The Public-School Education Reform Movement Of The 1800s

The education reform movement was the most important and successful reform that took place in Reconstruction. In 1869, an African American from Mississippi stated, “If I nebber does do nothing more while I live, I shall give my children a chance to go to school, for I considers education the next best thing to liberty” (McPherson, 624) African Americans valued education and believed that it allowed them to access freedom. Why did African Americans believe that education was synonymous to liberty? Throughout slavery, white Americans strictly prohibited educating African Americans because they feared that slaves would revolt against their masters. Eager African Americans wanted to learn because they saw it as their opportunity to get back to

Before the Civil War, slavery was an extremely popular way to maintain the economy of the South and to bring richness to wealthy white slaveholders. Even though the Emancipation Proclamation freed slaves in the Confederate States of America, there was still slavery existing in the Union and remaining border states that did not cooperate with the Confederacy. Consequently, in the 1860s, President Lincoln and Congress started to draft new to emancipate all African Americans and this soon became the thirteenth Amendment which made slavery illegal throughout the United States. According to an excerpt from a report from a Northern white man to the United States government in 1866, Andrews claimed that “Many of the negroes…common plantation Negroes, and day laborers in the town and villages, were supporting little schools themselves.” (Andrews). For the first time ever, African Americans were granted with rights to send their children into public schools get educated as the white Americans do. Before the thirteenth Amendment was proposed, African Americans were outlawed and prohibited from attending school or even reading and writing. The establishment of public schools for freemen was a crucial act in the history that provides opportunities for them to obtain knowledge and live as equal as white Southerners. While there are some historians who claimed the thirteenth Amendment was ineffective since schools were still segregated, but realistically they all received the same regulations. According to a Jim Crow Law in Tennessee, the document claimed that,“White and colored persons shall not be taught in the same school, but in separate schools under the same general regulations as to management, usefulness and efficiency” (Jim Crow Law). Congress established the Freedmen’s Bureau in March, 1865, to assist former slaves. The main

While times changed in America, the effects of government policies on public education only became stronger. Robert N. Gross discusses the rising of parochial schools in the progressive era due to the effects governmental influences in public schools in his article “Public Regulation and the Origins of Modern School-Choice Policies in the Progressive Era”. Gross says:

Before the educational reform there were very little public schools. If there was a public school in a town it was part time and only one room. Wealthy families could afford to send their children to private school or

History classes have always been a requirement for high school students to graduate. Some of these classes include United States history, Government, and World History. Although, there is a lack of any classes dealing with local history. State history alone only receives attention in the elementary school system and about a week in Government class. All school systems should include, in the required classes to take to receive a high school diploma, a local history class, so that the students may have a knowledge of the place where they live.

Education programs in correctional facilities is not a new idea in our society. The idea of implementing these programs in prisons has been around as early as the 1700s. Correctional education programs today consist of two basic types of programs — literacy development and vocational training. Literacy development is focused on improving inmate’s reading and math skills while vocational training is more focused on inmate’s ability to gain skills they can use in the workplace once they are released. However, these programs were unheard of in the 1700s. The sole purpose of education programs during this time was to teach inmates how to read. These programs in the 1700s only focused on inmate’s ability to read because it allowed them to understand

In the18th Century formal schooling was not commonly available, education was important to early American colonists. “Quickly realizing that simply teaching children to read and write at home and in church was insufficient, colonists began to establish public schools in the early 1600s, with the founding of the Boston Latin School in 1635.” (American Public Education: An Origin Story) around the time of American Revolution, other colonies, one like Georgia, were partially financing public grammar schools. “The first

Early Americans were stubborn; they always wanted to have things their way. Each Early American had confidence in their religion. Then again, religion and standing up in what we believe in today seems to be a theme of life in general. The early settlers in fact decided to come to America just for their freedom to believe in whatever they believed in. They also need an education, but once you find out what the people believe in and stand for. Education and knowledge, of the belief seems to wrap it's way right into it. How can the average person, or Early Americans even develop beliefs without an education? Knowledge is a gift and is important throughout the whole world's history to even begin religious beliefs. Even in "The Crucible." they

Public education came about from primarily single-sex education for boys to mostly coeducation before the early 1900’s. In the early beginnings of America, only boys had access to formal public education. Girls were usually only educated in their homes. The integration of coeducation began with girls being allowed in the elementary schools. In the mid-1800’s there was almost an equal number of girls as there were boys attending these elementary schools (Steptoe & Arbor, 2004). In the early introduction of coeducational schools there was much debate as to whether or not these school settings were acceptable and whether or not the girls could physically and mentally handle public schools with boys. There was also the belief that boys’ learning

During early schooling the religion was taught in the teachings, there was a certain level of fear was instilled in all children that if they disobeyed to follow authority they would fail (Joel Spring). Now a days public school and religion are usually separate but disobeying authority and not being a good student gives students a fear of failing out of school or not being good enough for colleges to notice.

Reforming education began as a movement during this time to promote a well educated populace. New schools were built and the curriculum was modified with the belief that an educated populace would protect democracy. The quality of education varied from state to state. Limited funding of the education system was apparent in various regions of the US. In the western regions the populace was sparsely spread a part with few urban cities and thus access to schools was limited at best. In the south whites had more access to private schooling,

In my opinion, healthcare services should be provided to Americans in the same fashion that public education services are. In simplest terms, Americans pay income, property, and sales taxes which go toward funding for public schools. In return for paying these taxes, American children have the opportunity to receive an education and to use the knowledge gained from experiences in the classroom to teach others or to contribute positively to society. I believe that healthcare services should be provided in a similar fashion, so that Americans pay taxes to provide for the healthcare services necessary for Americans to live plentiful lives. While education is not a right enumerated in the Constitution of the United States, many Americans would

Education in the South wasn’t that big, but it kept growing throughout years that came. Public schools weren’t as common as they were in the North, but some were held at church houses or organized in some way. Some Southerners campaigned for universal public education. African Americans didn’t have many sources of education, but their parents and them didn’t let discrimination stop them. They tried to build and keep schools to improve their education. The public schools that were created were all based on discrimination. Schools were either for whites or the colored. Some colored schools were located in rural (relating to, or characteristic of the countryside rather than the town) areas and it took them a long time to get to school, some students had to walk long distances/miles to get educated. Some schools weren’t year round because they were either too small or too far away.

first time in a few days. While the letter does not make explicitly clear if this kind of absence was normal, the nonchalant manner that it was addressed suggests that absences were common.

Since the beginning of public education, the responsibility of schools falls to the states. Through the eighteenth century, public education was only for the wealthy due to the belief that poor children were not worthy of being educated. “In 1852, however then secretary of state of Massachusetts Horace Mann urged that states be obliged to offer public education to all children. The revolutionary idea behind this plea was that all individuals could and should be educated irrespective of economic class” (School Discipline History).