Rise of American Public Education - Coursework Example

Rise of American Public Education The idea of government-administered schools as the primary source of education has been around since the Greek -states. Particularly, ideas of Plato and Aristotle have influenced today’s public education. Both conceived that teaching good virtues, excellent citizenship and strong leadership as the primary role of education. Producing good citizens was to be the goal of education. Plato envisioned two tracks for education. One system was for the lower class (made up of artisans and craftsmen), those he did not consider to be citizens. Plato believed that they did not need any formal education. If any schooling was required, learning was best through father and son interaction. The system of education for the citizens (the professionals) is to learn under a reputable master, through experience, observation and experimentation. The best students are to progress on to higher learning. Aristotle, like Plato, believed that learning by experience is the better, and preferred, teaching method. They differ, however, on the government’s role. For Plato, government intervention begins when the citizen performs military or civil service at the age of twenty-five. Aristotle believed in a broader role for government. He proposed that children be commonly instructed, in publicly provided places, by government-appointed teachers. (Rit Nosotro) Plato and Aristotle elaborated a philosophy and structure for providing public education but it took centuries for the system to develop and be what it is today. Motivations for Public Education Americans assume that there have always been public schools in the US. Public education presupposes equal access for all, and converges with the democratic ideals that created the republic. Contrary to public belief, there was no public school system set up when the American Revolution triumphed. The people did not place the provision of education in the hands of government. There is even no mention of education in the Constitution. (Blumenfield 1999) American education historians consider the New England colonies of Massachusetts, Connecticut, and New Hampshire as the cradle of public education. Seventeenth century New England towns maintained common schools for children to learn to read. These common schools however differ from the present-day public schools because attendance was not compulsory, they were not publicly funded, and the more prevalent forms of learning was through private tutors and parents. Nevertheless, the New England common schools are considered as the precursor of public schools because law required them. Massachusetts had a law in 1647 that required providing education. Insuring that children learn to read and write were required for towns that had fifty households. Grammar schools were to be established where there were one hundred households. (Kaestle) The law was religiously motivated. The purpose of learning was to be able to read the Bible. The belief was that the devil did not want God’s children to read the Bible. Hence, the religious motive and content prevailed in education through colonial British America. In time, through the influx of immigrants from different countries and of varied religious beliefs, the motivation for public education changed. The first shift was attempted after the revolution’s triumph. Fearing the fragmentation of the new republic, Thomas Jefferson and Benjamin Rush proposed an educational system that was under government control. Both saw education as necessary for protecting the newly won freedom. But their idea for a public education system did not catch on. The people were wary of government intervention in education. More importantly, the form and content of schooling received in the late-eighteenth century America was considered to be adequate. The people were able to read the Bible and the Farmer’s Almanac. Nineteenth century educational reformers were troubled by the absence of any school system. They proposed systematic education at the elementary level. All children had to attend school and the content of education had to be the same. American public opinion was more favorable to the proposed reforms by this time. Social problems resulting from rising religious tension, increased immigration and growing urbanization had softened the public’s dislike of government intervention. Common school advocates argued that social stability would be preserved through mass elementary schooling. All youth will be educated and become literate good citizens. (Powell) Horace Mann, the most famous of these advocates, argued in 1847 that education will prevent social crimes and poverty. The following year he said that education will equalize the condition of man. (Kaestle) And so, laws compelling school attendance were passed. Massachusetts was the first state to do so in 1852. New York followed in 1853 and all states had enacted similar laws by 1918. The American public education system had taken root and become reality. Education beyond the elementary level was optional and in the hands of private tutors or schools in colonial America. Access to employment was easy for the youth during the early years of the republic. The more common form of learning a trade was through on the job apprenticeship. Only with the passage of laws that limited the use of child-labor did the public view secondary education differently. High school education was thereafter seen as a way of gaining better skills for the job market or as preparation for college. The high school diploma is seen as passport to economic success. (Kirsch, et al. 2007) High schools were also seen as an institution that helped in the Americanization of immigrants. Colleges and universities were the next to fall within the ambit of the public education system. The establishment of publicly supported state colleges took longer than that of elementary schooling. The earliest American institutions of higher education such as Harvard (1636), College of William and Mary (1693) and Yale (1701), as well as hundreds of colleges were all created due to religious motivations. Notwithstanding their religious origins, these private institutions were seen to provide secular purposes. Colleges were seen to provide practical applications in agriculture, engineering