A common school was a public school in the United States during the 19th century. Horace Mann (1796–1859) was a strong advocate for public education and the common school. In 1837, the state of Massachusetts appointed Mann as the first secretary of the State Board of Education [1] where he began a revival of common school education, the effects of which extended throughout America during the 19th century.
Common schools originated in New England as community-funded instruments of education for all children of the region or neighborhood. [2] These secondary schools furthered the Puritan conformity of the region by institutionalizing religion into the curriculum for the purpose of instilling good morals and obedience in the populace. The 17th-century Puritan relied upon Christian organizations, such as the Anglican Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts, for catechisms as the first grammar books. In most cases, local church clergy took responsibility for education in their communities. [3] With support from the community and wealthy philanthropists, clergy determined the curriculum, material, and teachers for common schools throughout the 17th and 18th centuries. [4]
The religious sensibility of New England education was further augmented by the First Great Awakening. Rev. Cotton Mather (1663-1728) stated that the schools had been instruments for maintaining the pre-eminence of the godly. [5] Reflecting this sentiment, in 1742, neighboring Connecticut enacted a law restricting New Light schools during the First Great Awakening. The law declared "the erecting of any other schools, which are not under the establishment and inspection aforesaid, may tend to train up youth in ill principles, and practices, and introduce such disorders as may be of fatal consequence to the public peace and weal of this Colony." [6]
From 1837 until 1848, Horace Mann led the reform on education in Massachusetts as a lawyer, Massachusetts State senator, and the first secretary of the Massachusetts State Board of Education. Mann struggled to create a universal standard for state education because schools were characterized by their regional and communal differences. State congressman James G. Carter (1795–1849) explained that the state shifted responsibility for the preservation of classroom standards from the schools to the towns; the towns shifted responsibility to districts; and the districts had shifted it to individuals. [7] In order to influence and educate the public, he published annual reports and founded the Common School Journal to report on Massachusetts' schools. [8] In 1839, the first normal school for teachers was established in Lexington, Massachusetts in an effort to produce standardized, methodological teaching. [9]
Henry Barnard (1811-1900) was a fellow educational reformer in Rhode Island. In the 1840s, Barnard worked closely with Governor James Fenner to evaluate and reform the common schools of the state. In 1845, Barnard established Rhode Island's first teaching institute. In 1866, St. John's College offered Barnard the presidency which he filled until the following year. From 1867-1870, Barnard served as the nation's first United States Commissioner of Education. [10] The practical service of education was a promotion of industrialism. Barnard repeatedly proposed moral instruction instilled the virtuous habits of "industry, frugality, and respect for property rights." [11] This utilitarian outlook reflected a changing world in the wake of the Industrial Revolution and emphasized a need to adapt education to meet the changing need of an industrial world.
Common schools typically taught "the three Rs" (reading, [w]riting, and [a]rithmetic), history, geography, and math. The McGuffey Reader was the favorite schoolroom text in the 19th century, surpassing influence of Noah Webster's blue-backed speller. A strong emphasis on spiritual and moral lessons mixed into the text's lessons. There was wide variation in regard to grading (from 0-100 grading to no grades at all), but end-of-the-year recitations were a common way that parents were informed about what their children were learning.
The intention of common schools was to equip every child with moral instruction and "equalize the conditions of men." [12] The emphasis on morality in the classroom remained a strong element of education. As the fervor of the Second Great Awakening declined, the instruments of teaching morality changed from overtly Biblical to an attempt at a neutral approach. Implementing the philosophy of phrenology, moral instruction began to use a scientific approach and rejected the old dogmatic method of imparting moral instruction. [13]
Although common schools were designed by Horace Mann to be nonsectarian, there were several fierce battles, most notably in New York City and Philadelphia, where Roman Catholic immigrants and Native Americans objected to the use of the King James Version of the Bible. Tensions were especially high in cities with large immigrant populations. In 1844, The Philadelphia Nativist riots (Bible Riots) began as a result of tensions between nativists and immigrants, due in part to a rumor that Catholic immigrants would remove Protestant Bibles from classroom curriculums. [14] Even without Bible readings, most common schools taught children the general Protestant values (e.g., work ethic) of 19th-century America.
