The Early Education Movement: The Importance Of Education

It became clear that in order to form a sound, functional democracy, education was most essential. Every citizen, although at the time only males could be citizens, needed to have some form of education. What was it that the citizen was to learn while in school? It became clear that education itself consisted of literacy, knowledge, research and the understanding of the Bill of Rights; those are what would make democracy succeed (Barber 416). Education as it was understood not only consisted of the basics, but also consisted of the government and rights. The importance of knowledge of government was not underestimated. He described the tuning point in education as the industrial revolution. Barber says “We have watch this commercialization and privatization, a distortion of the education mission and its content, going to the heart of our schools themselves.” (417). He is arguing that devices and television programs have become diluted with advertisements and that, with programs like Channel One, they have begun to affect education in schools. Tannen, on the other hand, argues that education and its present forms gained traction with the Greeks and continued through the middle ages. She tells how young men left home to attend institutions of higher learning. Through their experiences she says, “students at these institutions were trained not to discover the truth but to argue either side of

Thomas Jefferson remains one of the first advocates for public education, which was later termed the Common School Movement. He recognized the inequality in education, for the wealthy stood the only ones capable of affording an education, thus the poor stayed poor and the rich stayed rich. Jefferson aspired to change the apparent injustices in the education system. He felt all children possessed the right to and education regardless of prosperity, heritage, and circumstances. Even though Jefferson remained not able to create the change he so desperately sought to make, he never stopped trying and since education stayed revolutionized, for his persistence in equality. James Conant, former president of Harvard University stated, “In short, as I view the American scene of the 1960’s, I am ready to declare without hesitation that Jefferson’s proposals have become incorporated in the pattern of our educational structure” (Mercer, 1993).

Today, education enables us to enlarge our knowledge and open doors for opportunities to the path of having a good future. In the five readings, each written by a different author, there was a lesson learned and something to take away from each one. Reading through the passages by Mann, Moore, Malcolm X, Gatto, Rose, and Anyon, each author contributed his or her point of view on general public education. This topic can be very argumentative depending on the quality of education people receive. Education today is the single most important mean for individuals to achieve their personal goals in the workforce.

However education did not just fall under basic reading, writing, etc, but morals as well. Although I do believe that education what not so much for the common good of society, but so that they can have well-cultured workers in the future. Document 3 was written by William H. McGuffey. McGuffey was a Pennsylvania teacher who created a series of elementary textbooks that became widely used to teach reading and morality. Document 4 happens to support my previous claim, it states,”the benefits of the highest physical, intellectual and moral education… to institute

The Declaration of Independence acknowledges these basic freedoms and liberties through the following statement: "...that all men are created equal...[the people] are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. That to secure these rights..." (Document 1). The structure of the passage connotes the importance of such liberties, exemplifying that a suppression or restriction of these rights violates democratic principles. Furthermore, Jeffersonian liberalism argues for the people's rights to basic services and needs. In a letter written in 1786, Jefferson explains the importance of public education to the preserving of democracy in the nation, stating that "No other foundation can be devised for the preservation of freedom and happiness [than education]....Preach a crusade against ignorance; establish and improve the law for educating the common people" (Document 3). Free education offers the common people, including farmers, an opportunity to be more successful in making their decisions regarding the government of the United States. According to Jefferson, education was a key element for a republic to thrive, allowing the American people to achieve

The American public educational system is filled with an assortment of problems. Most students are graduating with less knowledge and capability than similar students in other industrialized countries. Classroom disruptions are surprisingly common, and in some classrooms, nearly continuous. The public education system is having difficulty adjusting to the no child left behind act. The No Child Left Behind(NCLB) is a landmark in education reform designed to improve student achievement and change the culture of American’s schools.

Jefferson felt that education was an important factor in attaining freedom. An educated man was less likely to be susceptible to being corrupted due to ignorance of what justice consists of. In his later years, one of his many accomplishments was the founding of the University of Virginia, which compounded his belief that education was a vital path on the road to freedom. (planetpapers.com)

Sonia Sotomayor, the first Latina Supreme Court Justice in American History once said, “Until we get equality in education, we won’t have an equal society.” (1) Since it’s birth, our great nation has undergone positive change that shapes the world we live in today, and we have public education to thank for that. Many progressive movements began with our children and their educational rights, before branching out to the rest of America’s citizens. This can be seen throughout each century. During the 1700's, education was finally brought to the forefront of American states, creating a basic guideline of what every American should know and giving them a space to learn.

Continuously, I feel education at this time needed to accommodated the general population all together for the country to develop and be a prosperous nation. Furthermore, I think the requirement for better education in America was developing: even though the measure of uneducated and poor individuals were expanding, debilitating the country's endeavors only left the nation to continue building more institutions with accomplishment for what was to come.

Jefferson as part of the Republican Party believed that education was important to everyone. When it came education he supported and believed in a nation-wide public school system. He pushed for that idea, but wasn’t successful. Contrary to his effort education remained exclusive for the people that could afford it. Soon after some progress was made when a small amount of institutions opened their doors to the poor, but wasn’t nearly enough. The amount of people that could afford education continued to be relatively exclusive for the wealthy and a large amount of the poor remained uneducated. To continue, education had essentially no blacks, woman, and Indians. People began to ask how an uneducated woman could enlighten the new generation of

During the Revolution, many Americans (like Thomas Jefferson) believed strongly that education was a necessary component of democracy, but despite their arguments, not many of the Founding Fathers thought it was a good idea for the federal

Since 1983 public education has been an issue in America. The system has been constantly changing every year with reforms. This constant change has been driven by the American people’s perception that education has declined and something should be done about it. First there was an increased emphasis on basic skills, making school years longer and more graduation requirements. Second, many began focusing on increasing teachers professionalism. Third, they began restructuring many things such as how the schools were organized and how the school day was structured etc. Now today the most of the American people believe that not enough money is given to public schooling. They associate academic improvement with the money the school is funded.

The author of The Education of Henry Adams, Henry Adams declares: “From life to death, this problem of running order through chaos, direction through space, discipline through freedom, unity through multiplicity, has always been, and must always be, the task of education, as it is the moral of religion, philosophy, science, art, politics, and economy.” He mentions that education is crucial for the development of society in many aspects. Since future generations are on the line of running our country, it is smart to invest in education. Benefits include an increase in intellectual, in positive behavioral conduct and in productivity. For some reasons, a prompt reminds me of the Shakespeare’s sonnet Shall I Compare Thee To A Summer Day we learned earlier in the semester.

A nation is defined not just by geographic borders, it is defined by its citizens. Citizens are shaped by the goods and services that are available to them. Any governmental service costs money; therefore a nation’s economy - and the spending of that money - works to shape the sociological core of that nation. But how should that money be spent? One can argue that education spending is important to a nation’s well-being. During the 19th century US President James Garfield commented that “next in importance to freedom and justice is popular education, without which neither freedom nor justice can be permanently maintained” (as cited in McPherson, 1912, p.192). One way in which a nation’s value for the importance of education can be

From a historical perspective, compulsory public education is a relatively new concept. Prior to establishing public schools, education was reserved for the privileged elite thought to have an innate predisposition for learning. (Office of Education, 1965; Hazlet, 2011, Iorio, 2011, p3, Comer, 1996)