schooling in colonial america 1600-1800. the purpose of education what does a person need to know...
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Schooling in Colonial America
1600-1800
The Purpose of Education
What does a person need to know to be a productive citizen?
Religious training Upper class
College Working classes
Apprenticeships Farm labor
“on the job” training
Harvard 1726
Education was neither free, public, nor secular in the Colonies
Educational opportunities were stratified Class Gender Race Religion Region
Education served to retain the status quo Children were educated to
take their parent’s place in society
Tension American ideal of equal
opportunity for all
Southern Colonies
A sharply defined class structure
Dispersed population Anglican church did
not put an emphasis on religious indoctrination
Belief that education was a private matter and not the concern of the state
Middle Colonies A diverse population
English, Dutch, German, French, Swedish
Catholics, Mennonites, Calvinists, Lutherans, Quakers, Presbyterians, Jews
Commercial interests An emphasis on vocational
education
Northern Colonies
A fairly uniform population
Puritan New England “Children are vipers and
infinitely more hateful than vipers.”
Jonathan Edwards A Theocracy
The Construction of Childhood For the Puritans,
Children were miniature adults
Born in sin, they were vulnerable to Satan’s ploys
Thus, they need to be closely monitored
The Childhood in History
The Construction of Childhood
High child mortality led to more “objectification” than today
The Construction of Childhood
By the mid-19th century, childhood began to be thought of as a unique time in life.
“Adolescence” had not yet been invented, however.
The Emergence of Higher Education Harvard College
The purpose was to prepare young men, 13-18, in Biblical and classical studies
The goal was to produce a new generation to assume leadership in the church and commonwealth
College Life
Greek, Latin, Scripture Moral development
was as important as intellectual development
College was a “rite of passage” for colonial gentlemen.
“Caning” at Harvard
Colonial Schooling
Private Tutors Upper Class
Dame Schools Boys & girls
Grammar School Upper & Merchant
Class Mission or Charity
School The poor
Private Academies Upper Class
College Upper Class
Dame Schools
Taught by women in their homes
Open to girls Colonial “Day Care”
Education For The Wealthy Private tutor
Grammar school
Academy
College
What was a colonial education like? One-room log or
clapboard cabins Students aged 3-20 Teachers would “cite,”
students would “re-cite.”
Corporal punishment Mr. Dove’s One-Room
Schoolhouse
Hornbook Paddle shaped board with
paper sheet attached Usually contained the ABC's
in both small and capital letters
Some Scripture
Hornbook They had been used in
Europe
Their use continued in the colonies because printed books and pamphlets were harder to come by.
New England Primer Calvinist Theology
Combined hornbook with authorized catechism
Secular materials Almanacs
Franklin’s “Poor Richard’s Almanack”
Chapbooks Most were imported from
England
The National Era
1780-1830
The Educated Citizen “If a nation expects to be ignorant and free, it expects what never was and never will be.” - Thomas Jefferson
The Founders were deeply influenced by Enlightenment thought
They believed that a republic could survive only if its citizens were educated
European Thinkers who influenced American Education John Locke
1632 – 1704 Tabula Rasa Children should learn
through their five senses (Empiricism)
Children learn through imitation
Children are rational creatures
Jean Jacques Rousseau 1712-1778
Critical of educational practice
Education should be consistent with the natural conditions of a child’s growth They are not ready to
deal with abstract ideas imposed upon them through books
European Thinkers who influenced American Education
Educating a New Nation Literacy prior to
the revolution White men
(90%) White women
(60%) Blacks
Slave Free
Native Americans
After the Revolution Economic changes
Commercial economy
Improved transportation
A more mobile society meant a need for improved communication
After the Revolution Political changes
Political, economic theory
Locke Rousseau
Calls to action Pamphlets
Common Sense Broadsides Newspapers
A Republic demands an educated citizenry
The task was to build a nation out of 13 colonies
Eliminate all things British
Thomas Jefferson History instead of
Scripture “Geniuses raked
from the rubble” “The people are
the only safe depositories”
University of Virginia
Noah Webster Connecticut
teacher Goal- eliminate
British textbooks
Noah Webster Blueback speller Became
America’s greatest lexicographer
The first American Dictionary
Benjamin Rush Founder of Dickenson
College “Thoughts upon the
mode of education proper in a republic”
“Thoughts upon female education” Among the first to
advocate education for females
But, separate, not equal
Benjamin Rush Jefferson’s
personal physician Gave medical
advice to Meriwether Lewis prior to the Lewis and Clark expedition Thunderclappers
Invented “the tranquilizing chair”
The Impact of Immigration and Industrialization
The Lancastrian system
A course of study Units of work
Textbooks McGuffy readers Blueback spellers
The Lancasterian System System of education in which children
could be educated very cheaply One teacher was in charge of large
numbers of students Monitors were used as a method of
"crowd control," hence the schools came also to be known as monitorial schools.