and public service. As a result, some received public assistance. By 1862, the federal government gave financial assistance for the establishment of colleges that would help improve the nation’s agriculture, engineering and public service. Social Equity in Public Education Beyond the formation of good citizens, one issue that stands out through history is the matter of equality. A watershed in the rise of American public education is the Reconstruction period after the Civil War. By this time, schooling was now compulsory at the elementary and secondary level but sections of society were denied access to education. The poor were unable to pursue studies because of tuition fees. Women were discouraged because it was not important to learn any skill beyond housekeeping. Most public schools were coeducational, the first coeducational college was founded in 1833 (Oberlin College), but female students were subtly reminded that their place was to remain at home. Schooling beyond the elementary level was not encouraged unless the student intended to be a schoolteacher. It was the rapid expansion of the American school system that encouraged women to pursue higher education. They went to school to gain credentials in response to the massive demand for teachers in the early twentieth century. It was also not important for non-White immigrants to learn because they provided manual or menial labor that did not require the acquisition of knowledge and skills. Add to this the social stereotype that non-Whites had limited mental capacity and were “uncivilized” or come from low levels of civilization. Again, religion was the first motivation for educating the non-Whites. Spanish authorities established mission schools to teach Native Americans religion and the Castillan language. African-American slaves were taught to read so that they would be able to read the Bible. In the case of Native Americans, the issue of social equity is not just a matter of access to education but also a question of cultural identity. Some tribes used the money from the “Civilization Fund” that was passed by Congress in 1819 and from the sale of lands was used to establish schools that tried to preserve their culture. The federal government, however, took over all school activities between 1890 to 1910. Government established federal boarding schools and contracted the provision of education to neighboring public schools that left out the teaching of Native American Culture. For African-Americans, some level of schooling was initially rendered by the slaveowners. Later on, literate members of the minority community took it upon themselves to educate their fellow. The African-American community relied on self-help to establish their own educational institutions. Before the Civil War, many clandestine schools were established. These became the common schools for all “black” children after the war. Schools, however, were segregated. Equal access to education was first interpreted as having separate schools for whites and non-whites. Separate but equal was the catch phrase for a long time. This would change later on when segregation was deemed unconstitutional in 1954. Integrating the whites and non-whites required the redrawing the boundaries of school districts and in some cases the busing of students to integrated schools. The next issue was the matter of unequal quality of education. Public schools depend on local taxes for their maintenance and so poor communities would have lesser funds for their schools. Also, the poor had limited to college. The federal government stepped into the fray by giving financial assistance. American public education became universal and accessible to all in 1975. The Education for All Handicapped Act was legislated that year. The law required public schools to give “free and appropriate education” to handicapped children. Physical handicap was the last barrier to equal access to education that was hurdled. (EducationNews) Earlier, in 1972, the federal government prohibited gender-based discrimination in federally-educational institutions. Government Intervention in Public Education Government intervention in public education takes the form of legislation, judicial decisions and funding. Unlike other countries, public education in the US is not primarily in the hands of the national government and is not nationally centralized. As already mentioned, the U.S. Constitution does not say anything specific about the government’s role in the education of the people. It was at first in the hands of local communities. The early schools were usually privately funded and administered. After the Declaration of Independence, the fourteen founding states promulgated their Constitutions and each took it upon themselves to provide for the education of the people. From this time onwards, it has been the State government that played a primary role in the American public education system. In fact, the Tenth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution declares this by stating that powers not specifically delegated to the national government is vested in the government of the States. Public schools were first established when elementary schooling of children was made compulsory. As already mentioned, all states had compulsory school attendance laws by 1918. Nevertheless, it must be noted that children were not required to attend public schools. Parents had a choice of sending their children to public or private schools. Funding for the schools came from local property taxes. This means of financing the public schools had been a practice since the beginning. Any ambiguity on the use of local property taxes for public schools was settled when the Michigan Supreme Court decided on the Kalamazoo case in 1874. The Court clearly established that local property taxes could be used to support even public high schools. Even as the states were primarily responsible for public education, the federal government intervened in issues that were considered in the national interest. The federal government started to help finance the public school system through the enactment of the Morrill Act (also known as the Land College Grant Act) in 1862. Tracts of land were sold and the proceeds were set aside for the support and maintenance of at least one college per state that taught the