1800-1900
“This land was made for you and me” was a song and a slogan that although adopted by America not many Americans were practicing in the 1800’s. 1770-1890 was a time span during which education was not only highly debated by highly valued and wanted. Education in this time was not free or public. Schools were built because towns or villages pulled their resources together and hired a teacher (often times paying them with a cow or other resources). Schools were indeed scarce but where they were indeed constructed, they had a purpose of teaching lessons to help children learn their letters and discipline. Most schooling was linked to the Protestant bible with an underlying rule that if you disobeyed you would be damned. The “New England Primer” was released and most students were taught in order to preserve the status quo, to be like their parents. In 1776 the average school lifetime was 82 days. It was a goal to build a nation, unified, from the 13 colonies. Noah Webster, an advocate for education, wanted to eliminate British textbooks, create a unified culture, and a national history. Known as the “school master of America”, Webster created a book that would later be transformed into what we know as the dictionary of English language.
General education made it a point to educate all Americans in order to preserve democracy. In 1778, Thomas Jefferson proposed three years of public school for all and then advanced education for a few. But this did not allow advanced education for females and was not open to black children either. However with more than 25 years of fighting with government, it was never passed. But, Jefferson did create the University of Virginia, with his biggest argument being that “education is essential to democracy”. The 1830’s and 1840’s brought about state wide school systems. Horris Mann was a large proponent, as the secretary of education, for common schooling. This schooling was one in which a common body of knowledge was taught and education would be the “great equalizer of men”. This would eliminate the distinctions between the rich and the poor, all ages learning together, and improving the learning conditions by introducing chairs with backs, blackboards, and new textbooks. No longer did the family that you were born into automatically determine your future. Sadly, his plan was opposed because of tax issues and the issues with the state’s control.
Conflict thus began to arise over religion. In 1840 one half of all people in New York were foreign and most of them were Irish Catholics. Most of the schools were teaching common subjects but were backed by a protestant belief system. Bishop John Hughes, or also known as Dagger John, pushed for Catholic children to have their own place in schools or to have their own schools themselves. These issues lead to many great debates over other religions wanting the same abilities. It was now an issue of trying to keep separate church and state. Separate Catholic schools were thus created and with religion aside, the issue of race was now at hand. In 1855 segregation in MA schools was abolished but we now, yet again find problem, in the form of separate but equal. Slavery bore the hard punishment of black people not being able to be educated. But with the ending of the Civil War, they now saw freedom as well as their freedom through education. Fredrick Douglas came to the fore front and pushed education for blacks.
1865 brought about 4 million Americans, previously slaves, who could now become literate. With so people wanting education, the question became, who would now teach all of these people? Women were now sought after for teaching across the country. Catherine Beecher, sister of Harriet Beecher Stowe, founded colleges that aimed at preparing women for teaching. With the 19th century coming to an end, there were, in 1890 12.7 million students enrolled in school and the government spending $141 million for public school. Although the United States provided education to more students than any other nation but separate races were still educated separately. Our country still had a long way to go.
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