More advanced students had the responsibility of assisting in teaching those students below them
The McGuffy Reader The most popular schoolbook in the
nineteenth century was the McGuffey Reader, introduced in 1836.
Based on landmarks of world literature, the set of six readers, which increased in difficulty, were the basis for teaching literacy, as well as basic values such as honesty and charity.
The readers gave the teacher flexibility she lacked before, allowing her to more easily teach a classroom of pupils of different ages and levels.
Tens of millions of copies were sold in the nineteenth century.
In rural America the McGuffey Reader was often the only exposure people had to world literature.
The Common School
1830-1890
A Time of Unprecedented Change
Territorial expansionDramatic Population GrowthCivil WarIndustrializationUrbanizationSocial Reform
Jacksonian Democracy
The era of the Common Man
Universal Manhood Suffrage
Local Control
A new Working Class
Immigration Urbanization Industrialization
Social Problems Industrial revolution
Textile industryLowell
Massachusetts Immigration
Potato famine in Ireland
Gap between classes
Reform MovementsAbolition of
slavery Concord Mass. Henry Ward
Beecher
Reform Movements
Women’s Suffrage Susan B. Anthony Lucretia Mott The Grimke Sisters Elizabeth Cady
Stanton
Reform MovementsTemperance
WCTU
Reform Movements
Reform of Prisons
Mental Institutions Dorothea Dix
Reform Movements
Was the Goal . . .
Social Justice?Social Control?Both?
The Common School Movement
New England Beginnings Ralph Waldo
Emerson Transcendentalism Every human has a
“Spark of the Divine”
We have a moral obligation to help others
Education is liberating
Monitorial (Lancasterian) System Becomes the
standard in Urban areas among working class/immigrant students Economical
1 teacher and up to 300 students
Rote memorization
Catherine Beecher and the Common School
Daughter of Henry Ward Beecher
Sister of Harriet Beecher Stowe
Founded Hartford Female
Seminary Western Institute for
Women
Horace Mann and the Common School
Horace Mann
First state Secretary of Education in Massachusetts
He was a reformer. Led the fight for:
Railroads Insane asylums
Horace Mann
In 1837 he ended his law practice and became Massachusett’s first Secretary of Education Issued a series of 12
Annual Reports
Horace Mann 12 Annual Reports
Reported to the legislature on aspects of his work Emphazed the relationship
between education, freedom, government.
He wanted a school that would be available and equal for all
part of the birth-right of every American child, rich and poor alike.
Horace Mann 12 Annual Reports
“Common schools would serve all boys and girls and teach a common body of knowledge that would give each student an equal chance in life.”
“It is a free school system that knows no distinction of rich and poor. . . It throws open its doors and spreads the table of its bounty for all children of the state.”
Horace Mann 12th Annual Report
Horace Mann 12th Annual Report
Horace Mann 12th Annual Report
Henry Barnard and the Common School
First U. S. Commissioner of Education
His goal was for America to create: “Schools good enough for
the best and cheap enough for the poorest.”
Characteristics of the Common School
Funded by local property taxes
Available for all white children
No tuition charges Governed by local school
committees (boards) Regulated by the States
Opposition to common schools
A system funded by state tax dollars Irish Catholics
They were expected to attend schools that were anti-catholic
The Great School Debates Bishop John Hughes
We will not send our children where they will be trained without religion, lose respect for their parents and the faith of their fathers and come out turning up their noses at the name of Catholic. . . In a word, give us our just proportion of the common school fund.
The Great School Debates New York Herald
Once we admit that the Catholics have a right to a portion of the school fund, every other sect will have the same. . . We shall be convulsed with endless jarrings and quarrels about the distribution of it and little left for the public schools.”
The Parochial School Movement
The Kalamazoo CaseIn 1875 a lawsuit was filed in Kalamazoo, Michigan, to collect public funds for the support of a village high school.
The townships in Michigan were required by the law to maintain the schools under threat of a large penalty for non-compliance
The decision was for the public funding of the Kalamazoo High School and set a precedent for other state to receive state funding for schools