sciences, classical studies, military tactics, and most importantly, agriculture and engineering. Federal funding was also given for the creation of high school vocational programs through the Smith-Hughes Act of 1917. Then in 1944, the G.I. Bill provided federal financial assistance to war veterans who wanted to pursue higher education. In 1958, the federal government went beyond giving out funds. Shocked by the Russian launch of the first man-made satellite into space, Congress enacted the National Defense Education Act of 1958. The successful launch of the Sputnik satellite brought into focus one of the educational reform agenda at the time. The prevailing approach in the 1940s was the “life-adjustment” education wherein school children were also taught social roles, health, leisure and other matters, aside from the academic subjects. The belief was that majority of youths in high school were not served well by a strictly academic or trade curriculum. Critics of the approach, on the other hand, wanted a return to tougher academic work. In reaction to the Russian accomplishment, Congress enacted the National Defense Education Act to promote learning science, mathematics and foreign languages. This was the first federal intervention in education that specified subject areas that must be commonly taught and improved. The act also gave grants to schools for scientific research and to support the matriculation of students attending private colleges. Moving on with its educational activism, the federal government enacted the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965. The law authorized more federal funding to expand educational opportunities to poor children and to improve instruction. The Head Start program was established in 1965. The Bilingual Education Act was passed 1967 to improve the mastery of English of assimilated migrants such as the Hispanics and Asians. This was reinforced when the Supreme Court declared in Lau v. Nichols (1974) that the schools’ had a mandatory obligation to help those who are not proficient in English. The gender divide was formally breached in 1972. The barriers to gender equality began to lower with the enactment of Title IX of the federal Education Amendments of 1972. The law prohibited gender discrimination in federally funded or assisted educational institutions. The federal government limited its intervention in the 1980s and 1990s to issuing reports on the state of American education and the need to improve standards at all levels. The most famous of these reports is the A Nation At Risk issued in 1983. Conclusion The American public education system is a product of forces that shaped the nation itself. The colonists were religious, fiercely guarded their freedoms and relied upon the community. The New England common schools were established on this basis – privately-run, sustained by the community and with as little government intervention as possible. Parents had a choice whether to homeschool their children or employ a private tutor or send them to private schools. The system changed, and gave rise to the public schools, when the demands of society changed. A level of homogeneity was needed in a country composed of different people. It was not enough that they could read and write in their native tongues. They had to develop a common culture and a single language. Otherwise, the unity will be weakened and fragmented. And so, the people sacrificed some of their individualities and former identities in order to be better citizens of their new country On this basis, the desire to be united as a people and as a nation, the public education system saw root and developed. In the same light that the nation is founded on the equality of its citizens so to did the school system. Even though critics would say that social equity is not yet achieved, the system has struggled to address the formal barriers divide the people according to gender, race, physical ability and economic status. The laws are in place such that no child or citizen may be denied access to education. The American public education system is unlike any other system. The governments of Belgium and France, for example, provide schools with annual grants that cover their operating expenses. The grant is allocated irregardless of the religious affiliation of the school and is based on the number of students enrolled. The money follows the student such that a reduction in enrollment means a reduction in government financial assistance. (Van Raemdonck, posted August 7, 2000) The American public schools are not centrally funded. At best, the federal government provides for seven percent of the schools’ financial needs. The rest are from the local school districts and the state government. The American system also does not have a uniform curriculum applicable to every state. Due to its governmental structure, responsibility for providing education to its citizens is primarily the function of state governments. Unless another Sputnik takes place, as of now, the federal government is limited by the constitution from intervening in education. References Blumenfield, Sam. 1999. The History of Public Education. PHS # 30. http://www.home-school.com/Articles/phs30-samblumenfeld.html (Accessed October 3, 2007) Kaestle, Carl F. Public Education. The American Religious Experience. http://are.as.wvu.edu/scopedu.htm (Accessed October 3, 2007) Kirsch, Irwin, Henry Braun, Kentaro Yamamoto and Andrew Sum. 2007. America’s Perfect Storm: Three Forces Changing Our Nation’s Future. Educational Testing Service. http://www.ets.org/Media/Education_Topics/pdf/AmericasPerfectStorm.pdf (Accessed October 5, 2007) Nosotro, Rit. History of Public Education: Change over Time Essay. http://www.hyperhistory.net/apwh/essays/cot/t0w20education.htm (Accessed October 3, 2007) Powell, Andrew. Education in the United States. http://www.history.com/encyclopedia.do?articleid=208260 (Accessed October 3, 2007) Thattai, Deeptha. 2001. Public Education in the United States. J-LEDS Digital Library November 2001. http://www.servintfree.net/~aidmn-ejournal/publications/2001-11/PublicEducationInTheUnitedStates.html (accessed October 3, 2007) Van Raemdonck, Dirk C. European observations on U.S. public education. http://www.enterstageright.com/archive/articles/0800useduc.htm (Accessed October 3, 2007) Read More