States and territories began to emulate and adopt Massachusetts' common school system. Educators saw it as their responsibility to civilize the American frontier. [15] In 1862 and 1890, the United States Congress passed the Morrill Land-Grant Acts, which erected a statute to sell public lands to build and fund state universities for the purpose of propagating instruction in agriculture and mechanical arts. [16] This was the federal government's first move to fund public education.
The common school era is viewed by many education scholars to have ended around 1900. In the early twentieth century, schools generally became more regional (as opposed to local), and control of schools moved away from elected school boards, and towards professional control. Because common schools were not special-purpose districts, voters often decided in called elections to join independent or unified school districts.
Henry Barnard was an American educator and reformer.
Horace Mann was an American educational reformer, slavery abolitionist and Whig politician known for his commitment to promoting public education, he is thus also known as The Father of American Education. In 1848, after public service as Secretary of the Massachusetts State Board of Education, Mann was elected to the United States House of Representatives (1848–1853). From September 1852 to his death in 1859, he served as President of Antioch College.
The Philadelphia nativist riots were a series of riots that took place on May 6—8 and July 6—7, 1844, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States and the adjacent districts of Kensington and Southwark. The riots were a result of rising anti-Catholic sentiment at the growing population of Irish Catholic immigrants. The government brought in over a thousand militia—they confronted the nativist mobs and killed or wounded hundreds of anti-Catholic rioters.
Pedagogy, most commonly understood as the approach to teaching, is the theory and practice of learning, and how this process influences, and is influenced by, the social, political, and psychological development of learners. Pedagogy, taken as an academic discipline, is the study of how knowledge and skills are imparted in an educational context, and it considers the interactions that take place during learning. Both the theory and practice of pedagogy vary greatly as they reflect different social, political, and cultural contexts.
Horace Mann School is an American private, independent college-preparatory school in the Bronx, founded in 1887. Horace Mann is a member of the Ivy Preparatory School League, educating students from the New York metropolitan area from nursery school to the twelfth grade. The Upper, Middle, and Lower Divisions are located in Riverdale, a neighborhood of the Bronx, while the Nursery School is located in Manhattan. The John Dorr Nature Laboratory, a 275 acres (111 ha) campus in Washington Depot, Connecticut, serves as the school's outdoor and community education center.
The Blaine Amendment was a failed amendment to the U.S. Constitution that would have prohibited direct government aid to educational institutions that have a religious affiliation. Most state constitutions already had such provisions, and thirty-eight of the fifty states have clauses that prohibit taxpayer funding of religious entities in their state constitutions.
William Torrey Harris was an American educator, philosopher, and lexicographer. He worked for nearly a quarter century in St. Louis, Missouri, where he taught school and served as Superintendent of Schools for twelve years. With Susan Blow, in 1873 he established the first permanent, public kindergarten in the country. He is also known for establishing high school as an integral part of public education.
Francis Wayland Parker was a pioneer of the progressive school movement in the United States. He believed that education should include the complete development of an individual — mental, physical, and moral. John Dewey called him the "father of progressive education." He worked to create curriculum that centered on the whole child and a strong language background. He was against standardization, isolated drill and rote learning. He helped to show that education was not just about cramming information into students' minds, but about teaching students to think for themselves and become independent people.
The Prussian education system refers to the system of education established in Prussia as a result of educational reforms in the late 18th and early 19th century, which has had widespread influence since. The Prussian education system was introduced as a basic concept in the late 18th century and was significantly enhanced after Prussia's defeat in the early stages of the Napoleonic Wars. The Prussian educational reforms inspired similar changes in other countries, and remain an important consideration in accounting for modern nation-building projects and their consequences.
The history of education in the United States covers the trends in formal education in America from the 17th century to the early 21st century.
Art Education in the United States refers to the practice of teaching art in American public schools. Before the democratization of education, particularly as promoted by educational philosopher John Dewey, apprenticeship was the traditional route for attaining an education in art. Alongside John Dewey, Elliot Eisner was a leading advocate for the inclusion of art in modern curriculum. Since the first introduction of art in public schooling in 1821, art education in the United States has faced many changes and many stages of growth.
