The Work Of Brameld, Horton, And Freire

Kaestle wrote the founding fathers believed that education would prepare men to vote intelligently and prepare woman to teach their sons properly (1983, p. 95). Kaestle used an example of how a school official in Vermont mentioned that teachers stamped characters on children and molded them for the places the teachers thought they would fill, whether as a political figure or in prison; they were scaffolding (1983, p. 81). This mindset mirrored an ideology the Protestant culture enforced. There was also mentioning of the republican machine, which was a person who was intelligent and free but would subject himself to the whim of the government and do things for the common good (1983, p. 79). Kaestle argued that government in education was paramount in order for people to become the virtuous citizens they were meant to

An educational system is a means to develop a workforce, to improve the socioeconomic status of the poor via social mobility, and to create a shared culture. Given these important roles, educational systems are targets for social reformers. Joseph Lancaster and Arne Duncan were both education reformers with strong and influential ideas about what and how students are taught. Lancaster was a London schoolmaster and eventual leader of the Monitorial education reform movement in the early 1800s. Duncan was the US Secretary of Education from 2009-2015, and led an era of active federal education reform. In comparing and contrasting these two educational reformers from the past and present, there are more similarities than differences.

The ideas and philosophies of a time period help to shape how a society acts and what people care about. The time period of my parents’ generation was no different. During the 1970s through the 1990s, intellectual elites were discussing and proposing philosophies to help them understand and explain the fracturing and confusion of the time. Some of the philosophies included liberalism, deconstructionism, individualism, and others. While the philosophies were present at the time, they were not widespread enough to be directly present in my parent’s upbringing. Nonetheless, even though the thoughts my parents had and the philosophies they followed were not officially one of the “-isms”, they still had intellectual stimulation. They still had observations about the world and formed their own theories about fracture, or identity, or politics, or any other pertinent issue of their era. The ideas of the time seeped into their lives in different ways as society reflected some of the thoughts of the academy. Still, their intellectual development, and the development of many Americans likely occurred outside of the sphere of the academy and their philosophies. Whether the refined ideas of the few, or the less specific ideas of the many, intellectual stimulation and development was an integral part of American life in these decades, and people all had different ways of achieving

Smith enlightens us with the term and addresses what’s the importance of a good education. It encompasses socialization and acculturation as well as schooling in the formal and informal senses. Philosophy of education as it is traditionally understood by Smith’s and our contemporaries concerned itself with the latter, schooling. It investigates familial and institutional instruction that presupposes pedagogical intent. This is the type of education that Locke had in mind in Some Thoughts Concerning Education and that Rousseau wrote about in Emile. Socialization, however, is a different kind of educational concern but also looms large in both eighteenth- and twenty-first-century political discussion. It asks about the role of social, cultural, and political forces in forming one’s self-understanding and one’s view of the

Reconstruction governments created the first public school systems in the South. The architect was a man name Thaddeus Steven of the Radical Reconstruction program. Stevens proposed a plan which would have given each adult freedman forty acres of land. Stevens was the man the freedmen owed their undying faith in the immortal phrase, “Forty Acres and a Mule.” (Bennett pg.203)

Education has undergone many rhetorical and definitional changes since its creation; the explicit purpose of teaching the masses, particularly in the framework of public schooling, has varied from culture to culture. At its core, though, the aim is simple: to efficiently construct productive members of a society. This effort has to encompass so much of the values of said societies that it becomes impossible for educational institutions to avoid the influence of larger institutions. Within these constraints comes the effect of social reproduction. This institutional byproduct of education rooted in societal values guarantees that students who come from lower income backgrounds are fated to experience this existence as adults, whereas students from higher income families have the advantages to follow in the footsteps of their parents. Without deeply studying and working to reverse social reproduction, our current educational system is the story of history repeating itself.

“Since the 1800s, the school has continually been seen as a means of eliminating poverty, crime, and social problems” (Spring, 2014, p. 83). Society and schools are closely interdependent. Changes within society cause a need for modifications within the school system. Similarly, alterations within the school system impact society. Previous sociological, historical, and reform movements resulted in drastic educational and societal changes. These movements varied from the common school reform to the attempt “to control the spread of “inferior blood” into the general population” (Stoskopf, 1999, p. 1).

