replacing religious approach

segmented pluralism still strong influence in everything---schoolsdiversity from vast immigration

lack of strong federal government---state’s rights strengthened

1826 NY Governor Clinton strong champion of public common schoolspushed for state system of common schools to offset thepluralists

Jacksonians promoters of free, common schools

1827 Mass. established first state board of education with Horace Mann as Secretary

summary cont.

bureaucratic school administrations put in place to control growingschool systems

movement toward compulsory education

Boston established first truant officer in 1820

1836 Md. established first child labor laws designed to keep childrenout of the factories and in the schools

1852 Mass. established first compulsory attendance lawschildren 8-14 must attend elementary school 3 months/year

1870 saw 14 states pass laws requiring all children to attend school

summary cont.

mid 1800’s saw movement toward publically funded high schools

Pluralism still prevalent but diminishing in influence