1900-1950 Education

1900-1950
This video on education through the years 1900-1950 was definitely not what I anticipated. I expected a boring movie with lots of facts and dates that made the educational system look dull and uninteresting. Instead, the movie was really detailed and described situations, events, and people I have never heard of before. The beginning of the video opens with the idea that through these specific years most schools were aimed at “Americanizing” those that went to school, more specifically those who were of various nationalities. From the years 1890-1930 there were 22 million immigrants that came to America, most of whom were searching for the “American Dream”. The neighborhoods in and around cities were full of social pressures from education. The people were feeling as if they had to be “like everyone else”. There were 125 children applying at once to schools, which were only part time at that. This introduces us to child labor. There were 2 million children working in 1910, I was shocked. I never realized how many children had to work, or in some cases choose to work instead of going to school. But much of this was due to the schools being dangerous, seen as a dark, unsanitary, and a sick place. As child labor laws were put in place the practice of education came to change.

John Dewey came into the educational scene, known as the “father of progressive education”; he believed that school should focus on the whole child, to learn by doing and exploring inside and outside the classroom. Gary, Indiana soon became a place of interest as William Wert pushed himself into the education scene and suggested new ideas for students. He created modern, lavish buildings and curriculum that kept students moving (from class to class), which lead to students having a “rich school experience”. As a follower of Dewey, he gave students opportunities to learn with zoos, art, nature, automotive classes, animal care, and other various aspects of life, as well as introducing health and hygiene to the school scene. With 53 different nationalities in schools, the social and economic scene was falling into disarray. Labor strikes and riots erupted affecting every aspect of society. With 200 cities adopting the “Gary” plan, 30 New York schools were now following the example lead from Dewey and Wert, thus creating violent controversy.

But this provided more controversy with students only being prepared for social work, working in factories or industrial education. With the election of Highland, a new person in political power, schools returned to traditional education. Teaching was now focused on patriotism, citizenship, and language. Ages were mixed in the classrooms and so were languages. Schools continued to expand but were focused so highly on education favoring the majority or the “white American” population. Until Melwood P. Coverty proclaimed that schools are not one size fits all and introduced “science of school management”. We then began to see “tracking” come into play and students divided by jobs. People were now going to school to get a job versus to get an education. It is unbelievable that we allowed our schools to be so discriminatory towards so many people, cultures, and ages. We move into IQ testing and the problems that came with it, facing the various ethnicities. Laws against child labor only added to more children in the classroom being tested and being segregated by their supposed IQ. This discrimination hurt many students with aspirations for particular jobs and futures held back by their IQ.

Towards the end of the movie, not only was I frustrated and overwhelmed with the problems in the early education system but I was sad for all of the students who were held back by people telling them who they "should" be. I wondered if I had been born in the age of all of this going on, where would I have been put and what would have happened to me? After WWII we see that more students were staying in schools and the education system adjusting more for life. Schools began including relevance to students’ lives. In 1958 the national defense of education act changed schools. This era was one of mass education and different groups were educated differently. I sat trying to absorb all of the information that I wrote above, all of which I find really important, it makes me realize that although schools now and when I was in school, are not at the level of greatness that I, as a future teacher, desire, they have come a long way since the 1900s. I was amazed at what this video showed me, how students and people during this time lived and were forced to live educationally. This video enforces the fact that standardized testing and education based on only one culture is SO wrong. The idea of “Americanizing” makes me so sad to think that there were people who, as much as they would have been proud of their heritage- a part of who they are, that they had to push it away. I cannot even begin to imagine what it would be like for someone to tell me, not to be me.