Ambrose Bierce, born Ambrose Gwinnett Bierce on June 24 of 1842 in Megis County, Ohio, was the 10th son of farmers. After high school Ambrose Bierce enlisted in the Union army as the Civil War gained ground and soldiers. While in the Union army he encountered several military engagements, this being a major inspiration for many of his future writings and stories. After the Civil War had ended Ambrose traveled with a military expedition headed to San Francisco, this being where he left the army and shortly started to become a writer.

This week readings, lecture notes, and class discussions, reminded me of my experience with intersectionality in United States. Arriving in American in 1979, my first encounter of intersectionality was in my junior high school, where my race, gender, and culture had a negative role to play in my life. First, on preparing to emigrate to American with my family, my older sisters and I had our hair platted in cornrows with colorful beads, not knowing the negative impact it might evoke upon arriving in America. Few days after our arrival, we started our junior high school. It was at the school we encounter intersectionality, because all the white girls and boys constantly teased and make fun of us with our hairstyle and our name becomes something of a joke. To make matter worse, it was during this time the movie ‘Roots’ was brand new on the television screen. However, to my dismay the black girls joined the bandwagon. As Dr. Bernard stated in her lecture note that oppressor tends to separate/divide in order to dominate, justify and control, which is the case of the white students.

Society is built on the common understandings of its people. “Next in importance to freedom and justice is popular education, without which neither freedom nor justice can be properly maintained,” stated James Garfield. Education as a publicly provided social program gained momentum during the Progressive Movement of the 1920s; it was not always regarded as a right under the constitution. During the Great Depression, the federal government became much larger and more powerful as Franklin Delano Roosevelt sought to stop the terrible unemployment and resultant deplorable living conditions of so many Americans (Galbraith, 2000.) The idea of a nation-wide public educational system gained ground as the government grew. Educational champion John

In the nineteenth-century, there was a growth in compulsory, state funded education. These “common schools” were an attempt to give poor students the moral character and body of knowledge to compete with upper-class children. This attempt to liberate the lower-class and perfect the social order is an example of how an attempt to bring freedom can actually harm others considering that many parents opposed common schools because they didn’t want their children getting moral instruction from the government. Also, in southern states many were afraid of education falling into the wrong hands like those of poor whites and

The education of the youth is, without much dispute, a highly important issue within the U.S. This nation was founded on equality and opportunity, two beliefs that have seamlessly transitioned into American education, or so it seemed. In these articles by Gregory Mantsios, Jonathan Kozol, and Jean Anyon, the same education Americans claim to hold so high comes under question. These authors provide excellent insight on the negative relationship between social class and education. However, they fail to address an important element that ultimate responsibility falls on the individual for his or her own education, regardless of social class.

The Social Reconstruction Ideology was developed to help society improve and correct its imperfections. This ideology sees our society as having many flaws that threaten our survival as a group and action is needed to help make it better. The purpose of this ideology is to reconstruct society by creating individuals that are accountable for their actions and active members of the community. Individuals need to be able to collaborate through this regeneration to create a new civilization with better values where all its members can obtain the maximum satisfaction. Education is the key to help our world become a better place for everyone. This ideology sees the curriculum as a tool to help people understand society and the role each person plays in it. The teacher’s

George Counts criticized progressivism because he thought it identified itself with that liberal-minded upper middle class. Ozmon (2003) “ Society for Educational Reconstruction members believe in assisting educators everywhere in presenting their deepest social concerns to students and others with optimum effectiveness, and they encourage people to apply reconstructionist values to experimental educational programs in every school and community.” There is no good individual apart from some conception of the nature of good society. Man without human society and human culture is not man. And there is also no good education apart from some conception of the nature of the good society. Ozmon (2003) states that, “ School should not promote any

The Reconstruction era was a very impactful, but hard time for South Carolina after the Civil War. The process of rebuilding the south came with many great challenges, including the profound main conflict of racial discrimination. Although the Union had won the war, much of the Southern United States had been destroyed, including the many farms, plantations and crops. Also, due to the Union victory more than 3 million slaves were granted freedom, but still faced racial discrimation from restrictive “black codes”. Though human equality was the main goal of the Reconstruction period in the South after the Civil War, it proved to be an attempted compromise that actually created more conflicts.