Education in Connecticut covers the public and private schools of all levels from colonial era to the present. Originally an offshoot of Massachusetts, colonial Connecticut was committed to Puritanism's high regard for education. Yale College became a national model for higher education. Immigration in the 19th century brought a large working class Catholic element that supported vocational training, as well as a distinctive parochial educational system. The southwestern districts include wealthy suburbs of New York City that use strong public schools to compete for residents.
Student-directed teaching is a teaching technology that aims to give the student greater control, ownership, and accountability over his or her own education. Developed to counter institutionalized, mass, schooling, student-directed teaching allows students to make their own choices while they learn in order to make education much more meaningful, relevant, and effective.
In 1800 the Catholics were a small minority everywhere except Maryland. Immigration from Ireland and Germany gave them millions of adherents from the 1840s to the 1880s. Then came millions more from Italy, Poland and Eastern Europe, as well as French Canada. Large numbers of priests and nuns came from Ireland and France. The Irish soon dominated the clergy church, with a great majority of bishops by 1900. As the immigrants arrived new parishes and diocese were created. Rebuffed in efforts to obtain government funds for schools, the Catholics set up a parochial school system largely staffed with nuns. It reached about a third of the children. They also set up colleges. There were few Catholics in the South, apart from Louisiana. However they were well represented in the nation's cities, mill towns and mining centers. Anti-Catholic politics flared briefly in the 1850s, but the Catholic voters surged into the Democratic Party and Irish Catholic politicians played increasingly dominant roles in Democratic machines in Boston, New York, and other major cities. Devotional practices included daily rosary prayers, regular attendance at Sunday Mass, and special roles for devotion to the Blessed Virgin Mary and favorite saints.
Mary Tyler Mann was an American teacher, author, and reformer. Mary was one of three Peabody sisters who were influential women of their day in education, literature, and art. Like her sister Elizabeth, she was a leader in education reform and establishment of kindergartens. Sophia was an artist and the wife of Nathaniel Hawthorne. Mary was a participant in the Transcendentalism Movement. She was an abolitionist. She supported the work of her husband Horace Mann, an American education reformer and politician, as well as Henry David Thoreau, Nathaniel Hawthorne, and Sarah Winnemucca.
David Perkins Page (1810–1848) was an American educator and author of the most popular 19th-century American education textbook. From 1844 to 1847, he served as the first principal of the New York State Normal School, which later became University at Albany, SUNY.
The Barnard School for Boys was a college prep-school founded in 1886 by William Livingston Hazen.
"Factory model schools", "factory model education", or "industrial era schools" are ahistorical terms that emerged in the mid to late-20th century and are used by writers and speakers as a rhetorical device by those advocating changes to education systems. Generally speaking, when used, the terms are referencing characteristics of European education that emerged in the late 18th century and then in North America in the mid-19th century that include top-down management, outcomes designed to meet societal needs, age-based classrooms, the modern liberal arts curriculum, and a focus on producing results. The phrase is typically used in the context of discussing what the author has identified as negative aspects of public schools. As an example, the "factory model of schools are 'designed to create docile subjects and factory workers.'" The phrases are also used to incorrectly suggest the look of American education hasn't changed since the 19th century. Educational historians describe the phrase as misleading and an inaccurate representation of the development of American public education. Education historian Sherman Dorn offers:
the [factory model school] myth exits because teaching and schooling is risk-averse, and because we argue based on metaphors: schools as factories, teachers as armies, schools as malls... knowing the accurate history frees us from the idea that schools cannot change. They can, and we are not the first generation to try. Nor will we be the last.
The history of education in Massachusetts covers all levels of schooling in Massachusetts from colonial times to the present. It also includes the political and intellectual history of educational policies. The state was a national leader in pedagogical techniques and ideas, and in developing public schools as well as private schools and colleges.
Normal schools in the United States in the 19th century were developed and built primarily to train elementary-level teachers for the public schools. The term “normal school” is based on the French école normale, a sixteenth-century model school with model classrooms where model teaching practices were taught to teacher candidates. Many high schools in the 19th century had one-year "normal school" programs to train teachers for common schools, In the early 20th century the normal schools all became state colleges. More recently most have become state universities with a wide range of programs beyond just training teachers.